Tuesday 3 August 2010

Neville is green alright, but a whole different shade

In the Centrebet polling result on CairnsBlog yesterday, Entsch was on $1.57, Turnour on $2.27, Yodie Batzke at $51.00, and “any other candidate” $101.

"Any other candidate" includes The Greens candidate, Neville St John Woods.

A look around the Centrebet site shows that many electorates in Queensland have The Greens candidates running third, with Andrew Bartlett in Brisbane attracting odds of $11.00. Leichhardt is producing one of the Greens’ poorest results in this election.

This is an election that is widely predicted to produce a Greens Senator in Queensland.

Here’s a screen capture of Neville’s page on the Australian Greens web site, on 2 August, in just less than three weeks before the election poll. Not much information to attract votes there.

Serial activist and occasional CairnsBlog columnist, Bryan Law, aired allegations in the Saturday SoapBlog that the Far North Greens has a bit of rot in the core, which leads to this very poor performance.
Neville is green alright, but a whole different shade. His website entry is green and white, and I dare say, not read all over.
I have to ask the Far North Greens: can’t they do better than this?

16 comments:

Sarah Isaacs said...

I bet $50 the Centrebet polling result on CairnsBlog yesterday is totally out- and that the Greens in Leichhardt will do well- 3rd at the very least. Any takers?

And one of these days the Greens will sneak into the job- but I am an optimist.

It's disappointing to see the old Murdoch rubbish infiltrating Cairns Blog -as there are great blogs on many other issues.

And for more details on Neville see http://fnqgreens.org/campaign/about/house-of-reps/nevile-st-john-wood/ which says:

"In Leichhardt, vote for Greens candidate Neville St John-Wood!
Neville St John Wood: Greens candidate for Leichhardt


Neville St John-Wood lives on a small rainforest block close by the Daintree River.

After 24 years working as a tour guide on the Daintree River, Neville is now semi retired and works part time. He enjoy free time at home in the native garden, camping and fishing, walking to quiet places and taking time to listen to nature.

Neville St John-Wood has been an active environmental campaigner for many years – working in particular to help acquire funding and purchase freehold land for permanent conservation in the Daintree area.

He has participated in political campaigns with the Greens for the last decade. This is his second campaign as candidate for Leichhardt; Neville has also stood twice as Greens candidate for the state seat of Cook.

Neville St John-Wood is standing for the Greens to change the dynamics of politics and deliver the best possible outcomes on climate change, education, health, water, public transport and the many other issues that matter in the far north."

More debate on the above local issues is what's needed plus on national matters of importance such as how we begin an energy descent to avert the worst effects of climate change and peak oil, when the troops leave Afghanistan and the humanitarian treatment of refugees.

sarah said...

Mike- just checked and full details on Neville are also up on the Greens website http://greens.org.au/leichhardt as well as on the fnqgreens site as mentioned before. Please can you correct your blog- if you wrote it.

Thanks

can't fool me ! said...

Sarah you are a joke,the greens are on the nose with everyone.
Can you imagine those loopies controlling the senate !
They helped burn heaps of victorians out of their homes.
You greens are directly responsible for wild rivers legislation.
You greens are trying to lock up the coral sea.
You greens are trying to put the cape on world heritage listing .
No wonder victorians hate you lot and the fishermen and the indigenous , what other shifty deal have you lot done with labor we don't know about?
How else do you lot of loopies explain doing a deal with labor even before they had a climate policy.
And who the hell knows anything about the larria waters !
AND OF COURSE THEY WILL RUN 3RD LAST !

Michael P Moore said...

Thanks Sarah, good to see this has now corrected after I published this obvious omission.

There was certainly nothing there this morning, nor since the election was called, and Neville was announced as The Greens candidate around two weeks ago.

I hope that the final result reflects the CairnsBlog poll the is currently polling at 16% and the highest polling in the CairnsBlog Senate vote!

I also hope voters seriously consider where they put their preferences, and not at The Greens suggest.

Syd Walker said...

The Greens should indeed be pilloried for running candidates in FNQ who are unpretentious, honest, decent people, unbeholden to vested interests, small on ego and big on teamwork, neither of whom particularly sought out political glory, both of whom came forward to stand for election out of a sense of public duty and deep concern for the issues at stake.

Just the kind of people we (DON'T) have in Parliament at the moment.

http://fnqgreens.org/campaign/about/house-of-reps/nevile-st-john-wood/

http://fnqgreens.org/campaign/about/house-of-reps/jess-jones/

Joking aside, it beats me why anyone in this region, at this election, would want to vote for anyone else. Of course, if they are elected it won't matter who gets 'Green preferences'.

Even if it doesn's happen this time, let's makes the 2010 election a bridge to better representation for FNQ in the Fedewral Parliament.

We'll never get decent policies such as light rail, uncensored universal broadband, a high-speed rail connection with the south, real protection for the reef and our exceptional terrestrial environment, a diversifed mass media, sensible resource taxation, free dental care, reduced military expenditure and much, much more... until we elect representatives that stand for these policies.

Bryan Law said...

I hope Larissa waters IS elected as a Greens Senator in Queensland, and I’ve taken every public opportunity to support that view.

Likewise I’ve known Neville St John Wood since 1993 when we worked together on energy and development issues in the Daintree. He is a nice guy, and a good Green, and I will vote him no 1 on August 21..

However the job for the Far North Greens in this election is to mobilise as many votes as possible through local campaigning, so that the Green vote in the Senate increases, and Larissa waters really does take office. That job is supposed to be done by the whole branch working in an organised way, not by Neville alone.

Jon Metcalf and Denis Walls have spent years blocking membership, preventing other Branch members from building profile between elections, and monopolising communication with the state and federal offices of the Greens. The natural consequence of this policy is a weak branch and a weak campaign.

That’s why the publicity levels for the Greens are low, and even basic tasks are left undone. The Greens ought be leading debate in Leichhardt about tourism, economic, development, nature conservation and social justice. Thanks to Jon and Denis the only topic they comment on is why Greens should vote ALP.

They say they don’t want the Greens to do activism, but simply elections. Seems to me they just aren’t doing that either.

Can't fool me said...

The fact is who the hell knows anything about any of the greens or others running for election other than the same minded as them .
Face it you never hear from them from one elction to the next .
Like it or lump it look at yodie yodie who? larrisa who ? some lawyer and I only learnt that last night on q&a. yodie backs riddle then backflips. At least serial candidate everyone knows wendy what's her name.

Syd Walker said...

Bryan - remind us once again - who has been 'blocked' from Greens membership in FNQ? Anyone outside the Law household?

Has anyone else (apart from you) been blocked from CAFNEC membership, forthat matter?

Organisations need to protect themselves from egotistal disruptive influences.

For the nth time, I had sympathies for your case to become a member at one time and was rather shocked at the antipathy of most current members to you joining the Greens.

Then you began telling blatant lies portraying me as a bigot, misrepresented my views and put ugly words in my mouth that could have serious consequences for me if not rebutted. You did this not just once. You did it often. If you behaved like that with others in the conservation movement over the years, I can well understand why they don't want to work with you.

If you don't want to be treated like a disruptive nuisance, try not behaving like one.

You claim to be supporting the Greens at this election - but by constantly bleating on about your pet hates re: the Greens in this region, you're clearly damaging the party's image. You don't need to do that. It's not like you're saying anything of public importance you haven't said before. It's just the same old same old.

If you wanted rapprochement, you'd take a different approach. I suspect you prefer being a pest. Why not prove me wrong for a change?

Thaddeus said...

I'm with you, Can't fool me. You never hear of these people until an election pops up. They seem to appear out of nowhere, like min min lights and then disappear into the night when the election is over. We know nothing about them. They could be serial murderers for all we know. At least with Wendy, Jim, Warren et al, we know their backgrounds, where they're from, know their friends, know what they think
etc etc.

Cant fool me said...

ok len hart oh smartarse tell the blog about everyone you dill because we know nothing about them as thaddeus said go on einstien.
I see batske on 7 promo saying tax cuts for small bisnuesses and she has one herself what a self interest person. funny her first statement is about her own pocket .

Curious said...

"Neville St John-Wood has been an active environmental campaigner for many years – working in particular to help acquire funding and purchase freehold land for permanent conservation in the Daintree area."


But not his little bit though, he wants to keep that.


"Neville St John-Wood lives on a small rainforest block close by the Daintree River."

One of God's Children (not a Jew) said...

Gee Syd, the original post here was about a lacklustre start to the Greens campaign in Leichhardt. It called for better organisation. What’s wrong with that?

Poor old Bryan chimed in with more detailed information about what was going wrong. He called for better support of Green candidates. What’s wrong with that?

But there you go all ballistic. You don’t address any of the issues, just deliver a tirade of personal abuse and name-calling. Don’t you pause to think that this kind of abusive rhetoric is going to cost Greens votes as readers start to think “The Greens are just like the ALP”.

I’d like to know who the Far North Greens will be allocating preferences to in Leichhardt.

Is it going to be the ALP and that goose Turnour? Now THAT will cost you votes.

Peace activist said...

hey sid, don't forget the split in the peace movement that Law caused at the time of the iraq war when nearly everybody involved couldn't even do peace activism with him (the thing he says he's good at).

Most people went off and set up their own much more democratic peace group where people could express an opinion without being bullied. Law, as usual, ended up mostly on his own nursing his massive bruised ego. He really is a sad case who would be better suited to running a mini-cult in a place like Waco.

Bryan Law said...

Oh dear, oh dear, I had no idea I was such an awful rotten person, a veritable worm on the walkway of life. Kicked out by CAFNEC, Fucked over by the Greens, and now shamefully revealed as “splitting” the entire peace movement – all by the simple force of a malevolent personality. What a prick!

Of course, having been there, I remember some of the details of all those incidents. CAFNEC was over the Queensland ALP and Skyrail, and the question at what point does one acquiesce to bad ALP policy. The peace movement was about the national ALP and the Iraq war. Remember the call to “support our troops” (and therefore don’t take action against the war)? If it were really about supporting our troops, how come we’re still seeing them killed and maimed in Afghanistan nine years later under a Labor Prime Minister? The dispute I have with the Greens now is about preferences to the ALP. Gee, the ALP seems to be a common thread.

I’m a flawed human being, and I won’t defend myself (how could I), but I will observe that all the dirt dished against me comes from the ALP, or from those “Greens” on a mission to preference the ALP, and the kind of bitter personal attack they launch (don’t mention the issues) is the hallmark of modern Labor politics.

Now that the ALP is in danger of losing government we’ll all see personal attack after slander after lie after distraction after brawl as Labor resorts to every dirty trick in its book to cling onto power, and it has a very big book of dirty tricks. Watch ‘em flow.

I wouldn’t mind too much if the ALP used office to further some kind of social agenda (like health, education, conservation) but they don’t. They give their mates good jobs, funnel billions to their favourite corporations, or prop up corrupt and incompetent state ALP governments (NSW and Queensland). It’s only well meaning but weak-minded sentimentalists like Syd who believe any longer the ALP is a socially progressive force.

I’d like independent minded people on this thread to notice that the most vitriolic attacks against me are made when I ask “Where will the Far North Greens direct preferences in Leichhardt”. None of those brave anonymous souls answer that question. Why not? I mean they’ve obviously got the time and the passion to reveal me as a malevolent monstrous worm. Why don’t they answer the question?

“Where will the Greens direct preferences in Leichhardt?”

The Feral Fondue said...

Come on Bryan, you know the Greens will preference Labor. You've said so. Ask a new question.

And you, "Peace Activist", can you tell us what your most recent peace "activism" has been. Do you join Bryan and Peace by Peace at the warship actions? At least he still does them while that "much more democratic group" hasn't been seen for 6 years.

I guess that's democracy Labor style.

bruce said...

Good on you bryan I STILL am waiting on ms batzske to air her views on gays as she was ff very very recently well ms where do you stand ?