The following speech, by the Greens' first ever member of the House of
Representatives, Michael Organ, demonstrates just why it's worth
having Greens in parliament. Not a speech of poetry or oratorial
splendour, just direct and passionate. No other lower house MP is
articulating the concerns of ordinary Australians, and attacking the
neoliberalism of the major parties, like Michael does. Well worth the
5 minutes to read it in full.
Chris Chaplin
Preston, Vic
----- Original Message -----
Michael Organ: Member for Cunningham
First Speech
House of Representatives
Thursday, 6 February 2003
Mr ORGAN (Cunningham) (11.07 a.m.)-Mr Deputy Speaker, it is an honour
and a privilege to stand before you as the first Greens member of this
House and representative of the people of Cunningham. With the support
of my colleagues Senator Bob Brown and Senator Kerry Nettle, I look
forward to bringing a fresh new voice to this House and this
parliament, a voice reflecting the aspirations of the people of
Cunningham and the vision of the Australian Greens.
As I rise before the House today, our region is in mourning for those
who have lost their lives or were injured in the Waterfall train
derailment last week. We as a community share the pain and sense of
loss felt by the families and friends of the victims. The untimely and
tragic death of seven Australians affects us all and saddens our
hearts. It is a tremendous responsibility we all share as members of
this House - 150 individuals representing around 20 million
Australians. I look forward to contributing to an increasingly vibrant
parliamentary democracy, working in the best interests of this nation
and the people of Cunningham.
In speaking of Cunningham, we should be mindful that its history goes
back far beyond the 200 years of European settlement. Aboriginal
people have occupied the area for some tens of thousands of years. In
rising before this House for the first time, I wish to acknowledge the
Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the land upon which we now
sit and whose sovereignty has never been ceded. In doing so, I
reaffirm my commitment to supporting and promoting issues of
Indigenous culture and heritage, particularly in collaboration with
the people of the Illawarra and the South Coast of New South Wales. I
also add my voice to the hundreds of thousands of other Australians in
apologising for the wrongs of the past.
I was elected the member for Cunningham last October, just a week
after the horror of the Bali bombings and with the spectre of war in
Iraq hanging over us. As I speak, 2,000 men and women of the
Australian Defence Force are on their way to the Middle East for just
such a war under the Prime Minister's orders, but without the
authority of this parliament or the backing of the people - a war in
which five million residents of Baghdad face the imminent possibility
of death. UN experts predict that as many as 100,000 children will
die, a veritable 'holocaust', in the words of Nelson Mandela.
The government's rationale for Australian involvement in a war with
Iraq is nothing more than a defence of the United States' position.
Tuesday's statement by the Prime Minister failed to reveal any real or
credible threat to our nation. This is not Australia's war. The
government is prepared to follow the US into war, regardless of the
United Nations Security Council. The Greens, like millions of other
Australians, are unequivocally opposed to Australia's involvement in a
war against Iraq. The government's deployment of our troops in support
and anticipation of US military strikes on Iraq directly contravenes
Australia's obligations under international law. Australian
involvement in a Bush led attack on Iraq will weaken the United
Nations and set a precedent for other nations to ignore international
law.
Article 51 of the UN Charter provides that action by air, sea or land
force is only warranted in the case of self-defence. Iraq has not
attacked Australia and to date the UN Security Council has not
endorsed any action under article 42 to maintain international peace.
The distinguished Australian statesman and former Labor foreign
minister Doc Evatt, who played such a key role in establishing the
United Nations, must be turning in his grave to see this government so
blatantly flouting the charter and the subsequent equivocation of his
own party. As he told this House on 13 March 1946:
The United Nations ... exists to help realise the twin objectives of
freedom from fear of aggression and freedom from want. Australia shall
continue steadfastly and courageously to play our part in this
organisation, on which must rest most of the hopes of men of goodwill
throughout the world.
We now risk entering into a long, drawn out, unjust and unwinnable
war. ASIO and the CIA have both warned that we face a heightened
threat of terrorist attack. It does not have to be this way. As brutal
a dictator as he is, Saddam Hussein has been and can continue to be
contained with action short of war. A massive attack on the 27 million
Iraqi people is an affront to our humanity and, like so many
Australians everywhere, the people of Cunningham do not support such a
war. On Saturday I will join many of them at a rally in Wollongong to
protest against the war. Peace and diplomacy must prevail.
Whilst war is the most immediate threat facing this nation, it is far
from our only challenge. Globalisation and two decades of Canberra's
obsession with economic rationalism have had a profound effect upon
the people of Cunningham - 20,000 jobs were lost in the region in the
1980s and early 1990s. As a result we have one of the highest
unemployment rates in the nation: 10.6 per cent in December 2002. Our
youth unemployment figure is even worse. At around 21 per cent, it too
is one of the country's highest. Youth unemployment can only be
addressed through the creation of real, long-term sustainable jobs,
not political window dressing such as Work for the Dole, nor policies
which seek only to punish the unemployed for the sake of gaining
votes.
When I left school in the mid-1970s I was able to find work in the
Port Kembla steelworks, down the Westcliff coal mine and in the
Thirroul brickworks. My father worked alongside me making bricks. My
sister and my wife both worked in a local clothing factory. My mother
was a domestic in a local hospital. Employment was readily available
and available locally. We must create new jobs and provide people with
confidence and skills through enhanced educational and training
opportunities. A properly funded, freely available TAFE and university
system is a mandatory requirement for the long-term wellbeing of this
nation - long-term sustainable jobs in a healthy, safe environment.
That is what the people of Cunningham expect; that is what they
deserve.
We must build on initiatives like the National Centre for Appropriate
Technology, which is working with other firms in my electorate on
cutting edge wave power generation of electricity. The University of
Wollongong's Intelligent Polymer Research Institute leads the world in
developing smart plastics such as artificial muscle fibres. These are
opportunities for new clean, green industries in the region which will
provide the jobs of the future.
In Cunningham we have long relied on heavy, polluting industries.
However, it is an area of immense natural beauty, nestled between the
escarpment and the sea in the Illawarra region of New South Wales. It
is also a fragile environment, which has been taken for granted and
abused. In my first term as the member for Cunningham I will be
pressing for permanent protection of the Illawarra escarpment, the
'Kakadu of the South', as David Attenborough has termed it. The
Illawarra's long, thin coastal plain, centred on the city of
Wollongong, accommodates a diverse, multicultural population with a
proud, though rapidly changing, working class heritage based on
coalmining, steel production, manufacturing and small business.
As a sixth generation Australian whose family has resided in the
Illawarra since the 1830s, I have a special relationship with the
place, and with Bulli, where I grew up. When I was a child my father
said to me: 'I was born in Bulli, and I will die in Bulli.' As I grew
older and came to know my father better, I began to understand the
significance of his statement. Bulli was where he grew up. It was
where his family and friends were, his work mates, his childhood
memories - his roots. He had a commitment to the area and a sense of
attachment to the place. I came to share his sense of attachment. It
motivates me to this day, influencing everything I do.
I stand before you as a result of that commitment to the Illawarra: to
its people, its history, its heritage and its culture - to the spirit
of the land. I stand here because on 19 October 2002 the people of
Cunningham voted to change the habit of 53 years and elect a Greens
member to this House. There were many reasons for that historic vote.
At its core was widespread dissatisfaction with the major parties. The
voters of Cunningham felt neglected by their ALP representatives at
local, state and federal levels, and they felt that the coalition had
abandoned a seat it saw as unwinnable.
Also obvious to the electorate was the failure by government to
develop appropriate infrastructure within the region to protect major
environmental assets, such as the Illawarra escarpment and the
coast-line, and to create long-term, sustainable job opportunities,
especially in areas other than polluting, heavy industries. One of my
predecessors, the late Rex Connor, introduced pioneering antipollution
laws, but the people of Cunningham continue to pay the price for those
'plumes of progress' that have hung over the region since the 1860s.
The by-election also revealed that the environment is a major item on
the Australian political agenda. In Cunningham our quality of life is
threatened by inappropriate, unsustainable development, spurred on by
vested interests which seek to generate profit but which have no
commitment to the local community. We cannot continue to allow
inappropriate developments to destroy our cultural and environmental
heritage.
A good example is the Sandon Point residential development on the
foreshore at Bulli. Like the historic battle some 20 years ago to save
the Franklin River, Sandon Point epitomizes the current wide-spread
concern about environmentally destructive development. In this
instance, the push to generate millions of dollars worth of
shareholder profit has resulted in the destruction of nationally
significant and ancient Aboriginal and European heritage sites. It has
resulted in the loss of sensitive wetland environments. It has
resulted in the loss of the open space and green corridors that are so
vital to the health and wellbeing of urban communities. It has also
meant that employment generating lands are being sterilised and
replaced by housing estates.
This development, mirrored in localities across the country, has given
rise to a spirited and inspirational defence by the local community.
It saw the formation two years ago of the Kuradji Aboriginal Tent
Embassy and of a community picket line. Both continue to actively
defend Sandon Point's environmental and cultural heritage values,
because local politicians and government instrumentalities have failed
to do so. The development has resulted in numerous and on-going court
battles, the arrest of protesting local families, and disillusionment
in the community at the manner in which we are ignored by vested
interests and governments at all levels. It has resulted, in part, in
the election of a Greens member to this House.
The lesson of Sandon Point is that we live in times of increasing
change, and people are becoming more active in fighting for
environmental and social justice issues. It is heartening to know
that, in the face of change and threats to all we traditionally hold
dear, ordinary Australians are making a difference. They are making a
difference by their active involvement in the local community. They
made a difference at the ballot box in the Cunningham by-election, and
they made a difference by turning to the Greens - the party committed
to a fairer and more just society.
The Greens' policies are built on four core principles: environmental
sustainability; peace and non-violence; social and economic justice;
and grassroots democracy. The Greens offer a new way of doing
politics. We seek to empower individuals and the community, and
government is afraid of this. We seek to uphold the democratic ideal
and support organisations and individuals who work for the good of
their community and the world at large.
Whilst our democracy is strong, it is under increasing threat from
globalisation and the power of profit to override the public good.
Government must have as a priority the welfare of the people. Its
primary role is to take care of its citizens. But government at all
levels in Australia has lost its way. So-called sound economic
management has come at the expense of the quality of life and
wellbeing of ordinary Australians, especially those who most need help
and support. As a party of compassion, the Greens seek to address this
inequity by closing the widening gap between the haves and the
have-nots.
Economic rationalism has seen services run down, public utilities sold
off and our children's futures mortgaged to the free market. Medicare
is being financially strangled, and bulk-billing is disappearing.
Telstra is being sold off. Money is being taken out of public
education, and the cost of education is be-coming a real burden on
families. We are tired of being told that there are no alternatives.
Unless elected representatives reflect and carry out the will of the
people, they will be thrown on the scrap heap. It happened in
Cunningham, where dissatisfaction with government and bureaucracy
changed the political landscape.
The Greens success in Cunningham was due to numerous political, social
and demographic factors. It was also due to the hard work of many
people, and some of them are here today in the gallery. I must thank
my wife, Jeanette, my sons, Kyle and Andrew, and my family and friends
for their hard work, encouragement and support. I thank those many
tireless workers in the Greens throughout Australia who have toiled
selflessly over many years for the party, with the best interests of
this nation at heart. And I thank the electors of Cunningham for the
opportunity to be their voice in this House. It is a great honour.
My victory in the Cunningham by-election, as a local community
activist and a member of the Greens, sends a clear message: the
Australian political landscape is changing, and the Greens are leading
that change. We are a genuine alternative to the other parties as they
become increasingly indistinguishable. The Greens are a party of
compassion and community activism. The success of the Greens in
Cunningham is a wake-up call. It is a light shining through the fog of
political expediency, cronyism and hidden agendas. And Cunningham is
not an isolated incident: it is a microcosm of voter anger and concern
across the nation. People want jobs. We want workers' wages,
conditions and rights upheld and improved. We are sick of seeing
corporate heavyweights walking away with millions. People want
sensible, sustainable development. We do not want the environment
trashed for a quick buck. People want a quality, well-funded public
education system and a universal health care system. We do not want
our schools run down, our technical and further education system
forgotten and a university education contingent upon one's ability to
pay. I am here to remind the House that the Australian people want
compassion, not cruelty. We do not want to see asylum seekers and
their children caged behind razor wire in desert prisons. We do not
want to see a repeat of the shame brought upon this nation by the
Tampa affair - and we do not want war.
***
..
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