Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As you would be aware, much has been said about the systematic campaign by comrade Lee Rhiannon in the other place to sanitise her Marxist revolutionary past. Many questions have been asked on both sides of this chamber of comrade Rhiannon about her history of Stalinist activism within the Socialist Party of Australia, a pro-Moscow group that split from the Communist Party of Australia, questions that comrade Rhiannon has systematically ducked in a vain game of hide and go seek.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Casey is aware that the senator is a member of the other place and that is not an appropriate way to describe her in debate in the Main Committee.

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will correct myself from now on, Mr Deputy Speaker. The twists and turns of the senator's contortionist evasions are recounted in great detail by Gerard Henderson of the Sydney Institute in his excellent 'Media Watch Dog' column. In a letter to Senator Rhiannon, Mr Henderson posed a dozen questions about her communist past, about whether she was telling the truth when she claimed on Channel 10's Meet the Press that she had merely 'assisted with the production' of Survey, the SPA's Kremlin funded propaganda sheet. It was quite a reasonable question to ask in light of the fact that Senator Rhiannon signed off in August 1990 on the final edition of Survey under her then married name by-line, 'Lee O'Gorman, Editor'.

Mr Henderson also inquired about reports by former fellow travellers that Senator Rhiannon studied at Moscow's infamous International Lenin School, where Marxists from around the world were apparently instructed in the dark arts of fomenting communist revolution. These are entirely legitimate questions, questions that arise from Senator Rhiannon's public statements and personal history. Yet, how did she respond to these queries? Senator Rhiannon responded with the time honoured Marxist tactic of cheat and retreat. Despite her attempt to deny the undeniable, the objective record is becoming clearer and clearer. From the late 1960s until the demise of the Soviet Union, Senator Rhiannon was clearly a Kremlin parrot, slavishly regurgitating whatever Marxist nonsense was dictated by her Politburo masters.

During one interview, Senator Rhiannon tried to plead dewy eyed innocence as an explanation of her dubious history of shilling for totalitarianism. But when the Berlin Wall finally fell in 1989, Senator Rhiannon was 39 years of age, hardly a spring chicken. So, even if the claim of youthful exuberance was used as a defence, in Senator Rhiannon's case the statute of limitations had well and truly expired.

By 1990 the writing was well and truly on the wall for the Soviet Union. That meant trouble for Senator Rhiannon and her fellow travellers. With the Soviet Union collapsing because of its internal contradictions, there was a drying up of the Kremlin gravy train that had supported communist movements throughout the world. When the Marxist going got tough, Senator Rhiannon got going. She was left politically homeless. But, miraculously, she engineered a seamless political transition. Senator Rhiannon would have us believe that she went to bed one night wearing red pyjamas and woke up the very next morning wearing green pyjamas. Hallelujah!

Our main concern today should be whether Senator Rhiannon's past will be the Greens future. We should see where the Greens are today and we should think where she might take them tomorrow. The Australian Greens can no longer be considered a mere protest party. They have the balance of power in the other place. They should be held to account the same as every other member of this place. This is a continuing story; it is one that Senator Rhiannon should confront. She should apply to herself the same standards she demands of everybody else.