GREENS PRE-SELECT FREO MAYOR FOR UPPER HOUSE

 

The GREENS  have pre-selected Fremantle Mayor Dr Brad Pettitt to be their candidate for the Upper House for the South Metro region of WA.

The state election is next year, so it is highly likely that Brad Pettitt will resign from Fremantle Council well before the October 2021 local government elections, and that could mean an expensive by-election, or Deputy Mayor Andrew Sullivan filling in and be in that role for at least half a year.

Roel Loopers

GREENS SELECT FEDERAL CANDIDATE FOR FREMANTLE

 

 

High school teacher Jesse Hutchison has announced that he will be the Greens candidate for the Federal seat of Fremantle at this year’s election in May.

Hutchinson grew up in Fremantle and is the father of two young girls.

I am sure we’ll hear more about Hutchinson’s ideas at the candidates forums in five months time.

Roel Loopers

GREENS ABILITY TO SHINE IN CANBERRA

 

Isn’t it interesting how difficult it appears to be to walk the talk, no matter if one is on the right or left side of politics.

According to the West Australian today the WA Greens are in a bit of turmoil after the dual-citizenship resignation of Senator Scott Ludlam.

The person who came second on the ballot has got the right to step into Ludlam’s position and go to Canberra, but that person is 22-year-old Jordon Steele-John.

Not only is Jordon just 22 but he is also disabled, so now the Greens are lamenting that it should be decided by the grassroots members of the party who will follow Scott Ludlam.

I have witnessed Jordon Steele-John a few times during community forums and he is a very intelligent young man who speaks very well and is really likeable, so why not give him the go he deserves?

It is not as if there are a lot of good breaks in life for disabled people, and if we talk about quotas in politics disabled people are rarely mentioned.

Jordon would be a breath of fresh air in the Canberra Senate and has the intelligence to grow into the job and become an excellent representative for Fremantle.

 

Roel Loopers

LUDLAM CASE FAILS CANBERRA CHECKS

 

It is too simplistic to engage in political point scoring, as a Labor party official did on TV last night, and question why the Greens could not even get the citizenship check of Senator Scott Ludlam right.

Yes, Ludlam should have checked and so should his party, but I wonder why there are no checks and balances in place at our Federal parliament to make sure even honest mistakes like this one can’t happen.

Q: Are you an Australian citizen?

Q: Are you also a citizen of another country than Australia?

Ludlam did the right thing by resigning immediately once his dual citizenship was confirmed, but surely this should not have happened and the bureaucrats in Canberra need to do better at checking the eligibility of future parliamentarians.

I believe it would be unfair to Ludlam to demand he pays back the salary he received as Senator. He did turn up for work and was very active and made a good contribution to Australia, so why would the community he served well want to force him into financial disaster.

 

Roel Loopers

FREO GREENS SENATOR SCOTT LUDLAM RESIGNS

Sad to hear Fremantle Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has resigned after he became aware that he has dual citizenship in Australia and New Zealand, which could be a breach of the constitution.

Ludlam did not want to go through a possible High Court challenge and decided to resign from the Senate instead. He had not realised that he had not renounced his NZ citizenship.

Scott Ludlam only recently recovered from a mental health issue and has been a very active Senator for Western Australia.

It will be interesting to see who will replace him.

Thank you for all your hard work Scott!

Roel Loopers

UNDERWHELMING GREENS POLICY PRESENTATION

 

The Fremantle GREENS party invited the true believers to the beautiful Victoria Hall on Monday night where Senators Rachel Siewert and Scott Ludlam did the presentation after a nervous introduction by Kate Davis, who is the candidate for the Federal seat of Fremantle.

The smell of fresh Eucalypt leaves and the sound of frogs and crickets welcomed the guests. How very Green.

It wasn’t the usual fat headline shouting political event, but a rather subdued, cool, professional and academic presentation of the GREENS ideas and policies for our future.

We heard about the significant increase of container movement at Fremantle Port from just 53,944 in 1971 to an estimated 700,000 in 2015 and were introduced to the “Budget Principles” such as Diversity the Green Economy, Raise the Revenue We Need, A Lifetime of Learning, Budget Should Reduce Inequality, Right to Social Security, Designing the Future, Clean Energy by 2030, Transit City, Building Urban Forrest, etc.

The speakers said they wanted meaningful conversations with the people during this election and that the GREENS‘ vision is bold, courageous and possible, but for me they did not get that message across.

Scott Ludlam did most of the talking but he did it without his usual passion and was rather subdued. The presentation was so understated that it became underwhelming and uninspiring, and I left undecided and not sure what I would write about.

The GREENS invited all their followers to bring at least four friends to the major event Perth-Wadjuk Country at His Majesty’s on June 2 at 6.30 pm and I suggest they’ll make it less academic and more passionate so people will leave inspired and full of hope.

Roel Loopers