Neither Left nor Right but Straight Ahead. That was the slogan of the German Greens and applies just as much today as we move between the old Left/Right paradigm and the values voting approach of the new generation of voters. The Australian Greens are different from the European Greens who came out of the New Left/Cold War/anti nuclear movement in the 1980s when I was involved with them there. However it's obvious that the Australian Greens, being more Deep Green ideologically than Light Green, are going to remain in favour of Safe Energy, given the Iroquois dictum of thinking how a decision will affect someone seven generations ahead - why do we need to leave our radioactive sarcophagi for them just because of our green for energy NOW ? It's not just renewable energy, it's conservation and efficiency too.

As Australian politics moves to the Centre and Labor Right/Liberal Wets become the same, that leaves the hard nosed Right(in Tasmania that = Eric Abetz") on a wing, with the Greens as the other option, which will include some of the Old Left/New Left. Sounds a good choice to me. It will take some years and the real strength of the Greens is at a local level until we shift the voting system to be more democratic as with Hare-Clark in Tasmania's Lower House.

Thank you for this article. It has backed up my belief that those pushing the Greens Party agenda really are not in touch with the lower end of town after all. The fact that essential services including health and education does not register with them really takes the cake.

Sure, I want people to respect the environment. We should live in harmony as much as possible. The Greens Party agenda is only affordable by the Mad Left though. Sadly for them, when we're all too broke to afford a carrot to eat due high bills, they'll go bust from no money being redistributed and they can have the poor life they love to romanticise so much.