Richard Di Natale and the Greens' moment of truth

Richard Di Natale has spent the past three days driving an electric car up the North Coast of NSW. While Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten officially paused their election campaigning over the Easter weekend, the Greens leader has been protesting against the Adani mine in an anti-coal convoy.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale at Parliament House. 

Di Natale is not taking a break, because he feels there is no time to lose.

"Climate change matters more than anything else at this election because it is, quite literally, an existential threat to humanity," he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. 

"This has got to be a climate change election because we're running out of time.”

The 2019 election is also a critical election for the Greens and their position in the parliamentary ecosystem. Six of the party's nine senators are up for re-election, with three of them, Sarah Hanson-Young in South Australia, Larissa Waters in Queensland and Mehreen Faruqi in NSW, facing tough battles to retain their seats.

Read the story from The Age by Judith Ireland - “Richard Di Natale and the Greens' moment of truth.”

Useful climate change plan beyond most politicians

-       Robert McLean

It is unlikely that any politician understands, or is at least likely to commit to a plan that would seriously mitigate climate change.

Jill Stark.

Australians are so entrenched in and addicted to their consumptive lifestyles that any suggestion to moderate, or significantly change that, would be political suicide.

Let’s be generous and suggest that maybe some in the political stratum do understand and appreciate the seriousness of climate change, but like most of us live lives of contradiction and within that are acutely aware that to “be the change they want to see” would put them “outside the tent” and so unable in any way to influence societal behaviour.

Still inside the tent and attempting to be the change he wants to see and yet constrained by pervasive societal values is Greens leader, Richard Di Natale.

Like most of us, Di Natale still lives a life embedded in an economy whose maintenance and survival depends on growth and the ever increasing use of irreplaceable resources and the voracious use of fossil fuels.

Despite living the contradiction that most of us do, Di Natale has something important to say and so his voice should be equal to that of both Turnbull and Shorten.

Read Jill Starks’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “'The Green tide is coming in': Di Natale challenges Turnbull, Shorten to leaders debate.”

Thousands in Melbourne's record climate march

T

ens of thousands of people have gathered in Melbourne's CBD to demand world leaders take strong action to protect the planet at the Paris climate change conference.

One of many fascinating signs at yesterday's
record-making climate march in Melbourne.

The so-called People's Climate March was one of hundreds of rallies being held around the world in the lead up to the crucial meeting.

Members of The Cat Empire performed for the crowd, which included Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Greens Senator Richard Di Natale.

Organiser Victoria McKenzie-McHarg estimated the crowd was at least 60,000 strong.

"This absolutely is the largest climate change rally we have ever seen in Australian history," she said to cheers from the crowd.

Read today’s story in the Melbourne Age - “Thousands gather at Melbourne CBD rally ahead of Paris climate summit.”

Climate change keeps Christine Milne 'awake at night'

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limate change, Tim Hollo argues in The Guardian, still keeps Christine Milne awake at night.

Former Greens leader, Christine Milne.

He argues that after 25 years of campaigning, Milne’s retirement from parliament is an indictment of how little progress Australia has made on climate change.

“Climate change,” he writes, “defines Milne’s legacy, and points to what she will do next. But it also holds the central message for our politics from her departure.

“While I have the utmost respect for Richard Di Natale and his team, no matter how well the Greens advocate or negotiate, they are a small team up against a Coalition government antagonistic towards climate action, a Labor opposition which still fails to understand the depth of the crisis we face, and a media which struggles to grapple with climate policy,” Hollo wrote.

Read his story - “Given our climate politics, who can blame Christine Milne for retiring?”

Everything is redundant if we don't address climate change - Richard Di Natale

"I



New Greens Leader, Richard
Di Natale - everything hinges
on climate change response.

f we do not address climate change as a nation and as a planet, well then everything else is sort of redundant, isn't it?" – new Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale.

The idea that everything, yes that is everything, hinges on our response to climate change, is clearly understood by newly appointed Greens leader, Senator Richard Di Natale.

His unequivocal position on climate change was made clear in a story on today’s Melbourne Age headed: “'I want to get things done,' vows new Greens leader Richard Di Natale”.