DEAR News Of The Area,

WITH unprecedented floods and catastrophic fires, nature is screaming at us to take better care of the environment and to act on climate change.

So why is ‘greenie’ a term of abuse?

The Greens have detailed, practical policies on a wide range of issues, policies that have been carefully crafted over years and fully costed.

Yet with much media focus on personality pugilist politics, we seldom get to hear of them, and not many voters are prepared to look up policies on parties’ websites.

The Greens want to end native forest logging to protect ecosystems and habitat.

As we can meet our timber needs with sustainable plantations, this is reasonable. They do not want to prevent people clearing around their houses for fire hazard reduction.

The global demand for coal is set to fall.

To mitigate the effects of climate change, the Greens want to phase out coal and gas but that doesn’t mean an end to all mining.

For both these industries, they advocate support for workers to make the transition to industries with a future.

So why are they portrayed as looney tree-huggers?

Greens’ policies are guided by the ideal of what’s best for Australians, not dictated by corporate donations.

The four pillars of the Greens are environmental sustainability, social justice, grassroots participatory democracy and peace and non-violence.

What’s so unacceptably radical about that?

All Australians are proud of our beautiful land and its unique flora and fauna.

Can’t one love trees and koalas without being condemned to the lunatic fringe?

Yours faithfully,
Mary FORBES,
Eungai Creek.