Ausmarine Editorial - June 2012

I have written before on the subject of “rational environmentalism”. Indeed, it is one of my favourite themes and one, thankfully, that seems to be gaining wider currency.

At the outset, I reiterate that I am a passionate believer in the need for a much cleaner and totally sustainable global marine environment. There is no conflict between that notion and  what follows here.

As a former resident of Tasmania I have been saddened to learn that the beautiful island state is being increasingly degraded. This degradation is not caused by industrial, mining, agricultural or forestry pollution or even by over fishing.

Regrettably, it is economic degradation for which green extremists are largely to blame.

While Tasmania has always been the “poor relation” among Australia’s states it seems its situation is worsening relatively. Obviously, it is geographically disadvantaged but, to my mind, much the greatest reason for its relative decline is the malign and ever increasing influence of the extreme green movement and, in particular, the Australian Greens party.

Already, Tasmania has, despite its over-abundance of public servants, twice the percentage of its citizens collecting the dole as their counterparts in Western Australia. Other economic statistics are just as depressing. Mrs Milne and her NIMBYish supporters have a lot to answer for.

We used to say of Don Chipp’s Australian Democrats party: “Beware the fairies at the bottom of the garden”. Well, the poor, useless “keep the bastards honest” Democrats have gone the way of all flesh. Unfortunately, those crazy irrational idealistic fairies have metamorphasised into Mrs Milne’s Greens.

Inevitably, in the long run, the general public will come to realise that the Greens are not the unselfish idealists that they make themselves out to be. They will learn that as with all such groups, they mainly comprise self-serving and often malicious people who are most definitely not acting for the greater good. Green idealism is simply camouflage for their real agendas.

The dream that they sell so avidly is not and never will be achievable. The Greens are not remotely interested in economic or even environmental realism. They only seek power and unfortunately, especially in Tasmania, they have found it.
Tasmania, in a way, is Australia writ small. Fortunately, we mainlanders can learn from the destruction the Greens have wrought on the Tasmanian economy. If they were permitted to gain similar power and influence over the greater part of Australia we would all end up in he same kind of leaky economic boat as is inhabited by our Tasmanian friends.

Of course, if the Tasmanian situation were to be writ large, we would be even worse off. Greater Australia would not have the same kind of benevolent economic big brother that Tasmania can look to in the Commonwealth that pays so many of its bills.

While I am sure that eventually common sense will prevail with respect to the environment, we are going to waste a lot of time, money and effort humouring the extreme green movement and following its ignorant and illogical directions.

Their current power has given us, for example, the vastly overblown carbon tax and the lovely dream of photovoltaic generated electric cars.

Minority parties live by illogical, impossible policies and promote unachievable dreams. Unfortunately, as now and especially in Tasmania, they sometimes gain the balance of power. That enables them to promote their fairy fantasies to a much wider audience than would normally be the case.

The inevitable result of the implementation of their policies and dreams is a polity that may be clean and green but which will also be impoverished. We should all be aware of what the extreme greens have done to Tasmania and prevent them doing so elsewhere.

It is possible to be clean and green and economically rational at the same time but the Australian Greens approach to such an aim will never work.

Neil Baird

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