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SA Greens want fewer South Australians

By Malcolm King - posted Tuesday, 11 March 2014


You might think that the internecine warfare between a micro-party and the SA Greens has no place in the news – and you'd be right – except for one small but important development.

In an Australian first, the SA Greens have adopted the Stable Population Party's (now called the Sustainable Population Party) anti-population platform, including their slogan, which the former will take to the state election on March 15.

The SA Greens quietly added the new anti-population policy on its website just after Christmas.

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This shackles the SA Greens to the SPP's sociobiological policy position. In this paradigm, ecology is used as a lodestone to re-engineer society to reflect the population dynamics of nature, to create Zero Population Growth (ZPG). Humans are considered impure vandals when compared to the kind of nature idolisation that one would normally find in a William Wordsworth poem.

The Greens have given their first preferences at next Saturday's state election to the Stop Population Growth Now party, a small local party. SPGN has a central policy to "strongly discourage families of more than two children, while continuing to welcome one or two-child families". It supports massive cuts to immigration, which may find favour with hardline right wing voters.

I support the Greens pro-environment stance although it appears that ideological purists have won the day in the SA Greens by adopting ZPG. The rise of misanthropic, anti-growth, anti-technology elements alienates middle class voters.

Last year I wrote an article for New Matilda on the reemergence of sociobiology in political and organizational life and the theoretical thinking behind the anti-population and anti-growth movements. The SA Greens are the first 'major party' to adopt this position.

My article published in Green Left Weekly before the SA Greens adopted a 'sustainable population policy', points to why these movements are getting in to bed with racist elements offshore.

The concept of 'purity' has historically found some small but fertile ground in Australia. Whether it's support of Fascism before World War Two, the more recent rise of the Australian Liberty Alliance backed by Dutch MP Geert Wilders and their anti-Muslim manifesto or the anti-population push. All three believe(d) that Australia would be better off with less people or people of a certain kind (no Muslims, blacks, etc).

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Population growth in South Australia, like the economy is flat, in fact, comatose. Domestic consumption, especially of power, is falling. If a stagnant economy is good news for both the SA Greens and the anti-population movement, then in South Australia, they have hit the jackpot.

It is unusual that the SA Greens have adopted an anti-population policy at a time when the complex issues facing South Australia's economy are ripe for a more vibrant and productive left wing analysis. Exposure to international competition and globalization has made clear serious flaws in the local economy.

The leader of the SA Greens, Mr Mark Parnell, was quoted in The Australian recently, said it was not up to the Greens to say how its anti-population policy would be achieved.

"What we're saying is that stabilising population growth needs to be a statewide target. It's not up to the Greens or anyone else to say, 'here is the policy'. We don't want more people, we want to stabilise the population." This is disingenuous. Then why have a population policy?

There are five general anti-population legislative measures to reduce a states ecological footprint:

1. Reduce 457 visas, New Zealander visa, working holiday visas, family reunion visas and refugee migration to South Australia.

2. Reduce welfare to families and mothers who have more than two children. This plays in to the hands of those on the right who think the welfare budget should be wound back altogether because it's full of 'bludgers'.

3. Slash the international student intakes to zero. That's a shame as they bring almost $1 billion in revenues to South Australia and directly and indirectly employ 7000 locals as well as keep our three main universities alive. International students are the state's fourth largest service export.

4. Reduce tourist numbers in to the state and most certainly in to our national parks.

5. Create an instrumentalist state to measure and ration our utilities, petrol and food to reduce our individual carbon footprint. So if granny has her heater on at night because it's nippy, she can expect a call from the Green Guards in the morning. And they won't be wearing a koala suits.

While I agree with the Federal Greens on the need for a climate change policy – although they voted with the Coalition against the emissions trading scheme - their position on many of these issues is inconsistent; in fact, it's bewildering.

The SA Greens and the Federal Green Party want to increase Australia's refugee intake, but cut back on skilled migrants. In her 2010 Twitter feed SA Green Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, said "Compassion is key to any discussion of population growth".

So if you are a refugee fleeing persecution, then a 'Green government' will embrace you. But if you are fleeing something as banal as poverty, economic hardship, low wages, a lack of opportunity or jobs, or if you're just looking for a better life for you and your family - then the door to Australia is closed.

The SA Greens are right to claim that South Australians have a relatively high carbon footprint. We have a large smelting works and other large industries here, some of which are in decline.

What they fail to mention is that those on the lowest socio-economic rung – and there are many in the suburbs 20 kilometres north and south of Adelaide - produce the lowest carbon emissions. In an ideal SA Green world, there be as few South Australians as possible and the poorer the better. I do not think this is their intention.

The SA Green's adoption of sociobiology represents instrumentalism and reductionism at its worst. So if your train is packed full of people, it's the fault of over-population – not that there are too few trains running. If you don't get that important job, it must be because a migrant took it. If it takes you an hour to get to work, it's because there are too many people – not because every single person is driving a car.

I fear the Greens miss Bob Brown's guiding hand.

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About the Author

Malcolm King is a journalist and professional writer. He was an associate director at DEEWR Labour Market Strategy in Canberra and the senior communications strategist at Carnegie Mellon University in Adelaide. He runs a writing business called Republic.

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