The Echidna: Red with fury, Green boss throws down the gauntlet to Keating

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What's with the truculent Greens? Shortly after voting to pass the climate bill in the House of Representatives, a moment hailed as signalling an end to the climate wars, leader Adam Bandt fronted the media to throw down the gauntlet to Paul Keating. The challenge: a debate at the National Press Club over whether the Keating government had, as Bandt claimed earlier in the week, embraced neoliberalism, moving Labor sharply to the right. Step aside, culture war. Bandt is spoiling for a history war.

The Greens leader fired the first shot in his speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday, when he said his party would back Labor's climate bill. He said Keating's government had pursued a neoliberal agenda of privatisation, cuts to government spending and wages suppression.

Keating returned fire with trademark scorn via The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

"How could any reasonable person describe the universality of Medicare as an exercise in conservative neoliberalism? Or providing the whole Australian community, every working person, with mandated capital savings leading to substantial superannuation assets and retirement incomes.

"How could any reasonable person describe these mammoth changes as 'neoliberalism', a word associated with the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Reagan." Bandt, the former PM said, was "a bounder and a distorter of political truth".

A bounder? Not for the first time, a Keating barb - which would be at home in a Jane Austen novel - had us reaching for the dictionary. The Cambridge obliged with this: "a man who behaves badly or in a way that is not moral, especially in his relationships with women". Erm, okay.

"Now, Paul Keating's had a few choice words to say about me," Bandt told the media yesterday. "Paul Keating's got a sharp tongue but a short memory. Paul Keating is Labor's patron saint of privatisation. Paul Keating boasted about selling off the Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, our vaccine manufacturer CSL. He's proud of having kept wages low while giving the very wealthy and big corporations a tax cut."

Red with anger, the chief Green challenged PJK to a debate at the press club. Now that's a show not to be missed. Hope PJK is up for it.

Alongside Bandt were senators Dorinda Cox and Lidia Thorpe, announcing the retriggering of a Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children. It's an important and long overdue inquiry. "It will look into why we're not honouring and respecting the lives of First Nations women and children in the country and the role of the media in that," Senator Cox said.

She was followed by Senator Thorpe, who unloaded with customary fury and a raised fist: "When a white woman dies, or a white woman is murdered, it's a front page. There's rallies. There's documentaries. But when it's a black woman, you don't want to know about it. So you all need to put a mirror up to yourselves and ask yourselves why you're not reporting on black women who have been murdered and missing and children - why aren't we reporting on these deaths?"

Thorpe's anger is absolutely understandable. But its utility in the setting of Parliament and the court of public opinion not so much. The raised fists, calling the Queen a coloniser during the swearing in, the polarising language - it all might appeal to her voter base in the same way Pauline Hanson's stunts inspire hers but it does little to bring others to the cause. If anything it's likely to alienate them.

Surely, the best way to achieve lasting change is to get the whole country behind you. Be angry by all means but express it in a way that will reach and affect the widest possible audience, not just those who already support you.

HAVE YOUR SAY: Have the Greens learned from their mistakes? Are they still too angry and divisive? Or are they right to shake things up in Canberra? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

- Attempts by Labor to head off a threat to Australia's international human rights status would not prevent "Barilaro-style" appointments, and could lead to "humiliation" on the world stage, the Greens warn. The government is pushing to ensure appointments to the Human Rights Commission are made at arm's length from government, after Australia was warned it could lose its "A-status" human rights listing at the United Nations.

- Australian boxing legend Johnny Famechon has died at the age of 77. The featherweight boxer was nicknamed "poetry in motion" for his silky smooth defensive skills in the boxing ring. Famechon was born in Paris and emigrated to Australia when he was five years old. He went on to win the world title in 1969.

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THEY SAID IT: "Google it, mate." - Adam Bandt

YOU SAID IT: The state of play in NSW - and whether we ought to do away with state governments - got the burrow buzzing.

"NSW political scandals? As long as they keep getting caught out and made to pay, I feel happier. It reinforces the old adage: If you don't want to see it as a headline in the news, don't do it. It is a pity that some of our elected officials forget or feel bulletproof. No one is," Linda said.

Judy said it was time for change: "I have long felt that state governments are superfluous. I fancy enlarged local government areas but we have already seen how that goes down with local vested interests and petty inter district rivalry. Sad really. Larger local governments would be more financially capable."

David had a spiky analogy: "The existing three levels of government are OK. We just need to remember that government is like babies' nappies. Both must be changed regularly - and for the same reasons." Ziiing!

Steven had this perspective: "Having lived overseas for several decades, and observed alternative government structures, on returning provides you with a fresh set of eyes. Seeing the state system at work is quite confronting - the technocrats have to reinvent the wheel rather than take the best international technology and adapt it to all of Australia, ditto education, while the politicians are like kids competing in the sand pit. New Zealand did away with their equivalent of states, each with its own railway system, way back. State systems inevitably have regressive taxes which act like a brake not only on business but everyday life - can't even upgrade your car without getting slugged."

Ian said no level of government was immune from poor conduct: "I suspect that when people go into politics it is for the right reasons, but then something happens. They get a sense of entitlement and the line between acceptable and unacceptable gets blurred. It happens at all levels of government. I moved to NSW recently and am more aware of it here than in Victoria."

Monica wants to see some thinning out: "I have been saying for many years that state governments are superfluous. We are massively over-governed and it is costing us a fortune. Efficient local and federal governments could manage perfectly well."

"Hear, bloody hear, John Hanscombe," Jann said. "I've been saying for years that the Rum Corps is still running the NSW government! I lived there for over 20 years but, in the end, the nepotism, sexism and corruption got to me and I moved back to Victoria. Mind you, Victoria's not doing so well at the moment in the squeaky clean stakes. I've also been saying for years that we need to get rid of state governments, they represent nothing but lines on a map. We could fund a whole education or health system on the money we'd save, not to mention doing away with doubling-up of taxes, inconsistent legislation and all the other problems that go with living in what are essentially separate countries on one continent. Really enjoy The Echidna. Thanks for your work." Thank you, Jann!