Via Domainfax:
Greens MPs have rallied behind party leader Richard Di Natale after rogue senator Lee Rhiannon labelled his leadership “disappointing”, raising the stakes in the party’s bitter internal conflict.
…”There is a compelling case for considering the idea of members, instead of the party room, electing the federal parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens,” she wrote.
…Last week, Senator Rhiannon was suspended from some party room debates pending a reform of the NSW branch, which binds its representatives to positions regardless of the party room’s decisions. After squaring off against the federal leadership on the “Gonski 2.0” education package, NSW members are now vowing to fight the push for reform.
…Tasmanian senator Peter Whish-Wilson told ABC radio there was no leadership issue in the party room, and called on Senator Rhiannon to air her grievances through the party’s internal channels.
…Western Australian senator Scott Ludlam said he “strongly” supported the leader, and Queensland senator Larissa Waters said she was “proud of the job [Senator Di Natale] is doing”.
…WA senator Rachel Siewert said “we’re united behind Richard” and Tasmanian senator Nick McKim said: “Remember, all of our party room acknowledged a problem. Richard is showing great leadership taking this on.”
I’m afraid that the Greens push towards the centre has come at entirely the wrong moment. It has resulted in the party now supporting a mass immigration class war on Australian wages, as well as a war on the Australian built and natural environments. It is not a party of the Left at all. It is as bourgeois as any pre-Howard Liberal Party ever was.
Whether it is the Greens job to fill the vacancy on the Left of Australian politics is a moot point. There would be benefits in doing so. Anyone defending wages is going to become increasingly popular and regulatory solutions to climate change more necessary as we fail to pull it up in time. A little economic nationalism charged with lowering immigration would do it no harm, either.
That’s a Greens Party that would at least make sense versus today’s complete phonies.
