This is a speech I delivered to the Sydney Institute last night. You can also listen to it here or download a pdf here.

Sydney Institute, October 27th 2008.

Green Politics, the Balance of Power and the Green New Deal.

Christine Milne addresses the Sydney Institute on the issue of the Greens, Balance of Power, and Australia's climate agenda.

Download podcast from the Sydney Institute's website here.

The Rudd Government's promises to bring transparency and accountability back to government have been exposed as empty rhetoric, Australian Greens Senator Christine Milne said today.

Senator Milne, with the support of the Opposition, had called on the Government to table the Wilkins Review into climate policy and a document circulated to industry by Minister Ferguson's office detailing a softened approach to emissions trading. Senate rules bound the Government to table those documents today. However, it failed to do so.

The Federal Government and Opposition joined forces in the Senate today to block Greens' Senator Christine Milne's motion to release documents related to the Gunns Pulp Mill under Freedom of Information.

"It is pretty obvious that the release of these documents would add to the pressure on Gunns in their dealings with stakeholders and the public and I am disappointed that Labor and the Coalition have determined not to allow the public to see this document," Senator Milne said.

Australian Greens Senator Christine Milne welcomed the Western Australian Government's announcement today of a 'gross' renewable energy feed-in law for residential solar roof-top systems as a great first step.

Whilst this will encourage roof-top solar systems, there is still no incentive for large-scale solar thermal systems or for farmers or supermarkets to take up more than 10 kilowatt systems.

The Australian Greens today outlined their vision for Australia in the new century ahead of the opening of the Balance-of-Power Senate.

Australian Greens Leader, Senator Bob Brown, said a record 1.17 million people voted Greens at the last election, and the five Greens Senators were ready to work constructively with all parties to respond to the challenges of the new century.

"Pollution, poverty, discrimination and the destruction of Australia's forests and precious environments are the legacy of the last century and decades of greed and inaction."

New Matilda published this piece today under the title: 'Be wary, we're in safe hands'.

Australian Greens climate change spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, today called Martin Ferguson's draft legislation for carbon storage a clear demonstration of the many problems still bedevilling the proposed technology.

Senator Milne said, "This draft legislation perfectly demonstrates the Pandora's box of liability issues facing carbon capture and storage that can never be satisfactorily resolved.

After some extraordinary work involving sticky-taping together a shredded document, the Tasmanian Greens have claimed the scalp of another senior Minister in the irredeemably awful Lennon Government -this time Deputy Premier and former Attorney-General, Steve Kons.

Two Green issues have been swept under the carpet by both Howard and Rudd during this election campaign – the nuclear agenda, which I'll post on shortly, and peak oil.

For those who think peak oil is a left-wing conspiracy theory, it's worth noting that President Bush recently told a White House press conference that: