The kind of dog-whistling being used targets people who have fled from repressive regimes overseas, and who fear any possibility of their new home falling to similar fate. Now the reality is that communism is as dead as a dodo in this country, and the ALP in particular are themselves so far to the right side of the ledger that associating them with this is actually ridiculous, and dismissed by those not so easily scared. For Australians who have fled the red regimes, however, enough doubt can be put in their minds that they run to the waiting embrace of the Liberal Party. It's pretty disgraceful manipulation of people's fear, but effective nonetheless.

The sad thing is that behind all of this is the extreme right-wing Christian faction - in fact, not sympathetic to anyone of a non-Christian background, which many of these people are.

Keep an eye on this space for developments in Cecil Hills. It would appear that Landcom haven't given up on the idea of stripping out lakes so they can build homes - they started down this path just before the last State Election, and the citizens reaction was so great that Paul Lynch was forced to react and have Council change the plans. Now there's an elected Liverpool Council, a variant of the plan that sees the southern ponds drained and filled has re-emerged - let's see if Mr Lynch will be consistent. More next week.

It's no secret that the Greens are committed to emission-free sources of energy, and we've long been advocates of solar power for urban environments. When it comes to wind power generation, the practicality and cost have been limiting issues, especially for urban environments. That's why we're very interested in the latest developments of wind turbines designed particularly for city use. The latest technology seems to have overcome the issues of placement, noise, vibration and cost that have held back wide implementation to date.

Overseas there has been a large push for "community" wind farming, where the familiar free-standing towers are purchased by groups of residents to provide entire areas with all their power requirements. We're still very keen to see this happen in Australia wherever practical, but the new highly-cost-effective, roof-mounted "aero-blade" developments give hope for more commercial adoption of wind-power. We are hoping that our local Councils will look at this seriously, especially for providing electricity for Council buildings, community centres and sporting facilities. Imagine something like all our sports fields with emission-free, cost-free (after set-up) floodlighting, forever? Not only would it be incredibly environmentally-responsible, it would ultimately save on massive power bills.

To see the types of thing the Greens are advocating, go to http://kiama.nsw.greens.org.au/newsite/windproject/index.html for a presentation on what wind power can achieve.

We will be issuing a press release calling on Council to have a serious look at this breakthrough technology. Please support us if you believe it has merit by writing to the Editor of your local paper, or by emailing your local Councillor.

A stranglehold broken - has a domino tumbled?

Adele Carles made history on the evening of Saturday 16 May 2009, becoming the first ever Greens candidate to win a Lower House seat in any State Parliament in Australia when she defeated the ALP on primary votes to take the WA seat of Fremantle.

We've been saying all along that patience, policies, and positivism - the "three P's" - would see the Greens gain support from the electorate. While our governments wallow in incompetence, or simply break promises, and the Opposition carps, whines and plays games, we will keep establishing good alternative ideas and helping our local community to get a fair deal. Eventually we'll crack it for higher levels of support, and people will see the smears, ridicule and innuendo we receive from both Major Parties for what they are - the ALP and Libs' fear that there's finally a genuine third player who threatens their dominance and can do better than them!

Now is the time for our supporters to step forward and get involved. Adele Carles has shown that with the right level of focus and effort, the Greens can be electorally successful. We're not simply a "one-trick pony" focused only on the environment - we need good women and men who are committed to social justice, environmental consciousness, and grassroots democracy to be candidates for the Greens in this area, and for supporters and friends to give us the personpower to campaign effectively. Our opponents accept huge donations from special-interest groups and the big end of town. We don't, because we believe in full accountability and we won't sell our integrity for influence, but this means we can't hire in renta-crowds for election campaigns (as our opponents do), and we can't afford a sea of signs or huge ads in the newspapers. We rely on good, old-fashioned shoe leather and determination.

Get active and make our area the best it can be - have your say in the political process. Contact Bill on 0403-139-825, or email at campaign@fairfield.nsw.greens.org.au for more information.

An environmental champion in our midst 

Recently we ran a piece about a local lass who had had enough of the neglect of our vital environment, and who stepped forward to do something about it. Courtney Stevens asked the Fairfield/Liverpool Greens for advice on how she could bring this local disgrace into the public eye, and we were glad to help her thinking. 

The petitioning continues!

Courtney has been tirelessly campaigning for signatures on her bid to have Council commit to permanently look after our local waterways. With the support of her family and friends, she has gathered more than 1000 signatures, and in doing so has attracted the attention of the major media organisations. Channel 7 are trying to coordinate a time for filming an interview with Courtney, and we could have a wonderful young representative for our area be able to show the power of genuine environmental concern.  

We are so lucky to have a lot of heroes out this way - too many of them don't get the kudos they deserve, but we'll do whatever we can to promote them!

There's also a broadly-held stereotype about our young folk in the area. Courtney and her schoolmates are living proof that we underestimate our youth to our mutual detriment. With so many older people hitting the headlines for appalling reasons of late, it's good to have some of the younger ones come forward to show them up and be real role-models.

Courtney is to be our guest at the June meeting of the Fairfield/Liverpool group. Anyone interested to hear her story about this campaign, and about her passion for the environment is most welcome.

The meeting is on Saturday 20 June between 10:30am and 12:30pm at the Liverpool Central Library (George St). We will also have Lesa De Leau from the Georges River Combined Councils Committee as a guest.

Don't rubbish our home

Front page of the Fairfield Champion on 13 May carried a feature story about the amount of rubbish being left around the Fairfield Council area. We were quoted as asking for solutions that were holistic, making it easy for people to do the right thing as well as educating them that it is a blight to rubbish our area. 

Council's response was typical and disappointing, saying they already do a lot, especially after the event. There is no simple answer, and the fight is tough, but it is one we cannot afford to lose. Let's get people power on this - send us your ideas for ways we can get everyone in the area to make it clean and green, and show genuine civic pride! Love where we live!

The third meeting for the year was a little short of numbers, with several regulars unavailable. Still, we managed to cover a large number of issues, and enjoyed the visit by Clr Lesa De Leau from Rockdale Council.

We were hoping that young Courtney Steven would come along and tell us about her petition, but unfortunately she had a scheduling conflict. We will continue to hope she can join us next time.  

There are many issues we need to address in the Fairfield and Liverpool areas. These areas have been loyal to the ALP for so many years, but the current crop of pollies don't repay that loyalty, and often the only independent representation comes from us. Our aims are to be the voice for those who most need help, and anyone who shares this sentiment can join with us to do whatever we can.

We meet every second month, on the third Saturday between 10:30am and 12:30pm at the Liverpool Central Library (George St). Hopefully this will fit with the majority of members, and will ensure that we can schedule guest speakers and others to attend. It is certainly close to both public transport and parking, and pretty equidistant for all points of our geographic range.

The dates as confirmed for the remainder of the year are:

• 22 August

• 24 October

• 19 December

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.

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