“…if an amalgamation is successful, it must be accompanied by a major reform of policy particularly in respect to issues of sustainability and protection of the environment.”

Absolutely!

An enormous opportunity for a united opposition exists here. The Bligh government is very vulnerable to getting on the wrong side of the electorate with the rapidly increasing concern about environment and sustainability.

But a united opposition surely cannot call itself the ‘United Conservative Party’ or anything like that. It needs to be something specifically non-conservatively oriented and strongly progressively oriented. It needs to project an air of change, and not of conserving the past methods…which have largely got us into our current highly unsustainable state.

The most seriously different thing that it MUST do is to embrace limits to growth, and move right away from the crazy notion that population growth is unchallengeable and that the economy has to be forever growing. It has GOT to advocate a dynamic steady-state economy and a stable population.

So, are the stodgy old Nationals and Liberals capable of doing this? If not, they’ll almost definitely stay in opposition for a very long time.

Ludwig, I assure you that there is a mood of change to bring about this merger amongst my side of politics (Nats) and there is certainly good will being displayed by some Liberals as well. It is fair to say that we understand the importance of bringing about this change so that Queenslanders have a credible alternative to vote for at the next State election.

Labor is in by default not because people necessarily wanted to vote for them but because they did NOT feel comfortable in voting for the coalition, Anna Bligh doesn’t have a mandate to govern, but we certainly got a message to improve.

I agree with the point made in Lyndon's article about Green preferences but Green voters are willing to preference conservatives when we get our policies and position on issues right, as happened in both the recent State and Federal elections in Gympie. Obviously Traveston was the major issue but what it shows is that there can be more common ground between the conservatives and the environmentalists than traditionally believed.

Hold on to your akubra's hats and roll up your hemp sleeves there is a change in the wind in Queensland politics and it is going to bring some exciting times!

David Gibso

Hello David. Thanks for responding.

I’m sure there is something of a mood change amongst the conservatives. But to what extent?

Please see the recent Getup poll (http://www.getup.org.au/blogs/view.php?id=754) to get an idea of just how big environmental sustainability is in the minds of the Australian voting public right now.

This is a powerful indication that any mood-swing in the Australian or Queensland opposition needs to be very strongly oriented towards the environment and sustainability.

So do you think that there is any chance at all of a united opposition in Queensland supporting genuine sustainability, which absolutely necessitates bringing an end to constant population growth, economic growth and human expansionism overall, or do you think that they would just continue to facilitate this sort of endless increasing pressure on our environment and resource base while falsely claiming to hold a philosophy of sustainability, as per the current government?

There's no reason that economic growth per se is at odds with environmental sustainability: it's just economic growth of the nature that we have been used to for the last few hundred years that's the problem.
There are plenty of ways of growing the economy while using less energy and less natural resources - not least because we currently use them so wastefully.

You are quite right wizofaus. The challenge is to continue to achieve economic growth by way of improving efficiencies and developing a renewable resource base. But even this has a limit. We will reach a point where continued increases are very small indeed. And the better we are with developing this sort of economic growth, the sooner this limit would be reached.

The biggest factor in increasing effective economic growth at the personal level is to stabilise our population, so that we don’t have this absurd situation of rapid economic growth ever-battling to maintain the same quality of life for a rapidly growing population.

This is surely the key to the new political paradigm that this country has to have… and no doubt will in the near future:– the denouncement of the continuous growth spiral, where we are forever told that we need more workers to maintain economic growth, infrastructure, services and quality of life and we need high economic growth to cater for an ever-increasing population.

The Australian populace is fast realising the imperative of sustainability. Right behind this current groundswell of sensibility will come the realisation that we have been chronically and utterly misled for many years by politicians and business leaders that vehemently promote high immigration and never-ending economic growth.

So, can the Libs/Nats grasp this and run with it? Or are they going to continue to be conservative dinosaurs?

Hello David Gibson

I would love to get some feedback from a member of Nationals on whether you think I am on-track with my views on sustainability, and whether it is even remotely possible for the Nats or a new ‘conservative’ party to genuinely address it.

How predictable.

Beattie resigns and Ronan Lee is no longer able to provide the kind of access to legislators for the Wilderbeast Society.

What will they do?

Suddenly Laurence Springborg jumps up with talk about a new conservative party and The Wilderbeast Society is sniffing around them immediately.

“Is this the opportunity we have been looking for?” ponders Schneiders.

“If I appear to be politically ‘aware” (forgive them for massive tree clearing) and perhaps play on their desperations (using green issues) they just might become our new Trojan horse’

How pathetic.

I can just see it, The Wilderbeast Society [along with their political appendage "The Qld Greens"] goose stepping with the Nationals and Liberals in a new eco-friendly, Right Wing, Consersavative Party.

What a sight to behold!

Springborg with dreadlocks moon dancing at Bryon? I can't see it.

Sschienders sucking up at a National Party convention to whoever? Its not beyond him.

Ideologically they all share a fundamentalism and conservatism that might work - they are well suited to each, especially their views on blackfellas and blackfella issues.

Scratch the surface and you'll find the same dog with a different haircut.

Ludwig, I do think there is a possibility for change. I'm not going to pretend that we will see a seismic shift in the policies of the conservatives immediately but there will be a shift. One of the strengths of the National Party is that it is a grass roots driven party (much like the Greens) and its membership is as much a part of shift in community attitudes on sustainability as any other group. The establishment of a new conservative party bring with it new opportunities as well as new risks.

It would be misleading to try and portray any new party as having a policy transfusion but I do believe it will provide an chance for new ideas to come forward for discussion and consideration, and from that we should see development of new policy.

As too your views on sustainability, I agree that we need a new political paradigm. Part of the problem is the willingness to use the environment for short term political gain without any real assessment of the long term costs. A good example of this is the proposed dam at Traveston Crossing – It sounds good to the people of Brisbane that Labor are building a dam therefore the water crisis will be solved, but the EIS has shown that there is no in depth assessment of the long term impacts both in the Mary Valley and the down stream impacts not only in the Mary River but into the Great Sandy Straights and onto Fraser Island.

How do we bring about that change in paradigm? I don’t have an easy answer. I guess its by people like you and me being involved in the debate, understanding the issues and then trying to understand where the other stakeholders are coming from. It will still involve concessions and the changes may not be as fast as many would like but it is the best we can do in the current circumstances.

Bounce me an email to gympie@parliament.qld.gov.au and maybe we can catch up to have a chat about this in more detail.

Cheers David.

I will now take up the discussion with you in private.