The Greens brought to book

UPDATE: See book launch details in What’s On

What you need to know about the Greens

Senator Brown has just given a “rolled gold guarantee” that the Greens will block any attempt by Tony Abbott to scrap the carbon tax, even if the Coalition wins a mandate at the next election. Earlier in the week he announced a sudden flowering of “shadow” portfolios for Burma, West Papua, PNG and Tibet. And on Wednesday at the National Press Club he suggested “a global people’s assembly based on one person, one vote, one value.” And that is just the start. 

Paradoxically, at a time when the Greens are attracting unprecedented attention, it is clear that there has been an almost complete failure in the media to provide a systematic analysis of their policies and the dangers they represent. There is scant understanding of just what the Greens’ policies would do if implemented, or indeed, what they actually stand for. 

One reason surely is that most people who vote Green believe them to be friendly and benign “tree huggers” with only a straightforward and genuinely dedicated concern and love for the environment.

It was the perception of this scandalous failure of public analysis of the Greens’ policies that motivated Connor Court Publishing to commission our book, The Greens: Policies, Reality and Consequences.

The Greens, to be to be published on 14 July, is timely. For the first time it provides a practical analysis of the numerous and wide ranging policies published on the Greens’ own website. Distinguished experts in the relevant fields from around Australia were invited to assess the various policies in the context of Australia’s present realities, their practicality, and to highlight any adverse, unintended consequences these policies might have for the nation and its people.

The policies are arranged into 21 chapters. The Greens: Policies, Reality and Consequences provides the reader with a practical and incisive guide to the real issues behind the feel good façade.

The Greens is not a jeremiad and it does not wish to trace the historical roots of Green politics, impugn the motivations of individual Greens, or question the motivations of their party. The Greens is an important reference for those who would like an informed, through an objective examination, of the consequences of the policies that are now more likely to be presented in parliament with the new Green control of the Senate.

The findings of these experts lead one to understand that the Greens have an uncontrollable urge to spend and tax, almost everywhere and for everything; a mania for control – through legislation and regulation of both institutions and individuals; a disturbing and unwarranted confidence in central planning and belief that government knows best; an antagonism to initiatives by the private sector or individuals; and at best, a systematic and naïve understanding, both historically and practically, of how the world works.

In these policy formulations there appears to be a profound lack of appreciation or understanding of why our society is the way it is. All the fruits of Australia’s prosperity, with its brilliant scientists, economists, farmers, technicians, talented workers and thinkers, our leaders, our institutions, our democracy, and our constitution count for nought. The Greens want to change everything and, like spoilt children, destroy what they don’t understand.

The Greens’ policies would have catastrophic, unintended consequences for this country. They would threaten its prosperity, diminish individual human rights, decrease its tolerance and harmony, and make us less secure. Worse, and this is the biggest irony, the Greens’ policies would actually damage our environment.

The tragedy is that it is precisely the “good intentions” of the Greens that draws so many people to them and to vote for them. The result, if this group with its ill-thought out policies ever gets its way, will be a disastrous return to a new primitivisation.

The Greens is edited by Andrew McIntyre

Details of the book launches are here…

Read more and pre-order The Greens here…