Every now and then I make a mistake and go and do something stupid, like read the policy detail of the Australian Greens.

I was curious, I admit, to see what might possess Australians to give the Greens 12 seats in the Senate. After having a good look around, ‘ignorance’ or ‘madness’ seem to be the most likely options.

Tree-hugging is one thing. If you went anywhere near a polling booth during the election you were sure to see a Millennial horde clutching their iPhones to make sure they took plenty of selfies to mark the moment they ‘saved the world’ by voting for Adam Bandt.

Green is good. That’s about as far as they got.

Despite what the Left shriek, conservatives love and care for the environment – that’s the primary reason they don’t want to smother it in solar panels and bird-mincing blades like a scene out of Resident Evil.

Long gone are the days when the Greens shill for the trees. Judging by their policy portfolio, their primary concern is money – and how to get as much of it as possible without having to work.

Let’s start with defence. With the Pacific on the edge of conflict as communist China engages in expansionist empire building by debt-trapping, threatening, and corrupting its way through our neighbours – what are the Greens going to do to keep Australia safe?

‘Wars, and weapons of war, have cost too many lives and too much money. These wars distract from the fight against the climate crisis.’

The Greens will advocate to close all foreign military bases (that would be American bases) on Australian soil. They also want to buy fewer guns and tanks (who needs those?) in favour of a ‘light, readily deployable and highly mobile force that meets the needs of our place in the world’. The Greens would probably arm our soldiers bubble-wrapped sticks if they weren’t so worried about plastic.

As it is observed throughout the breadth of human history, not having weapons means that predatory regimes will just leave you alone. They definitely won’t attack you. Nope. Everyone knows the biggest mistake of the second world war was to fight back against Hitler. If only Europe had decided to hold hands and offer up cash, we’d be living in a geopolitical paradise.

The Greens further pledge to ‘cancel defence contracts’ and ‘cut defence spending’. Who needs a defence force, eh? I’m sure that won’t upset any of the smaller countries in the region that depend on Australia’s military presence for protection. We can still be their faithful pen pals, but if they need arms those will have to come from, uh, China.

To promote this weapon-free Utopian peace, the Greens will take more public money and throw it at other countries ‘increasing global aid to 0.7 per cent of GNI (Gross National Income)’ and then absorb more refugees in an increased humanitarian intake as they flee ‘the climate crisis’ (Pacific conflict?).

All this money the Greens ‘save’ on weapons and defence is going to be given to the people of Australia – no, I’m just kidding. The Greens are going to give it to asylum seekers and the climate crisis.

Of course, because we are a ‘wealthy country’, the Greens insist that we ‘pay reparations’ for our role ‘in the climate crisis and the ongoing damage caused by imperialism’ estimated at $4.5 billion between 2022-25.

But not China or its present-day imperialism. Or any other Pacific nation and its domestic environmental damage that they manage to perpetrate without that pesky ‘imperialism’ excuse. Concreting reefs and atolls to make military bases? Nothing to see here. Five stars to China for caring about rising sea levels.

Finally, if there’s anything left, the Greens plan to ‘Decarbonise the defence estate’ to meet our Net Zero 2030 targets.

Reading all of this, it is almost as if Adam Bandt thinks that if he hugs communism tightly enough it’ll love him back. This is the same delusion wildlife luvvies adopt when cuddling up to lions, forgetting that, as far as wild cats are concerned, humans look like a steak wrapped in sustainably-sourced cloth.

Destroying Australia’s ability to defend itself (and its friends) while using taxpayer cash as Mafia-style protection money might sound like a betrayal of the Australian people, but you have to remember that this is what ‘virtue’ looks like in 2022.

At least Adam Bandt is honest about how he’s going to pay for his ideas.

Tax.

Lots and lots of tax.

If your plan is to make all the money walk out of Australia and immediately impoverish the nation, you can’t go past the ‘6 per cent annual tax on the global net wealth of Australia’s 122 billionaires’ and the ‘6 per cent annual tax on the net value of Australian assets owned by foreign billionaires’. This would raise ‘$48 billion over the decade’.

No, it wouldn’t.

Unless the Greens think they can bind these billionaires to Australia with zip-ties, they will leave immediately. No one is going to put up with having assets they own (and have already paid tax on) re-taxed yearly by politicians to fund their vanity projects. The companies, jobs, and assets will be ditched. Taxes like this remove the incentive to ‘do well’ and result in the mass-exodus of vital finance that keeps the job market afloat.

Historically, heavily-taxing socialist regimes make the mistake of viewing the economy as a fixed entity instead of a living creature. They see a pile of money and assume that, like a cow, they can milk it every year. In the real world that cow either dies (because there is nothing left to eat) or kicks its way through a fence in search of greener pastures where there aren’t so many hands feeling up its udder.

While I won’t bore you with the rambling plan for 100 per cent ‘green energy’ and the complete banning of coal, oil, and gas (which they’ll need to keep those renewables going, but sh… don’t tell Bandt), what is interesting are the quotes from leaders like Boris Johnson.

‘Climate Change is a diplomacy issue, a security issue, a trade issue. And in the years to come, the only great powers will be green powers.’

As Europe enters a renewables-led energy crisis and hastily returns to coal, oil, gas, and nuclear – Johnson’s comments from 2021 barely survived the year.

It reminds me of the World Economic Forum article penned by the (now former) Prime Minister of Sri Lanka titled, This is how I will make my country rich by 2025. Weirdly, it was deleted yesterday after Sri Lanka’s green policies triggered the largest civil uprising against poverty and economic disaster since its independence.

Australia seems determined to ‘go green’ – but how many people understand what that actually means? In 2022, ‘green’ is the new ‘red’ for the colour-blind youth.

Alexandra Marshall is an independent writer. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.

 

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