Gotcha campaign launched
The new Gotcha campaign is designed to allow Victorians to protest against having their voice taken away from them, thanks to the Greens Liberal deal.
A deal that was first consummated during the 2006 State election, where the Greens exchanged preferences with the Liberal Party in key outer suburban seats and in return for Liberal support for Greens candidates in the seats of Melbourne, Richmond, Northcote and Brunswick.
The ALP has been actively working to ensure that Victoria remains nuclear free. In State Parliament the Bracks Labor Government was proud to have introduced the Nuclear Plebiscite Bill, designed to give Victorians a say, through a referendum, on any move by John Howard to build a Nuclear reactor in our back yard.
Sadly, Greens Upper House members joined the Liberals to vote down the bill.
The Greens voted against a law that would improve Victoria’s defences against any Commonwealth plan to establish nuclear power or waste facilities in this state. They have now voted to make it easier for the Howard Government to build a nuclear facility in Victoria.
This was 30th occasion the Greens have voted with the Liberals against a Labor initiative. And this time they have joined forces with the Liberals to deny Victorians a voice in opposing a nuclear power plant in our State.
Have your say on where you would like to see the Gotcha campaign launched.
Greens/Liberal Deal - Mission Statement
June 11th, 2007
This website has been established to keep a public record of the Victorian Greens Party’s voting record in the Victorian Legislative Council.
This has become necessary because the Greens Party have been consistently entering into deals with the Victorian Liberal Party and this needs to be exposed.
It began with a preference deal during the 2006 Victorian State Election where the Greens Party gave half of their preferences in 24 Legislative Assembly seats (including 8 marginal seats) to the Liberal Party in exchange for the Liberal Party putting the Greens Party ahead of the ALP in Brunswick, Melbourne, Northcote and Richmond.
The deal now continues, with the Greens Party voting with the Liberal Party 68% of the time in the Legislative Council against Labor. The Greens Party now votes with the Liberal Party as often as the National Party votes with the Liberal Party. Unlike the Greens Party, the National Party does not deny its allegiance with the Liberal Party.
It
culminated on 19th April 2007 with the Greens Party voting
with the Liberal Party, National Party and DLP to defeat the
Labor’s Nuclear Activities (Prohibitions) Amendment (Plebiscite)
Bill that would have allowed Victorians to vote against a Federal
Government decision to build a Nuclear Reactor in our backyard.
How could a political party that claims to be committed to the
environment, vote to deny Victorians a voice
on this important issue?
Enough is enough.
This website will be updated at the end of each Victorian Parliamentary sitting week to expose the ongoing deal between the Greens and the Liberals.
Greens are at it again! The Lexus Option
June 7th, 2007
After another week in parliament, the Greens voting record in choosing between Labor and Liberal remains unchanged as having now voted with the Labor Party only 32.1% of the time.
This week in Parliament the Greens Party voted against a stamp duty cut for hybrid cars.
Why?
Because a car (Toyota Lexus) that emits more greenhouse gas than your average small-medium car was excluded by Labor from the list of cars to gain a stamp duty cut.
The Greens Party had put forward an amendment to propose a further cut to stamp duty for two cars over $57,009, specifically the two models of Toyota Lexus valued at $94,000 and $122,000.
Labor considered the amendment unjustifiable given the Lexus’ higher fuel consumption compared to a smaller non-hybrid car such as the Toyota Corolla.
When the amendment was defeated the Greens Party MPs voted against Labor’s stamp duty cuts for all hybrid cars including those under $57,009.
Labor’s stamp duty relief will result in more efficient and more affordable hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic gaining a reduction of up to $1400.
Whilst the full debate can be found in Hansard, some of the contributions from Government members are worth recording:
Evan Thornley - “The net result of what is being proposed is a classic example of people jumping in piecemeal on sexy issues, trying to do things that look good in the headlines but will have very little discernible impact on the environmental issues the Greens claim are so important.”
Martin Pakula - “…. this amendment may as well be called the Lexus amendment. We have got the Lexus Magpies and the Lexus Centre. Now we have got the Australian Greens proudly sponsored by Lexus.”
Gotcha campaign
June 6th, 2007
The new Gotcha campaign is designed to allow Victorians to protest against having their voice taken away from them, thanks to the Greens Liberal deal. Shortly you will be able to have your say on where you would like to see the Gotcha campaign launched.
Memo 24th May 2007
June 4th, 2007
Greens voted with the Liberals 68% in the Upper House.
This
week’s moment of light relief was when on a procedural motion
to let
the Green Party actually move their amendments to the Equal
Opportunity
Bill, their instinctive response was to sit with the Liberals until
helpful
Labor MLCs pointed-out that if they did not vote with Labor, they
would
actually gag themselves! Old habits do die hard like
that and when Sue
Pennicuik, the Green Party MP on the Legislation Committee voted to
elect
Liberal Bruce Atkinson as Chair in preference to Labor’s Candy
Broad!