Latest Updates
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Re-engaging
Well, I’m back! As you may recall, I stepped down as Executive Director of the Green Institute back in March in order to focus fully on my election campaign for the seat of Canberra. The board kindly kept my position vacant for the duration, while the wonderful Elissa Jenkins very ably held the fort, and…
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What kind of party? What kind of campaign?
May’s federal election left the Greens with a big question: What does it actually take to win? Below, five campaigns offer five different answers. The reflections map ongoing debates about how best to understand and approach electoral contests. How should a party committed to transformative change relate to electoral politics, community organising, and movement-building? In their…
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Never again … ?
When the horrors of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 80 years ago this week, became known, an idea began emerge that, in some ways, defined the first nuclear generation: “Never again”. Although nuclear weapons proliferated, and millions lived in genuine fear, the idea that they might actually be used again was almost unthinkable.…
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After The Election … In A World On Fire
Writing for Green Agenda after the election, David Shoebridge and Ellen Sandell reject the establishment’s demands to moderate, affirming that Greens politics exist to transform rather than simply winning for winning’s sake. Both remind us that the party’s strength lies in principled solidarity across struggles — from climate justice and social justice to Gaza. We’re not done yet Ellen Sandell | May…
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Democracy When The World Is On Fire
Roiling emotions. Relief and devastation. A pinch of hope, a shake of anger, a dash of despair. A generous sprinkling of equanimity – this too shall pass, and elections are one small part of the arc of history. And a powerful flavour of gratitude. I want to start this email by paying tribute to Adam…
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Flipping The Script: Community Leads The Candidates Towards Democracy
Three candidates walk into a bar… It could be the beginning of a silly joke. But, while it was a lot of fun, it was not just serious but genuinely moving, with one of the candidates weeping tears of joy at being welcomed into a respectful conversation. (And, to be honest, it was a community…
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Tim on 4ZZZ: Living Democracy
In March 2025, the Paradigm Shift on 4ZZZ spoke to Tim Hollo about his book Living Democracy. You can listen to it here.
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Lessons In Nonviolence And Democracy From Arendt To Rising Tide
Speech to University of New England’s Peace and Justice Symposium, February 14, 2025 Good morning, everyone, and what a pleasure it is to be here with you for this stimulating and oh so timely symposium. I want to thank Marty Branagan and UNE for bringing us together, and acknowledge that we come together on stolen…
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Turning The Ship Around With A Rising Tide
Turning a coal ship around is incredibly difficult. Turning the ship of state is even harder. It’s so much easier to stop investing our trust in the whole shebang and simply start living into being the world we need – a world of peace, of democracy, of just and regenerative economy, and of ecological wisdom.…
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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Yesterday, as I sat in the rain on the road in front of Parliament House, with a cop’s knee in my back, the crowd broke into a powerful chant of: Show me what democracy looks like This is what democracy looks like! With Parliament House at our backs, where the Prime Minister had just personally…
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Kinship Is The Antidote To Scarcity
Last night, as it was becoming incontrovertible that the USA was voluntarily turning from neoliberalism to authoritarianism, about a hundred of us gathered on Zoom for what I reckon was just about the best way to process it: talking about care and kinship, responsibility and entanglement, autonomy and action, together. On a day like today,…
