Democracy
Culture, Democracy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Winter 2021, Social Justice
Show up and make noise: We must reject all attacks on our right to dissent
I’ve relayed this story many times over the years: the first rally I remember going to was in May 1988 when I was ten years old. At that time, my family lived in Canberra. My family attended the rally under the guise of attending something else – the day marked the official opening of the “new Parliament House” and government-planned... Read More
Culture, Democracy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Winter 2021, Peace, Social Justice, Uncategorised
Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud: An interview with Mehreen Faruqi
Dr Mehreen Faruqi is the Greens Senator for New South Wales (2018 – present). Green Agenda’s co-editor Simon Copland spoke with Mehreen about her recently published memoir, Too Migrant, Too Muslim, Too Loud, and what it means to be an ‘unapologetically Brown, Muslim, migrant, feminist woman‘ in Australian politics. The transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity. Simon Copland: Thank... Read More
Culture, Democracy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Winter 2021, Social Justice
Dis-settling critique in stasis: Reflections on the university from the South to the North
This piece originally appeared in Overland. We thank both the author, Heba Al Adawy, and Overland, for permission to republish this important piece. On a crispy November evening of 2019, Lahore’s smog filtered sky was buzzing with drone surveillance cameras, radiating an orangish glow over around 5,000 young protestors who had assembled at the chowk of Punjab Assembly. For the emerging student... Read More
Democracy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Winter 2021, Social Justice
Rising above discrimination in an attempt to be heard: People with disability
When posing the question what mechanism does dissent play in Australian politics we can view this through the lens of history. Australia has a long history of formulating policy through grassroots actions; the shearers strike of 1891, the Pilbara strike of 1949 and the waterside workers strike of 1998 are each seminal points in history that have remade the conditions... Read More
Culture, Democracy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Winter 2021
The Art of Greenwashing: (De)funding creativity and silencing dissent
Tani Walker’s superb voice resonates around the crowded Freo Social venue. Head thrown back, she sings of the Noongar season of Bunuru (February to March) and a hope for relief from the Western Australian heat. She is part of Richard Walley’s Six Seasons, a series of songs each celebrating the Noongar seasons of Birak, Bunuru, Djeran, Makuru, Djilba and Kambarang.... Read More
Democracy, Economy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Winter 2021
Without the right to stop work, all our rights are at risk
Why do most Australian workers have a standard of living with a minimum wage that keeps fully employed people out of poverty? It can be answered most simply by the long history of our forebears joining unions and going on strike. We have always needed to strike Have you ever stopped work to show your dissent in an organised way... Read More
Culture, Democracy, Environment, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Winter 2021, Social Justice
Policing dissent, enforcing consent
You can’t do it that way! When Extinction Rebellion protesters spray-painted “duty of care” across the front of Parliament House the morning after the latest IPCC Report was released, drawing national and international attention to the fact that the Minister for the Environment is appealing a court decision finding she actually has a legal duty of care to future generations... Read More
Democracy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Summer 2021, Social Justice
The fire front: Transformative politics in Queensland
Queensland bears a burden of being perceived as a deeply conservative state. One Nation emerged from the ashes in a small Queensland city called Ipswich, a coal town left in ruin once the mining moved further West. We carry the history of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era, and a violent history of colonisation and policing. We’re also home to some of... Read More
Culture, Democracy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Summer 2021
Sparked by love and rage: An interview with Holly Hammond
Holly Hammond (she/her) is a social movement educator and librarian. She is the Director of the Commons Social Change Library which includes a vast array of resources including a wellbeing collection. She has worked to strengthen social movements and promote activist wellbeing for many years through training, facilitation, coaching, and writing via the Plan to Win and Plan to Thrive... Read More
Democracy, Featured, Green Agenda Quarterly Journal Summer 2021, Social Justice
Burning debate: Building consensus from the ashes
During the summer that preceded COVID, my family left me home alone and set off on the five-hour annual road trip to Nowa Nowa, not far from Lakes Entrance in East Gippsland. As flames spread across Victoria and New South Wales, my partner, daughter and son were evacuated the next day. When the area was declared safe, they returned home.... Read More
