Australia: Greens threaten two-party system

[G_j]

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/44347

Editorial: Greens threaten two-party system
Saturday, June 5, 2010


In recent weeks, the big mining companies have spent millions on propaganda against plans to make them pay more tax. But the results of a June 1 Newspoll showed they have hardly made a dent on public opinion.

Both big parties are losing ground, the poll said. Labor’s primary vote dropped two points, to 35%. The Coalition went down by the same margin, from 43% to 41%. But the bombshell was the record Greens vote — up four points to 16%.

<snip>

But the recent surge in Greens support has coincided with the Labor government’s decision to suspend its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme for a further three years.

<snip>

The surge in electoral support for the Greens has also coincided with Labor’s introduction of harsh anti-refugee policies, such as suspending the processing of asylum claims of people fleeing Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Responding to goading from Abbott, Rudd has adopted Howard-era refugee-bashing rhetoric on “border protection”, alienating many of the voters who swept Rudd to power in 2007.

After the Greens’ record vote in the Tasmanian elections, the party now has a chance to break open the two-party system on a national level.

..more..

[kestrel91316]

1. Good. I hope someday they threaten ours in the US, too.

[G_j]

3. I was impressed with the reasons mentioned of why

the established parties are losing ground.

the environment, and a backlash against anti-immigrant rhetoric.

[TheMadMonk]

4. Australia accepts plenty of immigrants and genuine refugees.

And despite some very major problems integrating young men from Somali and other war torn African nations we will continue to do so.

The Howard Govt. policies were harsh, but they did put an end to the flow of boats full of "asylum seekers".

The moment Kevin relaxed those policies, the people smugglers went straight back into business, because each of those "refugees" is worth several thousand dollars delivered to somewhere in the vicinity of Australia. I'm sorry, but people who can afford to pony up several times their home nation's average yearly wage are not genuine refugees, they are rich people who want out of a bad situation.

The ONLY real winners under the relaxed policy were the people smugglers. The criminals.

Our borders have not been closed. We just won't tollerate people crashing them once more.

[rve300]

2. Kevin 07 gone in 11

[Expat Sue]

5. Kev 11

Only if Rudd blinks on the mining tax, in which case it could be Julia Gillard as Australia's 1st female PM.

No one is believing the BS that Abbott is selling, especially on the mining tax (except for Kel Richards who clearly must own a lot of Rio Tinto stock as evidenced by his biased coverage of the entire mining tax debate)

[G_j]

6. ==