There has been lots of buzz about the new Greens Senate candidate Lin Hatfield Dodds and her strong support for GLBTI equality.  With the federal election set for 21 August,  we decided to sit down with Lin to find out what sort of person she is and ask about her chances of winning a Senate spot.

Lin was the former head of Uniting Care Australia, which is the largest welfare service provider in the country. She was also the former President of ACOSS (Australian Council of Social Service) and was the ACT Australian of the Year in 2008. She is now campaigning to win a Senate seat in the ACT ­— the most marginal in the country, with the Liberal Party holding on to the seat by just 2,000 votes at the last election.

If elected, Lin would take her seat immediately, having a dramatic impact on the Senate by instantly cancelling out the effect of Family
First Senator Steven Fielding — if he gets back in.

Fielding is a supporter of mandatory internet content filtering and definitely NOT in favour of same-sex marriage, so to remove his power in the senate would be a major step forward in our efforts for equal rights in Australia.

Lin Hatfield Dodds certainly has impressive credentials and I had heard a lot of good things about her community work. I wanted  to find out for myself what kind of person she is ‘face to face’ though, and to see where she stood on important issues — the GLBTI community, equality for all people, and the big question if she becomes a Senator: will she stand up for our rights?

Hi Lin, thank you for taking some time to chat to us. I can imagine that you must be pretty busy now you’re the ACT Greens Candidate for the Senate.

I thought I was busy as a Greens candidate but now that the election has been called, it’s clear that I didn’t know what busy was! It’s flat-out but I’m really enjoying getting out to so many community events and hearing from so many diverse Canberrans. We have a great community here and I love getting out and talking to people.

You’ve been quite involved in the community on all sorts of levels and with human rights, can you tell us a bit about that?

Sure. I am very involved in the Canberra community, which is true for lots of people — it’s just that I happen to have been in roles that have a bit of a media profile. I am very committed to doing what I can to ensure that everyone gets a fair go, with no discrimination on the grounds of age, sexuality, gender orientation, ability, class, colour, creed or cultural origin. Diversity is what makes a community strong. Great communities celebrate everyone and respect the inherent dignity of each person. When you start with respect, celebration of diversity and zero tolerance for discrimination, you end up in a great place. Human rights are the foundation for this approach.

What do you say to people that think the Greens are just unrealistic environmentalists, is there more to the Greens?

Yes there is. Lots more. We are proud of our strong record on the environment. But we are proud of our record on social justice too — we have fought hard for a better deal for Indigenous Australians, for adequate payments for unemployed Australians, for a better deal on health care, to name a few issues. The Greens are known for taking a realistic and balanced approach across a wide range of issues in Parliament. For example, the Economic Stimulus Package was only passed with Green support and is estimated to have created at least 200,000 jobs, keeping Australia out of recession.

I remember when I was younger me dad telling me, that if I voted for a minor party I was ‘wasting’ my vote, is that a valid comment?

Things have definitely changed. More than one million Australians, including one in five Canberrans, voted Green in 2007. If just 2000 people had voted differently, Canberra would have a Green Senator right now.

Australia would have avoided the worst excesses of the Howard Government if the Greens or a similar group had held Senate balance of power. Instead the government controlled both houses of Parliament and rammed through poor legislation without proper scrutiny. The most recent parliamentary term has had no middle block resulting in chaos and uncertainty. The Senate really needs three stable voting blocks — including a ‘balance of power’ party — to provide stability.  This means the government of the day would either have to deal with the Greens or the opposition, so that no party has a monopoly on the Senate. At the end of the day, if people vote 1 Green and the Greens candidate doesn’t win the seat, their vote goes at full value to the next candidate they chose. A Green vote is never a wasted vote.

I’ve had few people ask why the Greens blocked the ETS (Emissions trading SCHEME).

The Greens were clear that they would not vote for an emissions trading scheme* that locked in failure, and did not set us on the path to a low carbon future.  At the time, the Government was not interested in trying to find common ground.  Since then we have called for an interim arrangement that would make polluters pay through the immediate introduction of a carbon price, and set a national emissions target at a later stage in the context of an international agreement.  

* Emissions trading (also known as cap and trade) is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.

With no Australian Democrats in the senate, can the Greens ‘keep the bastards honest’ now? And do your policies include ways of keeping the government transparent and accountable?

The Greens have never aspired to the cross benches. We will ‘keep the bastards honest’ as we go, but our goal is to govern. We have a suite of policies aimed at ensuring transparency and keeping the government of the day accountable. We just released an integrity and transparency package, which includes legislation to establish a national independent integrity and anti-corruption commission, legislation for a code of conduct for lobbyists, ministers and ministerial staff and guidelines for any Government advertising that goes over $250,000.

So you’ll be running against Liberal Gary Humphries — a pretty popular guy in Canberra, especially with the Gay and Lesbian Community after he crossed the floor to vote against the civil unions override in 2006. Why should we give you their vote instead?

A vote for Gary Humphries is a vote for  Tony Abbott’s Liberal Party — a party that is opposed to equal rights and recognition for all relationships.  The fact that he had to cross the floor on the override bill says a lot: that he was a lone and ineffective voice within his party.  Informed observers at the time said that the only reason he was allowed to cross the floor in defence of ACT self determination was that it would not change the outcome of the vote.  

If the ACT elects a Green Senator it will immediately change the balance of power in the Senate, and give Canberra a real voice — backed by the entire Greens party — on issues like gay and lesbian rights, the ability of the Commonwealth Parliament to override Territory self determination, protecting the quality of government services. And protecting jobs and incomes of public sector workers and retirees.  

What is it you can do for THE QUEER COMMUNITY if you get into the Senate?

The simple answer is that I can be an effective voice for the queer community in the Senate. The Greens are the only party that believe in full equality for all people and we are committed to ensuring that equality is achieved both in legislation and in society. Unfortunately this is not something the two old parties believe in, meaning that having a Green Senator would mean the replacement of someone who doesn’t believe in equality for someone who does.

I’m very concerned about the treatment of ‘intensively farmed animals’ (the appalling conditions and cruelty they are subject to) and labeling of food. Do the greens have any policies concerning this?

Yes Alex, the Greens definitely do have policies regarding this. The Greens have always stood for the better treatment of farmed animals as a key part of our environmental policy platform. For example, the Greens have moved legislation in the ACT Legislative Assembly to ban caged eggs in the ACT, which was blocked by both the old parties, but working with the other parties, have improved the labelling on eggs (free range, cage, barn) enabling consumers to make their own informed choices.

Regarding food labelling, the Greens have been working hard to ensure that food is properly labelled to ensure consumers know what they are eating, particularly around organic foods and genetically-modified foods. Knowledge is definitely power, and we believe that we consumers have the right to know what they’re eating, again, because this empowers them as consumers.

The Greens also stand for the end of the live exportation of animals for consumption, pig stalls and the banning of animal use in circuses.

See the Greens policies on animals at: http://greens.org.au/policies/environment/animals

It’s seems you have got a big challenge ahead of you, being that there are only two Senate seats in the ACT and they have always gone to either Labor or Liberal. Do you think you have a chance?

Whilst I don’t think winning the seat is a certainty, it definitely is doable. Last election, the Liberal Party were less the 1 per cent away from losing the seat. That means that if 2,000 people had voted differently, we would already have a Greens Senator in the ACT. I believe we can make that happen this year.

If you do get in, what sort of things would you like achieve?

The key thing I want to achieve is to see a change in the way politics is done in Parliament House. Over the past years we’ve seen the old parties compete in a race to the bottom on issues such as taking action on climate change, having a compassionate approach to asylum seekers and treating disadvantaged people with respect. I think that to bring the Australian community together we need to bring compassion and evidence based policy back into our Parliament. I believe the Greens do this.

What do you think about Australia having a woman PM?

I think it’s exciting to have a woman PM. As a woman and a feminist I think it is great that we are at a stage as a country when women can get to positions such as the prime ministership. However, I don’t think this means that the fight for women’s equality is done. Women are still largely underrepresented in our Parliaments (except for Greens members!), as well as in powerful positions in business. Women also still do more housework than their male counterparts and receive less pay. So, whilst I think this is an important step forward, I think there is still a lot of work to be done!