Can the Greens snatch a win in Fremantle?

Alex Bainbridge, Perth 2 May 2009

For more than 100 years the WA seat of Fremantle has been safe Labor territory. Now, the May 16 state by-election for the seat is tipped to be a neck-and-neck race between ALP candidate Peter Tagliaferri and Adele Carles from the Greens.

The Liberals have declined to run to avoid the embarrassment of coming third.

Carles rose to prominence as a leading activist in the Save South Beach campaign. The campaign fought to stop a luxury housing development next to a popular swimming and picnic spot. The development was in breach of the then Labor government’s own coastal development policy.

The Greens gave Labor a scare when they won nearly 28% of the primary vote in the state election last September. The party hopes voter cynicism at the early resignation by sitting Labor member Jim McGinty will help swing the seat to the left.

To shore up its position, the ALP has chosen property investor and high profile Fremantle mayor Peter Tagliaferri as its candidate. However, he only joined the ALP in April. His pre-selection has caused plenty of rumblings in Labor ranks.

Senior officials of the Australian Services Union (ASU) have attacked Tagliaferri’s pre-selection. Former ASU Secretary Paul Burlinson told the April 25 West Australian he would campaign against Tagliaferri.

Burlinson claimed Tagliaferri allowed the council to put new employees on non-union agreements that pay 10% less than other workers covered by the collective agreement.

Meanwhile, activists from a number of unions have reacted angrily to an ALP email and SMS campaign asking them to march with the ALP rather than their union on May Day to “show your support for Peter”.

Tagliaferri’s strongest union support has come from the WA Police Union. Union president Mike Dean told the May 2 Fremantle Herald: “He’s stuck his neck out for us and we intend to do the same for him.”

In the same issue of the Herald, Maritime Union of Australia WA branch secretary Chris Cain also indicated support for Tagliaferri. “He’s been endorsed by the ALP and we support the ALP,” Cain said.

The Herald reported the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union does not oppose Tagliaferri, but would not comment on his nomination.

The ALP’s preference policy for the by-election has drawn criticism for helping far-right groups. The ALP’s how-to-vote card puts the Greens second-last and the Socialist Alliance last. However, conservative group Family First gets the ALP’s second preference and the far-right wing Christian Democratic Party, its fourth.

From: Comment & Analysis, Green Left Weekly issue #793 6 May 2009.

Greens and socialist candidates speak

2 May 2009


Green Left Weekly spoke to Fremantle by-election candidates Adele Carles (WA Greens) and Sam Wainwright (Socialist Alliance) to ask what they hoped to achieve through their election campaigns

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Adele Carles (Greens)

Can you explain why you’re running for parliament?

I’m running because the two-party system is failing our community and our environment.

[The development at] North Port Quay is a big election issue. We cannot support a private developer getting our public ocean. If this goes ahead, we will lose the working port of Fremantle and all of the character that makes Fremantle so special.

Other “Freo” issues include the Fremantle Markets debacle, with stallholders leaving due to unfair rent increases; lead export through the port; and planning in general in Fremantle.

At the state level, the Greens want to see increased incentives for renewable energy, massive investment in public transport, an end to logging in our south-west native forest and increased recycling rates through the introduction of a Container Deposit Scheme.

What do you hope to achieve if you win?

[We aim to get] traction on the issues mentioned above. [It will mean] claiming Green space in parliament for Green voters across the State, not just in Fremantle.

What are your views on community activism and parliament as methods of achieving social change?

Activism can certainly raise awareness, but you need the media behind you to achieve this and this is difficult in WA. After years of activism, I am now aiming to get into parliament so that our Green views are put before government and put on the public parliamentary record and hopefully picked up by the mainstream media.

This is the key to achieving social change — to have our views seriously considered and not marginalised under the tag of “environmental activists”.

What is the Greens preference policy for this election?

We agreed to place Sam [Wainwright, Socialist Alliance] as number two. Interestingly, Labor has dumped us this time at the number 10 and 11 slots! We have decided that we cannot support this “un-Labor” candidate and so we have placed Carmelo Zagami [former Liberal running as an independent] ahead of Peter Tagliaferri on our ticket.

What is your response to the issue of ALP head office appointing candidates instead of running local preselections?

This is anti-democratic and may well backfire with the electorate. Many staunch Labor people are now supporting the Greens this time in protest.

You mentioned at a meeting that you are sometimes considered outspoken among Greens. Do you want to elaborate?

I am passionate and feisty at times and I do speak out in public and to the media about our issues. Many Greens love this, but I know there are some that find it a little confronting, as they are more cautious.

To push through mainstream boundaries, as we are starting to do in Fremantle now, people need to see us and hear us and ultimately agree with us. We are at the forefront of political change in Fremantle and we haven’t got there by fence-sitting or taking a back seat.

Sam Wainwright (Socialist Alliance)

What are the main themes you will campaign on?

We support the call to convert Australia’s power generation to 100% renewables by 2020. We also reject the idea that workers should bear the burden of an economic crisis caused by bosses’ greed.

They want to drive down our conditions to preserve their profit margins, but it should be the other way around. There should be no reduction in wages, working conditions or workers’ rights. Profitable companies should be banned from laying off workers.

One hundred percent renewable energy by 2020 is very ambitious, can it really be done?

The question should be put the other way around. Given the threat of runaway climate change, do we have any other choice?

The technology already exists to do this. Yes, this would require a complete reorganisation of our economy. But this has been done before, during World War II. Doesn’t global warming pose a far more serious threat, a threat to life on Earth?

You have a lot of similar policies to the Greens, what are you saying that is different?

The Greens have great policies in a whole range of areas. However, we think to really get to grips with the global warming challenge, and to create jobs in a recession, we have to massively expand the publicly owned sector of the economy, including taking back industries that have been flogged off.

We also have to put the ownership of Australia’s mineral wealth in public hands.

After so many decades of privatisation by Labor and Liberal governments, many people, including most of the union movement, are afraid to raise this idea.

But now in many places we have banks and car companies being bailed out by taxpayers to save billionaires. There’s plenty of money going around that could be used to create a different kind of economy. In short, we need real democracy in the economy. How else can we marshal the resources to halt global warming or lift billions of people out of poverty?

What is your reaction to the ALP’s policy putting Family First and the Christian Democratic Party ahead of the Greens and Socialist Alliance?

It speaks volumes about the real values guiding the ALP today — power at all costs.

They would probably have got preferences from the far-right religious parties anyway but they wanted to be sure. Plus, they want to strangle any opposition on their left flank so they can claim to be the only alternative to the Liberals.

Think of the message it sends to the community. The ALP is effectively endorsing parties that supported Work Choices, oppose equal rights for gays and lesbians and oppose abortion under any circumstances.

We’ll be saying to voters: give your second preference to the Greens and the third to Labor. If this helps get Adele over the line then we’ll be very happy.

From: Comment & Analysis, Green Left Weekly issue #793 6 May 2009.