Fairfield Liverpool Greens2008

GROUP MEETINGS

We now have our meeting schedule for 2010, with the first taking place in February. We meet at Liverpool Central Library in George St, between 10:30am and 12:30pm on the following Saturdays: 

FEBRUARY 27
APRIL 17
JUNE 19
AUGUST 21
OCTOBER 16
DECEMBER 18

We are also looking to have workshops for media skills, presentations, and general campaigning. Get involved, get active, and make a difference in our area! If you're interested in seeing what we're about, call Bill on 0403-139-825

  

Cecil Hills expansion - Landcom makes good

Local residents are meeting on Tuesday, 9 February at the Cecil Hills Community Centre to discuss the forthcoming development of the estate by Landcom.

Let me be the first to say that I have been too harsh on Landcom.

When they previously had plans to fill lakes at Cecil Hills they ultimately came to understand the concerns of residents, and preserved the amenity. It seems that once more, the heirarchy of Landcom have listened to the concerns of residents, and have agreed to save the larger of the two lakes on Lascelles St. This is a great result - disappointing that the small lake will still go, but a win for the environment in any event.

While there has been a particular focus on the potential loss of the wetland area on Lascelles St, there are additional considerations about the infrastructure and facilities of the estate - surely to be stretched with the addition of more than 600 homes.

The additional pressure on services is not Landcom's problem, but highlights the failing of the NSW Tripodi/Obeid Government, and interested persons are invited to attend and have their say.

With public transport completely inadequate, and essential services of police, ambulance and hospital remote and over-committed, there is simply no way that the proposed development should proceed without a plan of management.

If you live in the Cecil Hills estate, or if you simply want to show solidarity with your local community, please try to get along to the meeting, starting at 7:00pm.

MySchools - failing our youth

The Federal Labor Government has launched its controversial MySchools website to mixed reaction.

The website provides a pretty basic comparison of schools' performance at the NAPLAN test, and draws comparisons between them without ever exploring the dimensions of each school's values, its academic and non-academic programs, the richness of its curriculum, the breadth of its curriculum, the learning abilities of the student intake, the financial resources the school has, or the quality of the teaching or school management.

What really is the purpose of this data other than to form comparisons in the minds of the public?

There is a real danger that certain schools that could well be performing above expectations considering all these facts will be judged by parents and others as underperforming and have parents wishing to go elsewhere.

The other real danger is from the usually irresponsible print media, who are odds-on to try to use the data to target specific schools or locales - remember the sensational headline "The School We Failed" run by the Telegraph in 1999 about a school in Mt Druitt? Rather than do any good, this simply served to perpetuate stereotypes and embarrass the kids that attended there.

In NSW the Greens have combined with the Liberals to pass a law making it illegal for the print media to publish simplistic 'league tables' comparing schools. We have been attacked mercillessly by the Murdoch and Fairfax press, and in this area some Conservative political groups have joined the chorus touting it as a matter of "freedom of speech", but as usual they're blurring the lines for their own promotion.

If the whole story about schools was available - including data on the learning capability of the students enrolled in each - then we would have no problems. The simple fact of the matter is that there are many, many variables not being addressed, and drawing any conclusions is not only not fair, it's dangerous.

What do you think? Is the MySchools information worthwhile, or simply another distraction by Federal and State Governments incapable of providing fair and adequate resourcing to all Government schools?. Let us know your opinion.


Labor spits in the face of local residents

Lee Rhiannon received a response from Transport Minister Campbell about the almost 1400 signature petition calling for noise barriers to be built along the Casula leg of the Southern Sydney Freight Line.

Predictably, Campbell has dismissed the concerns of local residents, hiding behind the flawed conditions that ARTC have used to avoid building the walls. As a profit-making entity, it is in ARTC's interests to reduce the overall cost of constructing the line, and the NSW Government was so incompetent that they allowed dangerous levels of noise to actually increase in frequency on this stretch of line!

Now we see the ridiculous situation where other parts of the line are receiving noise mitigation at 80Dba because they are on the SSFL side of the track, where the Casula residents will experience 95Dba 24 hours a day, 7 days a week but get no relief because they are on the opposite side.

The only people who don't see this as being a State Government responsibility are the outrageous NSW Labor right-wing Government.

Campbell's approach just proves you don't have to be smart to be a politician.

The NSW Labor Party has failed the residents of western Sydney with their contemptuous disregard for their rights and welfare. Thankfully they will be soundly defeated as a Government in March 2011, and while the Liberal Party are even more likely to cut services and impose extremist right-wing ideology, electoral carnage may just clean some of the rubbish out of the ALP. Unfortunately the Labor Members likely to hold their seats are those who shouldn't.

Without a doubt in this area Lynch, Tripodi, and Khoshaba will be returned, though all three are massively less deserving than others in other seats who have greater talent and will probably lose. The other two ALP Members in this area might not survive, though. Lalich could fall, and McDonald is no certainty, though the Liberal alternatives would be no box of chocolates. The ALP will take a very long time to recover from their current miasma.

Well, we're not going to sit back and let them get away with ignoring the residents of Casula. We will be organising direct action in the next month, so keep your eye on this site for more details.


Don't miss our next meeting!

Liverpool LibraryOne of the strengths of The Greens is the commitment to "Grassroots Democracy". Keeping with this belief, our Branch holds open meetings with a focus on what the group and our friends can do to address problems in the area. You don't need to be a member of the Greens (though of course we hope we can make it attractive to you to join!) - if you are interested in doing things to help your fellow residents, come along and see if our activities fit with your views.

We've now set the schedule for our 2010 meetings, starting in February and running every second month through the year. Our last meeting was pretty encouraging, with a number of new faces and very welcome guests. The disturbing thing was the number of issues we had on the table - we simply didn't have enough time to speak about all of them! 

2010 must be the year we get more helpers to attack the problems in Fairfield and Liverpool. We can make a difference if we have the people-power to do it.   

Our meetings are on Saturdays between 10:30am and 12:30pm at the Liverpool Central Library (George St). It is certainly close to both public transport and parking, and pretty equidistant for all points of our geographic range.

We're also thinking of starting up some more regular "in between" gatherings, along the lines of Politics in the Pub - to create an environment where people can learn more about politics in general, and hopefully stimulate discourse and interest in the democratic process as we have it in our country.

If you are interested in this idea - whatever political views you hold - let us know.


The age-old question: Where does my vote go if I vote 1 Greens?

I was recently asked this question by someone who is quite politically 'savvy', but who had seen so much mis-information about our electoral processes that they were totally confused.

It's surprising to find so many otherwise well-informed people who are scared to vote for us because they believe what they're told by very ill-informed or dishonest sources - no wonder we have such a high proportion of informal voting in a country where everyone is free to vote. If people know what we represent but choose not to vote for us, that's informed choice; if they're scared to vote for us because someone has lied to them about the implications of voting for us, that's undemocratic.

As we inch closer towards Federal and State polls, we'll see a concerted effort by the major Parties to 'muddy the water' about the issue of preferences. And why wouldn't they? The more they can scare the voter into thinking that votes for minor Parties or Independents will either be wasted, or somehow 'traded' in underhand deals, the more they drive people to vote for them

It's time to clear the air and try to explain our very complex systems - each different, and each confusing. Click on the respective link below for an introduction to voting, Australian-style.

   

We will be doing whatever we can to help clear up the misconceptions, and ensure that voters have an honest explanation - not the spin and self-serving confusion Liberal and Labor dishonestly peddle. 

Most importantly, even if you've had enough of the Party in control of your local seat, and you want to shake them up but without handing the seat to "the other mob", you can vote for the Greens and still ensure that your vote counts even if the Greens candidate doesn't win (that's the strength of 'preferential' systems). Here's an example:

"The local ALP Member is a decent guy, but a hopeless representative. He holds the seat by a margin of 12%, so effectively the Government ignores it - it's 'safe' and they take it for granted. His Liberal opponent offers nothing - the Libs have ignored the seat because it's safe Labor, and only now are they emerging because they know the ALP is unpopular, but still they offer no policies or answers - they hope to win 'by default'. You want to shake up the Labor guy, but there's no way you want the Libs to get in. To do this, you decide to vote Greens - if they get enough votes to win the seat, it would be a good thing anyway because you know they'll work hard for the area. If they don't get enough votes to win, you make sure your vote goes to the ALP candidate next - that way he sees his Primary vote go down (showing him he can't take the seat for granted) but he ends up with the vote. It is neither wasted nor benefits the Libs."

Neither of the major Parties will want you to understand that. Out this way Labor doesn't want to lose their massive Primary vote buffer, and the Libs are hoping enough people will be so fed up with the ALP they'll see no alternative but to vote for them. We're saying there is an alternative - and a very good one. The Greens are fresh and enthusiastic, untainted by the laziness and scandals plaguing ALP and the Libs - we will work for your trust, for your interests, and for your vote!


It's been a tough year for our area ...

And it doesn't look like improving any time soon.

At our most recent meeting we tried to fit all of the immediate local issues into two hours - and couldn't. After years of neglect by an ALP smugly certain of dominance and a Liberal Opposition not really interested in doing the hard yards it takes to represent the interests of an area they never hoped to win, we have seen the potential of this region virtually squandered. 

Now, however, NSW Labor's arrogance and incompetence has caught up with them, and the people of even their heartland areas are turning against them. You would think this might be a good thing, but the worrying trend is that the extreme right are now eyeing us off as a never-before-seen possibility. We have even had Nile out here trying to spread his doctrine of religious intolerance and hatred - this is as disturbing as the influence of Clarke on the local Conservatives. 

The challenge is for the electorate to be truly informed - not only of the Parties trying to win their votes, but of the nature of the individuals who put themselves forward as possible representatives - and there are some pretty appalling characters in the mix. This will be our goal throughout 2010. 


About us

We're currently a very small group in an area dominated by safe Labor seats (Federal and State), but we're becoming more active and more involved, and we're looking to put our vision of a fair, socially-conscious society and environment firmly into the public view.

Recent anti-Problem Gambling campaign We can and have been successful in representing the views of our residents, but much more needs to be done, and the Greens need representation in Government serving this area.

More people need to get involved with grass-roots politics in our area. If we don't attract more of the passionate, intelligent people we have in Fairfield/Liverpool we will end up with more of the same dross from a pretty poor bunch of politicians.

It's well and truly time to put forward viable alternatives to the appalling Tripodi, Lynch, Lalich and Khoshaba.

A strong Greens presence will put additional pressure on the ALP to be more open and accountable, and will protect against the unbelievable arrogance of the current State and Local Governments.

Our share of the vote at the last State poll was better than 8% in some parts of the area, despite a limited campaign and being heavily smeared by the major Parties. We continued this at the Local poll in Fairfield and improved dramatically at the by-election for Cabramatta, and we believe we have a strong base from which to grow for the future.

If you are a Facebook user, you can join our online FLG group here.

 



Local Group focus

The highest priority task is for our group to become affiliated, so that we have full standing within the Party. At the moment, we are moving in the right direction, with regular meetings that have strong agendas, a solid core of regular attendees, and an active approach to local issues. We need more members to help us continue our drive to reach full status.

We're attempting to reach out to the local community. We need to establish a strong healthy network of contacts to form the foundation on which the the work leading up to the next election will be based. The network will have three tiers:

  • A strong cooperative relationship with other Greens NSW branches (particularly those that are geographically close to Fairfield/Liverpool Greens) so that we can share ideas and engage in joint activities. This is important because there are some issues that geographically span multiple Greens NSW branches that should be tackled in a coordinated manner

  • A healthy participation by Fairfield/Liverpool Greens members, by making their participation easier and more fulfilling.  

  • A direct engagement with diverse sections of the community, by working with them individually to determine policy direction, and rally support for the Greens in the population in general.

 


Last Updated:
February 04, 2010

The Cecil Hills Lakes have been saved by the recent actions of Landcom
Read more...

The battle goes on for noise abatement along the Casula Rail Corridor.
Read more...

Fairfield City Farm may have had a reprieve - perhaps.
Read more...


Meet your Local Greens

Bill Cashman - working to get a better deal for our area
Read more...

Signe Westerberg - working to get a better deal for our area
Read more...

Lindsay Langlands - working to get a better deal for our area
Read more...


 
We're the generation,
We can't afford to wait,
The future started yesterday,
And we're already late  
~John Legend ("If you're out there")

The Greens will continue to champion a fairer society rather than simply the economy and to champion the parliament rather than simply the stock exchange  
~Bob Brown

        
     

This website is the official website of the Fairfield Liverpool Greens. All rights reserved.
Written and authorised by B. Cashman, 19 Eve St Erskineville NSW


© 2008 Fairfield Liverpool Greens
Email comments & enquiries to Bill Cashman or call 0403 139 825