Labor v Greens
July 17th, 2012 at 9:00 am by David FarrarAustralian Labor has had a ferocious campaign against their technical ally the Greens in the last week or so.
The Australian reports:
IF you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, the saying goes. It appears this past week there has been an outburst of violent itching within Labor ranks, attributed to the notion that lying down with Greens will result in a similar infestation.
The SMH reports:
LABOR’S recent declaration of war against the Australian Greens is a very public concession that the minor party has moved from political fringe dweller to a credible electoral threat.
The Daily Telegraph:
OH dear, the marriage of Labor and the Greens is heading for the rocks.
A close friend of the couple, the NSW ALP secretary Sam Dastyari, wants the split formalised this weekend with a motion to the party’s state conference proposing that Labor no longer provide the Greens with “automatic preferential treatment in any future preference negotiations”.
Things are so bad, that in some seats Labor preferences Family First ahead of the Greens.
“Because I believe they are an extremist party and I do believe they have some very loony policies and what I think they are very effective at is portraying themselves as a kind of peace, love and mung beans party, that all cares about wombats and the trees and the grass and the environment, without exposing themselves to any critique of some of their very wacky policies.
Someone should look hard at some of the Green policies here.
The quote above is from Paul Howes the national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, a member of Labor’s ruling council.
But if you want an example of a loony Green policy in Australia, Mr Howes provides it:
If the Greens had their way, I doubt NSW would ever win the State of Origin.
There probably wouldn’t even be a State of Origin – we’d just sit around with Queenslanders and play pass the parcel. After all, the Greens in NSW have a policy of promoting “non-competitive sports” such as yoga, dance, trampolining and tai chi over the traditional sports that Australian children enjoy playing.
As their policy explains, the Greens “believe too much emphasis is placed on full body contact sports often causing unnecessary physical damage and confining opportunities for participation to the athletic elite.”
Sorry kids – no more rugby, no more Aussie rules, no more hockey or netball. Let’s all go meditate instead.
I’m not sure if the Greens who wrote this ridiculous policy have kids, or ever were children themselves, but expecting children not be competitive is just bizarre.
As far as I know the NZ Greens don’t have a policy against contact sport – but they do want to kill 1 in five cows to save the planet. Howes continues:
Labor has an obligation to stop extremists who threaten our democracy. We’ve done it before and we need to do it again.
Because make no mistake; the Greens pose as much of a threat to working people as Tony Abbott. They just hide it better.
Ouch.
Related posts:
- More goodness from Australian Labor
- Former Labor Press Secretary made TVNZ Head of News
- Australian Young Labor – teaching hate!
- The Labor smear machine
July 17th, 2012 at 9:10 am
> As far as I know the NZ Greens don’t have a policy against contact sport
AFAIK neither do the Aussie Greens.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 9:28 am
Oh dear. The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks are fighting again – in Round eleventy billion.
Normally I’d turn away in boredom from such a spectacle due to its sad and grubby repetitiveness, but what’s deliciously different here is that one party – Labor – is desperately trying to escape the clutches of policies it bought into for years, for ideological reasons rather than pragmatic ones.
Unfortunately for Mr Howe and company it’s going to take a lot more than this to slough off the responsibility for the Carbon Tax and the direct lie that led to it.
More popcorn thank you.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 9:34 am
“IF you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas, the saying goes. It appears this past week there has been an outburst of violent itching…. …. attributed to the notion that lying down with Greens will result in a similar infestation.”
Heh – looks like this applies both sides of the ditch.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 9:35 am
So somehow
equates to
Wow.
It’s easy to tell if politicians or bloggers are telling outright lies and smearing the Green movement – just look to see if their lips are moving.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 9:39 am
A bit like DPF’s nonsense that the Greens want to kill one in five cows.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 9:41 am
The by-election this Saturday in the Victorian state seat of Melbourne might have something to do with this…
The Liberals are not standing a candidate and it is a straight fight between Labour and the Greens (plus a bunch of independents) labour lost the federal seat to the greens in 2010 and are would be fairly unhappy to lose the VLA one as well,
Vote:+ it would give the greens a very strong base……
July 17th, 2012 at 9:56 am
It’s easy to tell if politicians or bloggers are telling outright lies and smearing the Green movement – just look to see if their lips are moving.
You can see David’s lips moving when you read this post? How does that work?
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 9:58 am
I heard that John Key wants to kill 1 in 20 civil servants to reduce the deficit?
(Or was that “cap” the civil service, rather than “Kill” it? I’m not sure. I’ll go on repeating it anyway. It will gain “truthiness” if I repeat it often enough.)
John Key wants to kill one in twenty civil servants!!!
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 10:04 am
This public servant is very afraid!
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 10:05 am
Oh come on you two. This is a blog focusing on politics and politicians – and you’re acting all surprised about stuff like this? Besides, the smear is coming from a left-wing political activist in the bedrock left-wing institution of unionism: what else would you expect.
I’ll be perturbed by dishonesty about the poor little Green Party when you’ve finished explaining to me how “dirty dairying” and describing grass-fed farms as “big polluters” are wonderfully calm, objective and accurate terms – rather than the usual political game of demonising one group while getting one’s own side fired up.
Truthiness indeed.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 10:09 am
Sorry for pointing out the mendacity of DPF’s claim. I promise not to do it again; if he sticks to telling the truth.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 10:11 am
Let socialist Australian Labor attack communist Green as much as it wants.
Vote:They will be wiped out at the next general election.
July 17th, 2012 at 10:27 am
This is nothing more than pathetic stereotyping, and the ALP is a sinking ship.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 10:28 am
“Dirty dairying” is a dumb catchphrase designed for rallying the faithful, and I agree it’s unfortunate.
The phenomenon of run-off from “grass fed” dairy farming is well enough documented though.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 10:30 am
Five thousand and ninety
sixseven comments in a couple of years suggests that you’re not anywhere near afraid of losing your job – and why would you be?Sorry for pointing out the mendacity of the Greens. I promise not to …. see if their lips are moving.
Say “war criminal” mikey: I’ve not heard it in a while and as has been said: go on repeating it anyway. It will gain “truthiness” if I repeat it often enough.
Oh wait – none of this applies to you, does it sweetie? Butter wouldn’t melt and all that.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 10:30 am
I remember seeing an item on TV where the Greens (nz) let the cameras in on their policy discussions, specificially their violence policy.
It was all very nice, outside in the open air. They started the session by reviewing the last one, where they had decided that it woudn’t be right to ban animals like cats from hunting and killing their prey.
Seriously, they had to have a discussion to decide not to regulate fundamental aspects of nature.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 10:32 am
Hi, we quoted you an article of yours (http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/04/people_power_ohariu.html) about Peter Dunne today over at politicallycorrect.co.nz.-
http://www.politicallycorrect.co.nz/2012/07/17/peter-dunne-ohariu-mp-tppa-tobacco/
The infographic is free to distribute, the more people know about Peter Dunne, the better
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 10:38 am
Not the point in this context. We’re talking about the applicability of terms to the factual situation at hand. The term “big polluters” was usually applied to vast industrial plants with multiple smokestacks pouring dark clouds into the air: think Love Canal and Milton’s “dark, satanic mills” and so forth.
The choice of the term “big polluter” here is a deliberate attempt to associate those images of Industrial Revolution and Gilded Age horrors with 21st century farms of grass-fed animals. Karl Rove could not have done better.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 10:42 am
“http://www.politicallycorrect.co.nz/2012/07/17/peter-dunne-ohariu-mp-tppa-tobacco/
The infographic is free to distribute, the more people know about Peter Dunne, the better”
There’s a quote in there; “Ignores Sir Geoffrey Palmer…”
I am liking Dunne more and more.
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 12:57 pm
mikenmild Says:
“….This public servant is very afraid!….”
Well see how afraid you are of Australia’s FEDERAL GREEN COMMUNIST SENATOR – LEE RHIANNON !
“…Rhiannon is a member of one of Australia’s most prominent Communist families. Her parents, Bill and Freda Brown, were leading lights of the Communist Party of Australia, while she was active in its youth wing…..her activities earned her an ASIO file that runs to five volumes and more than 800 pages for the nine-year period 1969 to 1978, which has been released….
‘ASIO officers of that time ….believed Alekseev to be the KGB rezident, the most senior Soviet spy in the country…….Rhiannon’s proposed meeting with Alekseev and the mention of Stenin were regarded with the utmost seriousness by the intelligence organisation…’
“…When the Communist Party Australia split with the Soviet Union in the wake of its brutal 1968 crushing of the Prague Spring and moves by its leader, Alexander Dubcek, towards “socialism with a human face”, Rhiannon and her parents stayed loyal to Moscow.
She is one hell of a sick bitch if you know about the Prague Spring MM.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/secret-past-of-greens-senator-lee-rhiannon/story-e6frg6z6-1226255689458
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 1:12 pm
Wasn’t Russel Norman even left of the Greens when in Australia ?
Vote:July 17th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Harriet
Vote:Is your comment intended to have any relevance to my comment pointing out DPF’s lies? Or is my state of knowledge about the Prague Spring connected in some other way?
July 17th, 2012 at 1:31 pm
tom hunter
“big polluters” and our media regularly play along with the images of those polluting power station cooling stacks belching all that H2O back into the atmosphere.
Looks good on tele but just another lefty deception.
Vote: