John Kaye, Sydney
One of the worst legacies of the 2004 federal election is the lingering myth that the community faces a choice between saving jobs and protecting the environment. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In order to start debunking this myth, the Greens are holding a free public workshop on December 11 in Sydney, with speakers from both the union and environment movements, and we will be focusing on building a campaign to create a clean, green, jobs-rich economy.
In the dying days of the 2004 federal election, PM John Howard played the ace card in a game of forestry poker that saw workers, the environment and the economic future of Tasmania lose out to his short-term electoral interests. His package did nothing to secure the future of the forestry industry and timber workers' jobs. It failed to protect any of Tasmania's heritage. It's only value was that it made Labor's package look anti-worker (it was not) and that it persuaded many voters, in Tasmania and on the mainland, that only the Coalition cared for the economic well-being of the average Australian (they do not).
This came on top of an earlier Coalition energy policy announcement that worked a similar deception. Howard would have us believe that seriously addressing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions would lead to economic ruination, a loss of jobs and a downturn in our economic competitiveness. His policy of subsidising highly speculative research into burying power station-produced carbon dioxide was a huge gift to the coal mine owners and a kick in the guts to the embryonic renewable energy industry. Thousands of future manufacturing jobs were sacrificed to make the big end of town happy.
There is another way Australia can do business. Sweden, with less than a third of our population, dominates the mobile phone market. It does so because its government made choices about supporting an export-based manufacturing industry. It's time for Australia to do the same.
There is no doubt that environmentally friendly products are going to be in big demand in the near future. Consumers, in Australia and elsewhere, are increasingly interested in the environmental footprint of what they buy, whether it be food, wood products or energy sources. International pressure will force all governments to look for technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Urban consolidation, declining air quality and rising fuel prices will create a huge demand for smart public transport solutions.
Australia has the skilled work force, the technologies and the opportunity to become a world leader in supplying these products.
However, we are being let down by governments too fixated on busting unions and reducing wages to see the long-term interests of all Australians. We are also being let down by capital markets that cannot see beyond tomorrow's profit margin. Unless Australia makes the big shift soon, we will lose the opportunity and be condemned to a future of falling commodity prices, rising unemployment and ballooning balance of trade deficits as we import smart solutions from overseas.
The real choice facing Australia is not between saving jobs and protecting the environment. It is between "business as usual" with declining employment opportunities and massive downward pressure on wages, and a jobs-rich, clean, green economy based on providing solutions to 21st century problems. We cannot rely on governments to generate the right answers, so it is up to all of us to show the way.
[John Kaye is a member of the NSW Greens. The seminar will take place at 1-5pm on December 11 at the Tom Mann Theatre, 136 Chalmers Street, Surry Hills. Free entry. Phone (02) 9519 0877 or email <lesa@nsw.greens.org.au>.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, December 8, 2004.
Visit the