
Issue No 18		18 June 1999

Piers Watch

Piers Goes Green?

If you're a Greenie who wants to get a run in a prominent newspaper column here's a sure-fire tactic - bag the Labor Council!


	...it isn't easy being green!

The age-old political adage : you are my enemy's enemy, therefore you are my friend has seldom been more graphically illustrated than Pier's spiteful little offering this week.

The vehicle for this attack was a column purportedly about a green ban on a development at Allambie which Piers claimed was: (a) being considered by Labor Council this week (b) was being vigorously promoted by Labor Council..

Wrong. And wrong. There was no request for a Green ban. And Costa had never commented on it (we think Piers was mixed up with a separate development some months back which exposed the Pittwater Council's hypocrisy on development proposals).

So in the absence of these facts, which could have been clarified with the one phone call, what was the column all about? Payback of course.

You see, the previous week the Greens' new MP Lee Rhiannon had naively issued a press release criticising the Labor Council's internal handling of its Currawong development, reproducing all the well-worn lines of the self-styled Friends of Currawong.

For an organisation riddled with its own factional machinations, splits and internal dissent, who had only met with Labor Council that week to discuss ways of working closer together it seemed a strange contribution to the public debate.

All major media outlets gave the release the treatment it deserved, consigning it to the green circular filing cabinet in the corner of the office.

Except our hero, of course who used it as a launching pad into yet another erroneous and irrelevant piece.

Perhaps the strangest aspect of this one was his charges of hypocrisy -- after all isn't this the man who rejected the Green Bans of the 1970s as a historical revisionist myth?

In a legendary column published in December, 1996 Piers denied that the BLF had made any contribution to preserving The Rocks, claiming the credit should have gone to the bureaucrats who had earmarked the historic precinct for demolition.

"In the latest bit of nonsense, a plaque has been placed in Rocks Square to honour the BLF for its efforts to preserve the heritage era," Piers wrote at the time.

"We might soon see a plaque commemorating Hitler's commitment to tolerance, Stalin's commitment to world peace and Mao's commitment to democratic government."

But now Piers has become a Green ban purist, waxing lyrically about "fragile bushland", albeit bushland that is at his own back-door.

A committed environmentalist? Or is this just a convenient vehicle for him to run his own personal agenda? Again.

When a man with so little to say has so much room to run his trivial personal vendettas questions should be being asked.

Like who gives him this space? Who checks him for accuracy? And where is the accountability?

And before his right-wing mates jump on us again, its not an issue Freedom of Speech, it's about power and the obligation to use your position of privilege responsibly.

STOP-PRESS: Workers Online spies witnessed the burning of a Piers effigy outside the Chifley Tower as part J18 day of civil disobedience. There appears to be no gratitude from the greenies.

View entire issue - print all of the articles!

Issue 18 contents

Interview: Ballot Boxing
In the midst of a key anti-union ballot, the Finance Sector Union's Geoff Derrick is learning vital lessons about life in a deregulated labour market.

Unions: Psyched Out
Intense competition in the labour market has fuelled a new renaissance in psychometric testing.

History: Rhetoric and Reality
This month will be a big one for Labor Party rhetoric about the "light on the hill".

International: ILO Adopts Child Labor Convention
Child slavery, prostitution and hazardous work have been outlawed in Geneva

Legal: Competing Agendas in Enterprise Bargaining
Recent developments show unions how they can turn the Reith laws on their head.

Review: Sister Power
A new book offers practical help for women who want to be heard.

» Carers Crisis: Victims Turned Away

» Farmers Back Social Audit

» Holiday Bugs: Government Asked to Act on Y2K

» Oakdale Miners Take Message to Canberra

» United Front for Public Sector Pay

» Talking Books Silenced

» Upper House Reform: Lest We Forget Greiner

» Pregnancy Bunfight Looms

» Horta Launches East Timor Mercy Ship

» Sparkies Back Fantastic Plastic

» APHEDA Helps Beat The Blockade

» Torture Support Day, June 26

» Guest Report

» Sport

» Trades Hall

» Piers Watch

» Chardonnay Debate Lacks Class

» GST Rally, Town Hall, Monday June 21

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