Mel Barnes, a well-known Tasmanian political activist, will contest the seat of Denison in the upcoming federal elections, for the Socialist Alliance. Barnes is a leading climate and renewable energy campaigner involved in Climate Action Hobart.
She has also campaigned for women’s rights, Palestine solidarity, refugee rights and Latin American solidarity. In 2006, Barnes went on a solidarity tour of Venezuela to learn about the revolutionary changes occurring there. Barnes stood for the Socialist Alliance in the recent state elections.
Barnes is running on a platform of 100% renewable energy by 2020, ending native forest logging, ending the racist Northern Territory intervention and bringing all troops back from Afghanistan.
“Climate change is the greatest threat to ever face humanity”, Barnes told Green Left Weekly. “Yet both major parties have abandoned any action to reduce carbon emissions. They are totally tied to the interests of big polluters and refuse to put people and the planet before profits.”
Barnes called for a vote for actual political change, not a mere rebranding exercise.
"In the face of Kevin Rudd's epic nosedive in the polls since April, the prime ministerial change from Rudd to Julia Gillard is a desperate attempt by Labor to rebrand itself. But Gillard will only mean more of the same.
“Gillard has been responsible for some of this government's most anti-social acts. As federal workplace relations minister, she maintained the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which denies construction workers basic human rights. As education minister, she allowed damaging school league tables to be used by the media, stigmatising those from disadvantaged schools.”
Barnes said the federal Labor government was motivated by short-term political interest, not society’s best interest.
“We must reject this style of politics and vote for parties committed towards genuine change”, she said.
GREEN LEFT WEEKLY ARTICLE (see http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/44659)
Saturday, July 3, 2010 By Susan Austin, Hobart
Authorised by D Nichols. 23 Abercrombie St Chippendale 2008.
