What I stand for.

All of my adult life I have fought for a better world. Joining the Greens was an easy decision for me, as the party’s values, as set out in our four principles, align with mine.

Ecological sustainability

Climate change is the most immediate and  devastating issue we face.. While it is the environmental campaign I have been most heavily involved in, it is not the only environmental challenge. 

Land clearing, and the impact of industrial agriculture on biodiversity, is as pressing (and plays a role in climate change in any case). Our treatment of animals as commodities, and the consequent systemic cruelty, is wrong, and in turn feeds the overall abuse of our environment. The degradation of our water system is another example of the same process.

The common theme here is that our economy treats the environment as a thing to be bundled, sold, and traded. For our species, and all life on earth, we urgently need to turn this on it’s head and understand that we are a part of the environment, not here to exploit it. 

Social and economic Justice

I am a socialist. I stand with the disenfranchised, the oppressed, the destitute. Those who experience  racism. Women and girls who face sexism. First Nations people, who after over two hundred years are still fighting for their land, and still face systemic and ongoing racism and dispossession. Those who struggle to get work, or keep it. Those stuck in grinding poverty. LGBTIQ+ siblings, including the trans community who are the front line of this fight for equal rights right now.

Australian society is designed to make winners and losers. There are far more of the latter than the former, but prejudice and ignorance means we keep ourselves divided from one another. For me, taking social justice seriously is not just the right thing to do - it is also the only way we can build mass movements capable of changing our world.

Peace and nonviolence

Australian society is a violent one. From the first act of land theft in 1788 to the current posturing around nuclear submarines our history is defined by violence or the threat of it.

The shameful treatment of asylum seekers, the participation of Australian troops in wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the continuing over policing of First Nations people - all further examples.

I was an active part of the anti-war movement from the invasion of Afghanistan forward, and like many of us have been a part of the refugee movement for many years.

But to take a stand against violence does not mean you have to be passive. I have always proudly supported direct action. The current system is geared to benefit those with ownership and control, and to turn it around requires action outside of that rigged game.

Nonviolent direct action is the way to go. The monopoly on violence already held by the police, the military, the courts and the gaols is such that our movements are most likely to succeed if we do not attempt to overpower through acts of violence, but instead through mass acts of disobedience. 

Grassroots democracy.

The commitment of our party to grassroots democracy is without equal in this country. It is the soul of the Greens NSW - and it is why we have such a fruitful diversity of thought. Local group autonomy is critical.. No other political party, and precious few social movements, can offer their members such a direct say over what happens. I celebrate this, and expect that whoever wins this preselection that they will follow the directions given to them by the Party, as I will certainly do.

If preselected, my plan

Parliamentary positions are tremendously important for the Greens NSW, and for the social movements we are all a part of. If I am preselected, I would see my job as being two-fold: to perform the day in and day out work of an MP to the best of my ability; and to use the position of MP as a platform to help build both our party and progressive social movements.

Parliamentary work

Being a MP requires a diverse skill set.  At the FBEU I worked closely with both Green and Labor MPs on issues of concern for my members, both in the backroom (like in Estimates and for Committee Preparation) and in far more dramatic fashion ( the 2012 workers compensation strike and legislative amendment).

I was also required to work with Liberal MPs, through dealing with the Minister for Emergency Services. I maintained a civil and productive relationship with most of the Ministers I worked with, and take pride in that. I can negotiate and deal with almost anyone if all parties are genuinely seeking an agreement.

If preselected I would be a cooperative member of the Party Room, looking to learn from our current Greens NSW MPs. There are years of collective expertise in our MPs, and any new Green parliamentarian will have a unique opportunity to learn from them to become as effective as quickly as possible.

These are my portfolio interests. Industrial relations is an area I am both experienced and interested in. Water, and the exploitation of our rivers, is another. Finally, housing is something that is the defining political and social problem for this particular historical moment, and I am deeply committed to the expansion of public housing. Having set out my interests I will certainly accept the agreed portfolio division.

Extra-Parliamentary work

The Greens were born of the social movements, and many of our fellow members are still immersed inside them. Green MPs have a particular responsibility to the progressive social movements. We can amplify their voice, through using either the platform of Parliament itself, or through lending the legitimacy of being a Parliamentarian to their struggles. This is why I have always felt a sense of pride when seeing our MPs at climate change rallies, on picket lines, at the Mardi Gras, or less visable but no less important local activist spaces around everything from tree cover to public transport issues.

Part of the extra-Parliamentary work is supporting the Greens in electoral campaigning. As a two time candidate for a Federal lower house seat of Graydlner running against the now opposition leader I know just how important the support from the NSW Senators (first Lee Rhiannon, and then Mehreen Faruqi) as well as other Federal Senators (Bandt, Di Natalie, and Waters) was to our campaign. If pre-selected I would work, as does our entire NSW party room, to support those campaigning for lower house seats as well as Local Council campaigns.

For our planet, and  society to survive, we need change. Our political and economic system is designed to maintain the status quo. The challenge for the Greens NSW, and our elected representatives, is to help build transformative movements of people that can turn things on their head. If pre-selected this is what I will do.