Excellent analysis and advice by Michael Pearce. The Australian Greens can bring about innovation and better outcomes for Australia by working with the Australian public and the major parties on high impact transformational projects and initiatives.

The Australian Macedonian community expect the Greens to show leadership in foreign policy on Macedonia, a country held hostage by hardliners in the Hellenic Republic and their supporters in Australia. Labor has failed to respect Macedonia's legitimate right to self-identification and the Liberals need to abandon a dysfunctional bipartisan policy.

Ideological positions are only necessary in a state of ignorance. You assume that left or right is the way to go because you have no way of knowing what the consequences will be. In a modern society with access to expert opinions and increasingly sophisticated science, there is no longer any need for ideologies: we can determine in nearly every situation what the objectively best decision is for Australia and its people. It is possible, in other words, to govern rationally: but only if we can get rid of our ideological baggage.

Both the mining tax and the carbon tax, for instance, have no logical foundation in fact or evidence, but are being put forward by Labor and the Greens in the belief -- true or mistaken -- that they need to demonstrate their ideological commitment. And what better way to do that than with gestures which are so self-evidently pointless that nobody could possibly mistake them for rational policy?

The only question is, which side will wake up first -- the politicians or the public? There are some encouraging signs on both sides, but we still have a long way to go.