If you listen closely you can hear it. The sound of muffled shrieks and angry recriminations. The dull thud of the slipper being sunk.
It’s not just a fight. It is that most amusing of all donnybrooks, a hippy fight. One not only to watch but something to remember and relish. Forget the Scomobile sans Scomo or Shorten’s manufactured town hall excursions, a Greens stink is what brings the crowds back to politics.
In Sydney, there have been allegations made against Greens MLC, Jeremy Buckingham of sexual harassment, unwanted touching. We don’t know the details and perhaps that is best.
But we know these allegations exist because the Greens MLA for Newtown, Jenny Leong, said so under parliamentary privilege despite a finding of an internal inquiry found the allegations unproven.
Ever since, Green old salts like Bob Brown have gone to ground, perhaps shamed into silence with the certain knowledge that the party of environmentalism has become an unfunny parody of student politics.
I don’t expect many people have the stomach to grasp what is really going on here. It is only the crazy brave who would plunge headlong into the fetid pool of Greens factionalism.
The first thing I noticed in the wake of Leong’s nifty, risk-free use of parliamentary privilege is that those who stacked up with her and those who came out agin’ her were drawn neatly along the party’s factional lines.
If we put aside the unpleasant nature of the allegations and watch who has come out in support of whom, what we are left to conclude is this is a factional battle in progress.
Factions in the Greens? Surely not, I hear you say. The Greens are a united group who gather as one in forlorn NIMBY protests and collectively macramé their own yoghurt. All right, stereotyping saves time but in the case of the NSW Greens, it is not apt. The NSW Greens is a misnomer. There isn’t a skerrick of environmental concern across the party.
Without getting in to the pernicious details or without having to consult the green colour chart (red-green, blue-green, green-green etc) the NSW Greens basically fall into two main camps, – A bit mad on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays while on the other side of the battlements stand the stark, raving, howling-at-the-moon crazy every single day of the week.
In other words, those who have nodded fervently in agreement while reading Rousseau, Mao and Trotsky to those who shun books as the hallmarks of white privilege and would consign the lot to the flame if they could figure out a way to make the vast bonfire carbon neutral.
Meanwhile in Victoria, the fighting has been replaced by calls for peace, love and understanding.
Two weeks out from an election, the Greens, who believe violent language and bad male behaviour is a hanging offence when it happens elsewhere, but when the viciousness is perpetrated by one of its own, it is not just ok but part of an important element of one’s personal development.
The Greens candidate for Footscray, Angus McAlpine, is an “entertainer” who goes under the stage name, Fat Gut. Mr Gut was, and possibly still is, a rapper who used to call gay men f..king faggots.
I thought that language went out when VicPol disbanded the old Squirrel Squad (so called because undercover police officers would loiter around in public toilets et cetera etc) back in the 1960s but then I don’t spend a lot of time listening to rappers.
Gut also knocked out a catchy little tune about date rape, suggesting the date rape drug Rohypnol was a useful tool.
“Got no class when trying to get some ass, put a rowie (Rohypnol) in your glass and wait for a few minutes to pass.”
By his own party’s admission, Gut made poor choices on social media. Oh dear. But in the interests of free speech and all that, he has been forgiven for debasing and vilifying women and gay men in song.
Indeed, the Victorian Greens decided not just to keep him on the ticket but to explain that he was undergoing a “personal journey.”
Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam came over all Tammy Wynette, standing by her man before getting a bustle in her hedgerow.
“A process of change is a journey and there are steps on the way, it often doesn’t happen overnight,” Ratnam said in support of Gut.
In other words, yes, there are two paths you can go by but in the long run there’s still time to change the road you’re on.
It really makes me wonder.
This from a party that spends its time judging others harshly without wit or wisdom, trampling due process with calls for the sadistic shaming of the guilty, the mistaken, the foolish and sometime even the innocent.
The Greens are a hopeless joke unleashed on Australia’s bloated middle class.
The old stereotype would suggest the Greens’ political existence relies on public concern for critically endangered lichen rather than human beings, but the Greens have moved on from environmentalism. At least with the old green Greens we knew what to expect.
Now, they’ve become a tawdry shadow of the worst elements of the major parties, the ugliest possible expression for the terribleness of modern politics, a dangerous cocktail of sanctimony and cant.
Still, it is a lot of fun to watch them brawling. Get yourself a good seat.
Fight, fight, fight.
This column was published in The Australia 16 November 2018
Preferences a worry?
Gut sounds like he might be a fifth columnist, or marginal personality at the best.
I have always regarded the Greens as fairly useless politically but good communicators to those who can listen on environmental issues, but your excellent article has given me the faint hope that they might one day be elected or even stage a bloody coup and set up the guillotines for some of the finest street theatre imaginable.
Record this Madame Defarge, “For the crime of raping the planet and defiling the air we could once breathe……….
One must get ones etiquette spot on for the Guillotine, Mr. Baptiste, does one shout “Vive La France” as the blade drops?
Possibly may depend on where one is “stationed” at such a French event. Cheer
No Henry. To mutilate a Kenny Rogers dirge the crowd shouts “And that one is for Gaia”, as they watched the last head fall.
Quite right, it would depend on your location for local lingo. I just had the most appalling thought, “Coward of the County” sung in French. Oh the humanitie!
And what would an old bloodthirsty tricoteuse know about one of life’s most essential nutrients JB?
Best that you stick to your knitting me old mate And it sure ain’t regular C02 stock takes.
You speak of nutrients? I am clearly addressing the worlds premier exponent of corn.
Who has just booked himself an exciting bowel loosening ride in a tumbril.
Oh they laughed at the fledgling Bolsheviks, and the French aristocracy never saw it coming either mon cher Marie.
And here is your stocktake update.
https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/
The Fibs are always very scared of the Greens holding the balance of power hence they roll-out the ‘frighteners’ just before an election.
Always the way. They don’t even run a candidate for inner Melbourne as they already know hardly anyone votes for the Coalition there!
Your ribs are always scared because they understand the nation destroying potential of the Greens economic and environmental policies Bella.
Geez old ScoMo looks a natural in front of a bbq. I want to know if a) he’s available for hire and b) will he being doing our next Tourism Oz ad?
A natural what Milt? 😖
Maybe put him *on* the BBQ. He looks like he’s been out on the Cooper getting fattened up.
From last blog, Razor: ” This is a religion for some people including all on the left. There’s nothing more dangerous than a zealot with a firm religous belief!”
I think you’re confusing who’s pushing religion here, sport, as you obviously haven’t fully comprehended what I wrote, which was that robust science demands a weight-of-evidence approach that also considers dissenting findings. The IPCC reports, and all robust research, take into account dissenting findings to develop an overall conclusion. What borders on religion is ignoring the large majority of evidence and concentrating on the vastly smaller number of disproven studies (e.g. East Anglia), to conclude that AGW theory is not valid. Medicine has also had its share of researchers who have been found to doctor studies, such as William McBride in relation to Debendox. Despite McBride’s later trangressions, no serious researcher questions McBride’s conclusions in relation to Thalidomide.
You’re right that Australia is a relatively small emitter, overall – around 1%. However, Australia is one of the highest per capita emitters in the world. I recall that you said earlier that Somalis are disproportionately represented in Victorian crimes, even though they committed only 1% of them, so this warrants an elevated response. However, the same doesn’t seem to apply to Australian emissions, for you. As I said earlier, Razor, try to deal with each issue rationally, not on ideological lines.
Stick to mainstream science rather than fringe science, and you’ll be better off in the long run.
Yet McBride was a dissenter on Thalidomide. The science was in! Thank Christ he didn’t go with the flow as most of the Climate science crowd has!
TO, you didn’t address Al Gore’s recent comment on ’torquing up’ the IPCC report. I’d value your opinion.
You still don’t get it, do you, Razor? The reason why “most of the Climate science crowd” or most of the vaccination crowd are that way is because that’s what the weight of evidence indicates, even though all research findings don’t support the overall conclusion. It’s the same for air pollution – a small number of epidemiological studies show a very weak association between rising levels of the major air pollutants and health impacts, while the great bulk of studies indicate otherwise. Do you think that any rational being seriously doubts that air pollution is bad for humans, on the basis of the dissenting studies?
I tend not to take Al Gore seriously on climate change, including his comment on torquing up the IPCC report, as he seems to cherry pick data a lot to suit his own purposes – a bit like what you’ve done with East Anglia etc.
Gore Shmore. Who cares what one well-known person has said in this instance, movie-maker or not. The fact is that the general public not only has little or no understanding of the science (which continues to flow and as such is not ‘in’), they have little or no understanding of science full stop, including bread and butter issues about the acquisition, quality control, analysis and interpretation of data. As a result, a zillion conspiracy theories are invented.
I read the Kenny piece btw. He’s discovered that facts are good, especially when you cherry-pick the ones that suit you.
It’s simple Razor. I’m surprised you still get suckered in by own your first impulse.
The “language” was torqued up a bit. Not the facts, and quite reasonably so in an attempt to get the attention of the sleepwalkers and idiots, to actually read and listen to the dire forecasts.
I suspect to get any intelligent attention let alone action what is required is to apply a 1″ drive torque wrench to their goolies.
Kind regards.
You’ll need a 1″ to 1/2″ drive reducer for that 10mm socket.
Jack,
I know nothing about the NSW and VIC Greens, but if what you’ve described above is par for the course, they’ve found the wilderness they so want to preserve. It’s just a pity that their wilderness is of the electoral kind. I don’t think that there’s a piper who could lead them to reason.
At the Federal level, I think that Larissa Waters is pretty impressive, though.
I think they’re in for a rough ride in Victoria on Saturday.
They are lost without Bob Brown. He was the Greens. But I think he is more effective outside parliament. He is busy waging war on all fronts right now i.r.o climate change and saving the wilderness that makes Australia special. I admire him greatly. Sticks to his guns and doesn’t ever compromise his stance.
Bella, I admire Bob Brown, too. A very intelligent and committed guy.
Even I admired bob. He was an environmentalist not a communist.
I vote Greens always have always will the only party that makes sense.
I’m guessing punctuation isn’t carbon neutral?
naturally
you’re very useful
If I were a possum I would vote Green too 😊
How was the lobotomy – from your comments I gather it was successful
Stay off the roads and you’ll do better
I’m no expert, or fan, of the genre but I reckon if you’ve heard one rap song, you’ve not only heard enough but you’ve heard them all. It seems to be all about bitches, booty, banging and bling.
Anywho, time to put my cardigan on as I’m feeling a draught.
Huh, you know nuthin’ dude. Listen up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8pWf-DDhNM
When people start mentioning ‘personal journey’ I immediately feel like embarking on one in the opposite direction. Thus far in my ‘journey’ I’ve managed to avoid the paths that venture through poofter bashing and lead on to date raping. Though in regards the latter I’m pretty sure you don’t put the drug in your glass unless you need to be drugged to violate yourself.
Old Fat Gut would have gotten way more publicity if he’d joined the Nats or Young Libs. Oh what a hue and cry that would have been, and his journey would have ended in an abrupt halt.
Typical green/left/labor double standards.
Well Milt, if they didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.
That’s a good ún, Mack.
Double nothing = nothing
Nah, he wouldn’t even be noticed.
Sportsbet have Labor at $1.20, Coalition at $4.20 and the Greens at a whopping $81 for a win in the upcoming Victorian State Election, Mr. Insider, to be held this Saturday.
This is the first of the big heavyweight bouts leading into the new year which is Federal Election time.
Even the juicy $81 for the Greens win will not lure the hard-earned dollar of your humble correspondent.
https://tinyurl.com/ya9xhgkj
What heavyweights, Henry? More like dead weights. For a great state with a fine capital they do dodgy politics. Could certainly learn a lot from us progressives up here in God’s country.
Looks like Warringah’s already fired-up & going hard to finally be rid of Abbott. Who’d blame them, the guy’s been consumed by revenge and has completely lost his mind.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/20/warringah-activists-task-ousting-tony-abbott
The good people of Warringah will not be mislead by a bunch of idiots from Photios’s camp Bella.
And she’s buying a …… 🙂
Good heavens, Mr Insider thank you for you informative column as I was just on the verge of joining the Greens you saved me $120. Yairs.
The Federal Greens were formed in 1992 and havnt come near forming a Government in 26 years and I dont count the “dalliance” with Labor in the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd years, what a cockup that was!
Oh how I wish I was in Victoria where Mr Fat Gut is standing. What a moron and a hypocrite he is and likewise the “sqeaky clean” Greens who have embraced him and others.
How many more years or spats will it take before the Voting Public abandons the Greens alltogether or a new Splinter Party Group forms, as long as SHY and others are not in it.
Yes, it’s up now.