Page 3545 - Week 08 - Thursday, 18 August 2011
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He started by saying “she has made a significant impact in this place because of her commitment to core Greens’ socialist ideology.”
Her response:
Thank you Alistair.
“Thank you Alistair.” “Core Greens’ socialist ideology.” “Thank you Alistair.” I am very pleased that at least one member of the Greens does indeed come out and actually say what they are all about. They are not the environmental movement. They are not all fun and games. They are not all planting seedlings for Greening Australia. No, no, no, there is a red undertone, a red undertone to this Green party and Ms Le Couteur does state it there. We all know it. We all know it but at least someone has come out from the crossbench and actually said who and what they stand for.
Ms Le Couteur did make mention of WikiLeaks earlier and it is interesting that on 19 January this year Ms Le Couteur shared a link, “Nominate Julian Assange for Australian of the Year.” Australian of the Year, Julian Assange. Say what you will about Julian Assange, I am not sure I would be nominating him for Australian of the Year. Anyway, it is good to note that Ms Le Couteur does indeed publicise what she thinks when it comes to issues like Julian Assange, peak oil and the Greens’ socialist ideology. That, of course, was evidenced by the fact that she attended a protest supporting Julian Assange as well.
We also heard the Greens say on roads infrastructure that they did not support the GDE. Ms Hunter on 24 March 2010 said:
That is probably a straightforward one for the Greens. We did not believe that was the right road to build in the first place ...
Of course, they have come out against the Majura road duplication as well and Ms Le Couteur has said on many occasions that because of peak oil, demand for road travel is going to decrease. If the electric car phenomenon takes off as Simon Corbell thinks it shall, perhaps it will not. Or perhaps we will find more oil as well; who knows?
But we did hear, of course, from Mr Seselja about the incredible blow-out in costs for the Gungahlin Drive extension, from $53 million in 2001 as promised to $200 million now 10 years on. Then, of course, the minister has the gall to say that it is in fact going to be two and a half months early. That is a tremendous relief. It is a tremendous relief for my constituents in Nicholls or in Hall or in northern Belconnen that currently use that road, albeit for too long each morning and too long in the afternoon, for the many other thousands of Canberrans that use it in Gungahlin and the many other people that should be using it.
I know that regularly I will avoid using that road even though it is the most direct route. Therefore, I am actually creating more emissions, using more oil, putting more pressure on other roads because I am unable to take the most direct route, all because this government, in its short-sightedness and its inability to deliver timely roads
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