Green Power

[Matilda]

From today, we now have nine Greens in the Senate, and one in the House of Reps. I welcome their presence on the whole, but I am just a bit worried about how far they'll try and push Labor to the hard Left.

Lee Rhiannon in particular is rather a worry - she's now advocating that the coal industry be shut down within ten years - it can't happen. It isn't possible that renewables could sustain the energy demands within that time, if ever. John Hewson this morning was advocating that the development of clean coal was a better way to go, and it makes more sense. But Ms Rhiannon is pretty bloody-minded, and I hope she doesn't push her particular barrow too hard. I'd rather see the Greens compromise a little than push too far and see their numbers reduced next time around (which I suspect may happen anyhow, given the current political climate).

It's hard not to forget that if the Greens had compromised just a little when Kevin Rudd was in power, we'd have a CPRS in place now and Kevin Rudd would still be prime minister. It's thanks to the Greens' inability to give a little that we're currently in such a mess.

[Esra Star]

1. OK, Glass half full here

I think that the Greens will be more about negotiation that the rabid Abbott mob.
Parliament is the palace of the possible. Negotiation is a vital art.
Where is Gareth Evans when you need him.

[Matilda]

2. No hope at all of negotiating with the Coalition while Abbott is in charge.

I keep wishing he would do something so outrageous that even the dull-witted talkback radio followers will begin to wonder whether he's such a wise choice. It't so hard to comprehend the sheer mindlessness of those who dedicate themselves to a leader who has no policy ideas at all, and is surrounded by hopeless incompetents (I include especially in that Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb, neither of whom can ever answer an intelligent question on policy).

But I do worry a little that the Greens will get the bit between their teeth and push things too hard - a rerun of Rudd's CPRS legislation, where it would have been better to get a little than nothing - carbon prices could always have been tweaked later on, once the public got used to the idea.

The Greens should remember John Howard and what happened when he had total control. It finished him in the end. Gillard's government is on such a knife-edge, it won't take much to topple it.