Why We as Jewish Students, Vote Green

As Jewish Greens voters, we’ve copped our fair share of flak from some of our peers in the community. No, we’re not self-hating Jews - we’re here to talk about why we’re voting Greens in this election (a reason that transcends our Jewishness), and why we started voting Greens (reasons that were deeply informed by our Jewishness).

The most overwhelming reason we’re voting Greens in this election is climate change. Given the sheer urgency of our need to drastically reduce carbon emissions according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we believe a Greens vote is the only practical and sensible vote if we want to grow up in a world with a functioning ecosystem, or leave a decent world for generations to come.

Reflecting their wholehearted commitment to a broad, powerful response to climate change, the Australian Conservation Foundation recently gave the Greens a 99% percent positive rating for their climate policy. While it’s crucial to enact policies that take a “Green New Deal” approach, looking out for Australia’s economic welfare and creating opportunities for workers affected by the transition to better environmental approaches, we don’t have time for compromised policies when it comes to avoiding climate catastrophe. To address the climate crisis properly means to acknowledge that the entire future of the country relies on real, effective, long-lasting action, and we believe that it is in our interests as young people to vote for a party who treats the climate emergency for what it is. To vote in any other way seems terrifying irresponsible.

Hannah Aroni

“We started voting Greens because we noticed that often, their influence, even with only a few seats in Parliament, became the deciding factor in making policy better. ”

For years, the Greens have been at the forefront of fighting for the rights and dignity of refugees and people seeking asylum to this country. In Australia it’s become normalised to allow reprehensible treatment of refugees, not because this treatment makes sense or is necessary, but because it appeases some of Australia’s least rational fears. It is truly unfathomable to us that holding hundreds of people in detention camps as punishment for fleeing war and persecution is still readily justified by our government, and we shudder to think of how our own families would have been treated by Australia if they’d had to flee the Holocaust today. We’re heartened both by the Greens’ staunch refugee support, and by their approach to rising contemporary antiSemitism and other forms of baseless hatred. The Greens have made policy commitments to appropriately fund the Online Hate Prevention Institute, fund research into extremism, and combine law and intelligence approaches with evidence-based community responses to hateful radicalisation.

One thing that worries us about the hesitancy to vote Green is that some young voters seem to assume that a vote for anyone apart from a major party is wasted. Preferential voting means our votes are never wasted, but we also believe the Greens don’t need to form government in order to improve government. We started voting Greens because we noticed that often, their influence, even with only a few seats in Parliament, became the deciding factor in making policy better, or usefully shifting the Overton window on important issues – for example, pushing for the Banking Royal Commission, the Disability Royal Commission, or keeping marriage equality and a national ICAC on the agenda. The Greens purposefully do not receive any political donations from the coal, gas and oil industry, and they actively look to root out corruption from all levels of politics - which makes it possible for them to take principled stances.

It’s seemingly impossible to speak as a Jewish Greens voter without talking about Israel. The Greens proudly uphold their belief in a two-state solution, and have made a resolution enshrining their commitment to supporting self-determination of all peoples, including Israel’s right to selfdetermination. Many young Jewish voters we know aren’t yet aware of the J-Greens, a group of Jewish Australians who have already been instrumental in improving the Greens’ approach to Jewish issues and international affairs policy, and who have been welcomed and supported by Greens leadership. The Greens have had some bumps in the past, sometimes leading to mistrust within the Jewish community. These issues matter to us, and that’s why we’ve joined the J-Greens – because “if I am not for myself, who will be for me?”. But being a Jewish voter also means being concerned about broader policy that will affect everyone. Because “if I am only for myself, who am I?”