Sun 21 Oct 2007
Newsflash: Politician gives concise answer
Posted by jangari under Indigenous, Linguistics, Politics
[4] Comments
How’s this for a resurgence of public debate?
While the debate between Howard and Rudd was going on, Bob Brown and the Greens were holding their own ‘People’s Forum‘ in another room in Parliament House, and had asked for questions from the general public on their blog not long ago, some of which would potentially be asked tonight.
I asked a simple question about whether or not the Greens would push for endangered indigenous languages in Australia to be urgently documented in an effort to prevent any further loss – a pretty vacuous question, especially to ask of the Greens, I admit. But lo and behold, it was summarised (for the sake of time) and asked at the forum, and the whole thing was recorded straight away and uploaded to YouTube!
So witness (halfway through), the most concise answer a politician has ever given.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:51 am
Yeah But what effect can the Greens actually have in making it so?
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Well Good on you Jangari!
I guess it’s good to know they have a policy, even if they can’t tell us what it is. I guess Bob Brown just confirmed what was already being made apparent in the other room, that this election will not be won by discussing Aboriginal issues. It’s just not a vote-winner. More’s the pity.
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:15 am
While I’m resigned to the knowledge that the Greens probably won’t win a majority of seats this time around, they do stand a very sizable chance of wresting the balance of power in the senate. This of course doesn’t give them the ability to direct policy, but it substantially enables them to amend it when it comes to debate.
Right Mali, it’s easy enough to say ‘yep, I agree’, but I’d like to see, from anyone, some fleshed out plan on how to do something, anything! But alas, no one seems to have any detailed policy plans apart from in-principle support of the idea (presumably that means if someone else can pay for it).
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Iain, see here and here for others’ thoughts on how the Greens have been exercising the balance of power in the state governments. The Greens have held the balance in the WA upper house for 6 years, and shared it with the Democrats for 4 before that. They also share it in the upper houses of South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.