OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR CHRISTINE MILNE.
Sue Arnold 9th September, 2013
Senator Milne,
I read your comments in today’s Australian. Apparently you blame the environmental groups for not running strong campaigns in support of your party. And, according to the report, you also claim the anti-green backlash is a result of Labor in-fighting.
Let me put you straight. The backlash to the greens is a direct result of the failure of your campaigns – the prioritizing of economic refugees and same sex marriage ahead of any environmental issues. Sarah Hanson Young called for an enquiry into the treatment of asylum seekers but there’s a deafening silence about the disastrous LNG development in Gladstone and the appalling mis-management of the Reef.
Adam Bandt’s press conference after his successful re-election was focused entirely on asylum seekers. Not one word about the environment.
The fact that the environment disappeared from this election campaign was a direct result of your failure and your party’s failure to raise the massive environmental issues this country faces. Neither the Libs nor Labor nor the Nationals nor PUP were going to raise environmental issues. Environmental organisations depended on the greens to be the spokespeople who brought the public’s attention to the failures of the major parties.
Instead, we have a greens party transformed into a party for refugees. There’s no end game to this campaign, Australia should open its doors and to hell with the consequences. With 42 million refugees globally, neither you nor your party has made any concessions to the social problems created; the limits to Australia’s infrastructure, agricultural land and the huge problems created by bringing in thousands of people whose religious beliefs do not permit integration.
At a time when Australia is almost certainly going to see the Reef downgraded to World Heritage in Danger; when the loss of Australia’s agricultural land to the mining industry growing exponentially; with our precious wildlife being lost to unchecked development; with our rivers polluted and the marine environment rapidly deteriorating, you and your party ignored these issues.
Instead, the greens gave their preferences to Clive Palmer; they gave preferences in NSW to disgraced Labor MP Craig Thompson; the electoral literature put out by the greens could hardly be described as a strong environmental campaign.
No, Senator Milne, you are wrong. The greens shot themselves in the foot. Environmental groups who expected strong representation have been given a daily dose of refugee policy and same sex marriage. Your party has lost the plot and you as leader are a disaster.
The greens party under Christine Milne can take a large part of the blame when the Reef is downgraded. If ever there was a moment for demanding a Royal Commission into Gladstone LNG development and the appalling deliberate mis-management of the World Heritage Reef, the election was that time.
You blew it. And the environment will pay the price.
