Greens candidate for Monaro Paul Cockram today congratulated John Barilaro on his election as the Member for Monaro and said The Greens would be taking up key issues with the new State MP. 
 
“We’d like to remind everyone that he plans to make improvements in health services his first priority.
 
“The Greens will be taking up a number of critical issues with Mr Barilaro including environmental safety at the proposed gold mine at Major’s Creek, the need for better public transport services connecting Queanbeyan and Canberra, and on-going threats to important woodland from road projects.
 
“We will also be raising the importance of having a price on carbon pollution to promote renewables and address climate change. I expect John Barilaro as a National to go in to bat for the farmers in NSW fighting against unrestricted appropriation of farming land for coal and gas extraction.” (more…)

(sent to local papers in Eden-Monaro)

If The Greens receive 55% of the primary vote (today), I will be elected to the Upper House, but more importantly, ten talented men and women from diverse backgrounds will be before me. In the unlikely event that this happens, it will mean that the party that forms government will not be able to push through socially or environmentally regressive legislation as easily. Why is it unlikely? Because as is the case at every election, large amounts of time and resources are being spent on spreading Green misinformation by people and parties who do not want to see any more Greens elected.

If people see the sense in planning for a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable future, and think that we actually do need to take action to protect special places, increase the opportunities for biodiversity, set small areas of ocean aside for fish-breeding thus ensuring future fish-stocks, stop workers from being exploited, make sure public education including TAFE is not further eroded, give communities back the right to make good planning decisions, apply the precautionary principle to the adoption of genetically manipulated organisms, properly compensate miners and wood-chippers as we move to renewables, away from native forest-logging and towards existing plantations in order to protect farmland and local industries, ensure water quality, prevent soil erosion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, etc, etc, perhaps having more, rather than fewer Greens in parliaments is a good idea.

Catherine Moore
2010 Greens candidate for Eden-Monaro and No 11 on Greens Legislative Council ticket, March 26 election

Don’t forget to vote! The polls open at 8am and close at 6pm.

If you are not enrolled to vote, you will be able to do so tomorrow at a polling place, and still cast a provisional ballot - you will need to bring a drivers licence, or a NSW Photo Card (and in some instances a Citizenship number or an Australian passport number may also be required).

In NSW it’s an optional preferential voting system, so you don’t have to number all the squares on your House of Assembly (Lower House) ballot paper if you don’t want to. If you are voting below the line in the Legislative Council, make sure you number at least 16 squares.

The Two Fires Festival will be held in Braidwood over the weekend Friday, April 1 to Sunday, April 3, 2011.

Two Fires was established in 2005 to celebrate the legacy of Judith Wright as a poet, writer, environmentalist and activist for Indigenous rights. It is held every two years in the heritage-listed town of Braidwood, NSW, where Judith Wright spent the last three decades of her life and it has gained a reputation as a unique adventurous event, delighting and surprising the audiences with its wide range of creative and intellectual offerings.

Highlights of the 2011 festival will include an exhibition entitled Shoalhaven Visions which will feature the works of nineteen artists involved in a wetlands field study. The exhibition will be opened by well-known artist John Wolseley. (more…)

Greens Upper House candidate, regional spokesperson and Orange City Councillor Jeremy Buckingham today joined with The Greens candidate for Orange Stephen Nugent to launch the Greens plan to revitalise regional NSW.

A key plank of the ‘Revitalising regional NSW’ plan involves directing 5% of the RTA’s annual budget to restoring and reopening rural branch lines to get freight off trucks and onto rail. (Full plan here.)

“Revitalising regional NSW means investing in strong public services, creating quality job opportunities and protecting farmland so that farmers can stay on the land and get a fair price for their produce”, said Jeremy.

“I am proud to launch the Green Jobs Plan to Get Freight Back on Track. This is a plan to invest at least 5% of RTA annual budget to restore and reopen rural branch lines and create a windfall of regional green jobs in the process.

“The Coalition’s action plan makes no mention of improving rail freight. Presumably they will continue business as usual.

“Rebuilding regional branch lines will save money in the long term. Trucks in our local communities risk accidents and deaths, increase greenhouse gas emissions and create expensive wear and tear on local roads. Getting freight off trucks and back on rail is the answer. (more…)

The Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW (LGSA) welcome The Greens NSW launch of their ‘Reinvigorating Local Government’ platform today, and endorse their proposals for local communities to make local decisions.

President of the Local Government Association, Cr Keith Rhoades AFSM, said that he is delighted by The Greens NSW firm stance on returning planning powers to Local Government.

“We welcome the recognition by the Greens of the importance of returning local planning decisions to local communities, in particular their support to repeal Part 3A and abolish Joint Regional Planning Panels,” said Cr Rhoades.

“The Greens are friends of Local Government, and their full response to our NSW Election Priorities was impressive, highlighting their commitment to councils and the communities they serve,” he said. (more…)

Greens MP and lead Upper House candidate David Shoebridge said today the intervention of Pauline Hanson as an Upper House candidate confirms that the only state-wide political contest in the upcoming NSW election is for control of the Upper House.

“Pauline Hanson’s brand of poisonous and divisive politics has no place in NSW in 2011,” Mr Shoebridge said.

“This is an opportunistic decision by Ms Hanson to run in the Upper House. She clearly hopes to slip into office on the back of a widespread revolt against NSW Labor.

“It is an unfortunate political fact that if Ms Hanson was elected to the NSW Parliament she would find a comfortable berth between the likes of Fred Nile and the Shooters Party.

“What this announcement has done is once again focus attention on the future composition of the NSW Upper House. (more…)

With March 8 2011 the centenary of International Women’s Day (IWD), I was keen to ask the ALP and Nationals Monaro candidates at the Q and A event in Queanbeyan on IWD about their parties’ efforts to increase the number of women in Parliament, and to find out what proportion of their candidates for the March 26 election are women. I didn’t need to ask The Greens, as I already know that, as always, Greens are standing in all seats and at least 50% of our candidates are women.

I was surprised to learn that neither of the other candidates knew how many of their women members were standing, and dismayed to hear from the Nationals candidate the old “merit-based” line.

Given that more than 50% of the population are women, and comparing that to the small numbers of women around Council tables, in parliaments and in boardrooms, the use of the merit-based argument is unacceptable, as it is in effect saying that women are simply not capable. And it is no excuse to say that there are not enough women coming forward. If this is the case, it is about time we looked closely at the prevailing culture, and took steps to change it.

Catherine Moore, Greens NSW Upper House candidate

Greens MP and sexuality and gender identity spokesperson Cate Faehrmann has wished Sydney a happy Mardi Gras.

“The Greens ‘Free to Be Me’ float in tonight’s parade is about celebrating recent wins for the community, such as the passage of same-sex adoption legislation,” said Ms Faehrmann.

“But the float is also a challenge to future governments to remove all discrimination from all laws and to fight homophobia wherever it exists.

“The Greens are the only party committed to removing all discrimination on the basis of sexuality or gender identity. In the new Parliament, we will move to remove exemptions from anti-discrimination legislation and for state marriage equality if the Federal parliament fails to act,” said Ms Faehrmann. (more…)

Greens Upper House candidate Jeremy Buckingham and Monaro Greens candidate Paul Cockram joined forces today to highlight the problems for local government as a result of state government cost shifting.

Jeremy Buckingham, a councillor on Orange City Council and The Greens Upper House candidate, and Paul Cockram, Palerang councillor and Greens candidate for Monaro, both have first-hand experience with the perils of cost-shifting.

A recent survey by the Local Government and Shires Association of 77 councils put the cost to local government at $440 million, which is about two-thirds of the councils’ infrastructure shortfall. (more…)