Real power lies with people
On the beginning of the world's first green party:
It all began in 1970. The Tasmanian government had decided to build a major power station which would have drowned the magnificent Lake Peddar. The campaign against the government's decision was started by a group of Tasmanian environmentalists who contested the elections in the early '70s.
On the party's current agenda:
Four fundamental principles of the Tasmanian Greens are ecology, social justice, peace and participatory democracy. What we have to do is not only protect the environment, but also bring about a more inclusive system of decision-making and more local level grassroots community development with a little bit of economic outcome, ensuring social justice. We have comprehensive energy policies as well. We believe in energy conservation rather than excessive utilisation.
On the campaigns the party has activated:
In 1982, the Tasmanian government announced yet another dam on one of Tasmania's most beautiful wilderness rivers. The campaign against it became famous worldwide. Thousands of people came from all over Australia to engage in non-violent protests very much in the Indian way. The Gandhian tradition is something that we admire tremendously. We often use quotes of Mahatma Gandhi in rally speaches to encourage ordinary people to come forward. That is what I mean by personal responsibility. It is all right to ask the government, the bureaucracies and the corporate structures to perform, but the real power lies with the people. Democracy is a combination of every individual. If everybody takes action, it will succeed. That is the lesson we have learnt from India.
During the late '80s, there was a proposal to build a pulp mill in Tasmania. This would have resulted into a lot of pollution. So I successfully initiated a campaign to oppose the mill. Thereafter, I was elected a parliament member in 1989. In this campaign, we had developed the slogan