I am Philip Machanick, and I am your Greens candidate in Moggill in the 21 March 2009 Queensland State election.
Watch this site to find out what I stand for and to share your views.
Why did I decide to run for state parliament?
I’m tired of the lack of long-range planning that is turning our fine, no longer so little city into a miniature LA, with traffic gridlock and more plans for roads and car tunnels than public transport. I’m tired of the lack of economic foresight that is pushing Queensland further and further into reliance on commodities, especially coal, a recipe for boom and bust economics. I’m tired of the lack of environmental foresight in mainstream politics that has led to the real risk of losing the Great Barrier Reef along with 65,000 tourism jobs – in the name of protecting coal jobs. I’m tired of the lack of foresight that has led to a water crisis, which the state government seems only capable of solving by including in the mix the poorly-conceived Traveston Crossing dam, which will destroy the habitat of three endangered species. I’m tired of the mindset in Queensland Health, which emphasises political fixes like destroying the world class Royal Children’s Hospital without a clear medical rationale, rather than fixing real systemic problems in health delivery.
But I am not too tired to stand up and make a positive contribution.
There must be better solutions out there.
Other cities have converted from traffic-centric solutions to public transport. Even the Republican-controlled state of California has a vastly better response to climate change than Queensland.
And the whole argument that economy comes before environment is increasingly challenged as the economic costs of failure to act become increasingly apparent.
So let us work together to find solutions, to transform the debate from why we should procrastinate to what we can do now, what we can do soon and what we should be planning for in the medium to long term.
