The Greens will preference Labor above all other political parties in Eden-Monaro this federal election.
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The party's candidate for Eden-Monaro, Pat McGinlay, said Labor was "the only party moving in the right direction" on climate change.
Mr McGinlay said the order represented which parties The Greens felt were doing the most or least to stop climate change.
"That's why Liberal is last," he said.
"In this electorate, the Liberal candidate (Fiona Kotvojs) has publicly stated that she's not a climate change denialist, but she doesn't subscribe to the fact it's anthropogenic (caused by human activity); she says climate change is a natural phenomenon," Mr McGinlay said. "And that's part of the problem."
However, Ms Kotvojs told the Tribune she did believe human's contributed to climate change.
"The causes for climate change are many and varied. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in 2010 declared solar activity to be the major forcing agent in climate change. Human activity also contributes to climate change. The issue is to what extent, and what are we going to do," Ms Kotvojs said.
Mr McGinlay also said that Labor's policies on climate change wouldn't address the issue fast enough.
"The party's time-frames are too long. While they've got a renewable energy policy, it doesn't clearly say coal should stay in the ground. The Greens says the days of coal are gone," he said.
"I'm not saying we close the mines and power stations, because that would involve a loss of lots of jobs and disruption, but we're saying we want to ... start the planning to replace coal and gas with renewables ... in the next ten years. Labor hasn't committed to that," he said.
Mr McGinlay said he would be appealing to the "more progressive voters" to vote number one for The Greens and then preference Labor.
"That way, if we get a huge number of votes it tells Labor that the people who got them over the line are expecting them to take climate change seriously," he said.
Mr McGinlay, a Eurobodalla Shire councillor from the coastal town of Dalmeny, was pre-selected as The Greens candidate for Eden-Monaro in October 2018.
He said has been a party member for four years and never a member of any other political party.
Mr McGinlay moved from Dumbarton in Scotland at the age of ten and relinquished his dual citizenship to run in the election.
He said he sees this federal election as one of the most important of the past ten years or so.
"We're about to change our climate irreversibly," Mr McGinlay said.
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) research, which came out around the time I was thinking about running for the election, was a big warning.
"It says we're tracking to global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius. We're already above 1C and we're tracking to 1.5C by 2030.
"If we don't do anything we'll go to 2C. Then there's no coming back and we don't really know what that will trigger.
"We need fundamental changes and the number one is cutting down all greenhouse emissions.
"Rainforests are starting to burn and the drought is the worst we've ever had, yet a lot of politicians are saying climate change isn't happening," Mr McGinlay said.
Mr McGinlay compared politicians' action on climate change to Game of Thrones (GoT).
"If you imagine all of the other parties are the Lannisters, the Starks (families in the television show) etc. quibbling against who is going to have the biggest piece of the pie and the best ideas to build roads etc., but the wall (the wall in GoT stops the White Walkers from crossing and threatening humanity) has started to melt so that is now a much bigger issue than every other," he said. "That's why I'm trying to call it out."
Mr McGinlay said he believed those who live off the land should be concerned about climate change.
"What I don't understand, although I understand it from a traditional perspective, is why people on the land are still supporting the National Party, whose leadership is among the worst on climate change.
"People on the land will lose insects and soil moister and then we'll see more wind, more storms and that top soil will be blown away.
"Vote one for The Greens to send a message to your traditional parties that this is a really big issue for you," he said.
His other policies include:
- Ensuring no one in Australia is homeless;
- Providing world-class free education from early childhood through to university and TAFE;
- Adequately funding regional hospitals, public transport and social services;
- And protecting the country's natural forests from logging while finding alternative employment for those in the industry.