Page 426 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 2019
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MLAs did not respond in great numbers when Joel Dignam from Better Renting sent out his questionnaire about home ownership and renting. Why did we not respond? Because we knew that Joel was probably gathering data for the Greens. I would urge you to do a Google search of “Joel Dignam Greens” and tell me what you find.
I have got a document from australianprogress.org.au where Mr Dignam is described as a lead organiser with the ACT Greens. There is a staff post from the page of Mark Parnell, who is a Greens member of parliament in South Australia, that was written by Joel Dignam. This is from just four months ago and it certainly appears as though he was pretty much running the campaign. He is very, very clearly a part of the Greens machine. I hear you say, “Surely being a hardworking operative for a political party should not preclude you being involved as a community advocate?” I think you would be right; you would be correct in saying that. But I think we need to look a little deeper. Anyone can get on the website of Better Renting and look through their board.
I am not going to go through the business of naming any names in here, but if you go through that exercise you will find, among the six board members, a lead Greens candidate from the 2016 ACT election—surprise, surprise. You will find an individual who is listed online as a Green election day booth volunteer trainer at the last election here, and a member of the Greens national policy coordinating committee. That is from the Greens’ website in late 2017. You will find an attendee from the Greens 2016 election thankyou drinks—and I am sure they were not thanking her for nothing—and a former staffer for Greens Senator Penny Wright.
Six of the seven players—six of the seven—in the Better Renting organisation have known, strong links to the Greens party. We are not just talking about members of the party; we are talking about hardcore party hacks who sit up at night plotting ways to install more Greens members into this parliament. And they have dreamt up a good way to do it.
I know Mr Dignam’s long online history with the web tool known as NationBuilder, which has been used for a number of years now as a data collection tool for political parties, including the Greens, and I note that Better Renting conducts its online petitions on NationBuilder. I think we can all guess where that data is going. I also note that when Mr Dignam has been asked in a public space whether or not the ever-increasing rates and land tax here in the ACT have contributed to high rent, he of course dismisses those factors. Why? Because he is not actually advocating for renters, ladies and gentlemen; he is pushing Greens policy.
I think one of the most important things to note here is the funding for Better Renting. Better Renting has secured a government grant from the ACT. What sort of grant do you think it would be? This renters’ advocacy group, the one that is gathering names and addresses of as many renters as it can, the one with these unmistakeable links to hardcore Greens operatives—this group has secured a zero emissions grant, which, it is my understanding, would have been signed off by the environment and sustainability minister, Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury. No way! No, no!
I am sure that the report House of Lords: Landlords and Tenants in the Legislative Assembly, the one that was radically incorrect, has contributed to our push to zero
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