The way Di Natale has been sleeping with the CONservatives has created divisions and one could ask if he was not a plant, or a dormant CONservative in the Green outfit...

The Greens are looking very much like the Democrats under Meg Lees ("Greens support falls amid bitter infighting", January 27). Once the Democrats started to get cosy with the Liberal-National Coalition there was only one way to go, downwards.

The Greens voted with the LNP to rip aged pension benefits from those in receipt of defined benefit superannuation. They supported an LNP-designed Senate voting system that was blatantly designed to reduce minority representation, and recently they threw a lifeline to Malcolm Turnbull over the backpacker tax.

While the so-called Left Renewal is not the answer, the more the Di Natalie Greens act like the Lees-led Democrats the more support they will lose. If it continues we will be talking about them in historical terms.

Greg Loder Springwood

Capitalism is an inherently exploitative economic system. There is therefore a need for a radical political party to educate the electorate and publicise policies which will result in a more equitable society and one which will minimise the effects of global warming.

Neither the Liberal-National Coalition nor the ALP is doing that so the task falls to the Australian Greens. That its infighting is bitter is unfortunate but, if there is to be a formal split, Senator Di Natale and those who agree with him should leave the party in the hands of Lee Rhiannon and her allies.

She was a communist but so was Jack Mundey, who initiated the green bans of the 1970s, and achieved a worldwide reputation as a conservationist. They both subsequently joined the Greens as does anyone who really cares about the future of life on our planet.

Ian Edwards Glebe

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/richard-di-natales-greens-at-r...

See toon at top...

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In 2017, faced with an exponential loss of Australia’s unique wildlife, changes and in some instances repeal of important State and Federal legislation to protect the environment, threats to marine ecosystems, including underwater noise (a major issue in the U.S. and Europe), wholesale land clearing and the assault of the resource industry, there’s an urgent and desperate need for the environment to become a primary policy issue.

The environment – once the Greens' whole reason for existence – has now been sidelined as one of the party's many portfolios. Senator Larissa Waters handles environment along with gambling, women, tourism, mining and resources. Unfortunately, her website has no policy statements on koalas, a species facing extinction in many regions of Waters' home state of Queensland.

The Greens' policy statement on wildlife fails to include any reference to the repeal of a raft of NSW environmental laws. The diminishing of legal protection is, in many instances, at odds with Federal international treaty obligations, such as the Convention on Migratory Species, which should be Australian Greens issues.

The political failure to be a loud strong voice focused on the real environmental issues facing this country is nothing less than a national tragedy.

Greens' politicians, with few exceptions, look to the latte set for their votes. A cohort that has little interest in the environment, unless it happens to be issues with city living. Grassroots campaigners – people who work tirelessly in their communities without recognition, funds or parliamentary salaries – have been abandoned.

read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/are-the...

The Nick Xenophon Team has announced it will not support the Federal Government's package of changes to child care and welfare benefits.

Without the support of the three Nick Xenophon Team senators from South Australia, the bill needs the support of the Greens to pass the Upper House.

Follow live.

The Nick Xenophon Team says it will not support the Federal Government's package of changes to child care and welfare benefits, leaving the Coalition in need of the Greens' support to pass the reforms. Follow live.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-14/politics-live-february-14/8266444

The Greens should be following Xenophon. The package is A DUMB amalgam of POLICIES.  But with Richard di Cactus (see toon at top) in charge of the Greens, one never knows what stupid deal he is going to make with Turdshit.

It was somewhat embarrassing to see Bob Brown go round the world as he was being interviewed on Lateline-ABCTV, about the latest cockup, fucup of the Greens, the party he used to run before retiring. In regard to citizenship, the Aussie Constitution is simple. Should you be born overseas and want to join parliament, you need to become Australian and renounce your former citizenship. This was designed to prevent conflicts of interests, especially from England in the early days. It's not hard: you are in the Australian parliament, you cannot be UnAustralian (holding another citizenship) as well. For years, this same problem was hanging over the head of Tony Abbott because he was born in England. It took till 2015 for him to get the official paper of what he did in 1993, but only released the form only recently (2017)... 

Richard Di Natale has called for the expulsion of Greens members responsible for leaks against the party’s candidate, Alex Bhathal, before the loss in the Batman byelection.

The Greens leader has flagged a review and purge of party members responsible for damaging leaks accusing Bhathal of bullying after his claim on Sunday that traditional Greens voters had been turned off by the alleged sabotage.

In Saturday’s byelection Labor’s Ged Kearney won with 54.63% of the two-party-preferred vote, a 3.6% swing away from the Greens who were favourites to win after successive gains at recent federal elections, a strong campaign against the Adani coalmine and the Liberals’ decision not to run a candidate.

Asked on Sunday if he would seek the expulsion of those responsible for leaks, Di Natale told ABC’s National Wrap they were a “major factor” in the loss.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/19/richard-di-natale...