Brown no saint in Greens spat

WELL, how ironic that Bob Brown accuses New South Wales Greens senator Lee Rhiannon of “white-anting” and being the “Greens version of Tony Abbott” for causing disunity in the party (“Sign of the times”, TasWeekend magazine, April 22).

Bob Brown personally intervened to ask Senator Rhiannon to step down from preselection in the last federal election, even though he resigned as leader of the Australian Greens several years ago.

Senator Rhiannon was re-elected because she is a great advocate on so many Greens issues. She adheres to the four founding principles of the Greens — of ecological sustainability, social equality and economic justice, grassroots democracy (unlike Bob), and peace, non-violence and disarmament.

Her critics, including Bob Brown, say her parliamentary service is too long and there is a need for renewal. NSW Greens members will get their chance to express this through the ballot box at the next election. This should be respected.

The Tasmanian Greens grew out of the environmental movement, whereas NSW Greens evolved from diverse groups of environmentalists, anti-war activists and disaffected Labor Party members. It has the largest membership of any state and it is normal and healthy to have differences which can be debated. Labels such as “Eastern Bloc” and “hard Left” are not helpful to this process. Playing the ball and not the person is the respectful way to go. Bob’s halo is wearing a little thin with me and I suggest he keep to community campaigning on environmental issues which is where his heart is and what he does best.

Pensioners ignored

CENTRELINK debt recovery inquiry chairwoman Rachel Siewert has noted “such a large number of Tasmanians affected” ( Mercury, April 26). Those Tasmanians can only hope Senator Siewert gives more consideration to their plight than she did when leading Greens party support for Scott Morrison’s misguided 2015 Defined Benefit Scheme changes. Similar large numbers of Tasmanian pensioners who were significantly and negatively affected by those changes have been forgotten. Letters to Senator Siewert and her Greens colleagues didn’t even promote the courtesy of replies, let alone legitimacy of consideration in that matter. out when the South Hobart Rivulet path reopened and bells for bikes were handed out too. I’ve heard one bell rung by one lovely lady riding into town. On a number of other occasions, I’ve had riders fly past me at a speed I consider dangerous for a multi-use path. Even without headphones in, it is almost impossible to hear the bikes fly up behind, as most don’t have bells. So can I suggest before having a chop at the other path users, you do more to educate your members?

Rising prices bad news

I DON’T get it — every time there’s a hike in home prices, it’s presented as a cause for celebration. What it really means is that many people will be finding it even more of a struggle to find a place to live — surely this is bad news. For those who by luck or good judgment already have a roof over our heads and no plans to move, a rising valuation is just a number and probably means rates will rise too. Having a home is central to having a life but it’s become a crushing burden for far too many. Let’s throw away the balloons and party hats and get real — rising house prices are bad news for almost everybody.

Let reform talks begin

IT was pleasing to hear that Kingborough Council has taken the initiative to try to persuade Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein to allow it to hold discussions with Huon Valley Council “on local government reform, including amalgamation” ( Mercury, April 22). But the Government’s response to Kingborough’s request — to wait until “an elected council [is] in place in Huon Valley” — is both disappointing and intriguing.

Thanks to resistance from now-sacked isolationist Huon Valley councillors and the minister himself, many of us in the municipality have been feeling unfairly excluded from any debate about reform.

Of one thing we are sure: the temporarily gagged Heart of the Huon group that controlled voting on our council until it was sacked last year would be horrified at the thought of not being able to continue steering the council on the going-it-alone, going-nowhere path that it, and its predecessors, pursued over the past two decades.

Mr Gutwein, please tell Commissioner Adriana Taylor it is quite OK for her to begin talking about reform with Kingborough. Respectful exchanges of ideas never hurt anyone. And at least comprehensive reports and recommendations on the subject could be in good order by whenever we have an elected council again.

That way, many of us — perhaps even a majority — in the Huon Valley can have some hope that we won’t be left out of any amalgamation and local government reform debate. We’d hate to have to go it alone, idea-less and directionless.