Greens take asylum seeker fight to Broadway

Greens representatives angered by the Federal Government’s decision to suspend the processing of Afghani and Sri Lankan asylum seekers spent last Thursday at Broadway collecting the signatures of other citizens opposed to the radical change in policy.

The group was gathered less than 50 metres away from the office of Tanya Plibersek, Labor’s Federal MP for Sydney. Despite the considerable size of the office you wont find any mention of her ALP affiliation along its wide windows.

Since winning the 2007 Federal election her party has faced growing criticism for “skipping out on its election promises”, with some arguing that the Rudd Government’s new policies are more in line with, and in this instance worse than, the previous Government’s.

According to NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, there is a looming voter backlash brewing for this year’s federal election.

This backlash comes from a growing a discontentment within the ALP rank-and-file over the party leadership’s increasingly conservative agenda, and could see many traditional Labor voters casting protest votes in favour of the Greens.

“I’ve had people from the Labor Party come up and tell me how disgusted they are with what [Kevin Rudd] is doing,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“There is concern that Labor is moving further to the right … they seem to think there’s an electoral advantage to doing that – I think it’s a disadvantage.”

She also attacked the suspension on legal grounds, arguing that under International Law “Australia has the responsibility to … assist refugees when they come to this country.”

She called the Rudd Government’s breach of this law disgraceful, and an embarrassment to the ALP membership.

Kevin Rudd has argued that his actions are not in breach of 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, saying the two countries are now safe enough to ensure the wellbeing of returning refugees.

But another petitioner, Colin Charlton, told City News this pretext was “ridiculous”. Mr Charlton argued that conditions have not returned back to normal, and that the suspension was motivated more by racial populism than well thought-out policy.

In the coming year elections will take place at both state and federal levels. The Greens have already begun pre-selections and will have candidates in almost all major seats.

By Kieran Adair