Why I joined the Greens
I grew up in Mosman, Sydney, the son of a rusted on Liberal-voting widow. As a kid, I spent as much of my time outdoors, exploring the local bush and taking full advantage of the standard 70’s “Don’t come back until dinner time” mentality. I loved it. There was a very real sense of light-hearted freedom that seemed to go along with growing up in the 70’s and early 80’s.
As I young person, I wasn’t particularly political, but I found more and more that I was drawn to the natural world. As soon as I could drive, I regularly would jump in my red Toyota Corona wagon and head up to the Blue Mountains for a day or two, or drive up the coast to Barrington Tops for a few nights camping by the Allyn River. I couldn’t get enough of it.
The more I visited these wilder places, the stronger I felt the voice of Nature. I loved camping and walking out under the stars, I loved the sense of quiet and isolation, away from the noises and lights of city life. I loved the land and its wildlife and a sense or urgency to protect it grew within me.
In my earlier, not-particularly conscious days, I was still voting Liberal – because that’s what my mum and school mates did. (This was not at all surprising! I went to the same school that brought Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce into the world!) But as the years progressed, I began to feel more and more uncomfortable with the whole “voting Liberal” thing. I was not a good fit for a conservative political viewpoint.
In the early 80’s, I picked up playing guitar and began writing songs almost immediately. The songs that came out of me were all about connection and belonging and spoke of a growing love for nature and a clear turning away from the big city lights.
To be honest, it felt like this directional shift came from deep within … literally a calling from the soul. At about 25, I found myself walking away from my high-flying job in the buying office of David Jones to travel around Australia with a bunch of music-playing hippies. And in so doing, I fell even more in love with this beautiful country.
After a few years travelling and living in the UK, I returned to Oz a full-blown leftie muso Greens voter and the more I embraced the left, the stronger the sense of connection with like-minded people I felt, most of whom tended to be Greens voters.
For the next 20 years, I voted Green at every opportunity, but it wasn’t until just after Covid that I decided to become a fully paid-up member of Greens party. I had been contemplating running for council for years, and not long after I’d joined, our local member, Tamara Smith, approached me and asked if I’d like to run for council. It was a bit unsure at first, but after a little while, I realised it was a no-brainer.
I’m now in my fifth year on council as a Green and I love being a part of something bigger. I know that I’m representing a huge proportion of my community and the sense of support and connection that comes from being a cog in the great Greens machine is immensely rewarding. I love our shared values. It’s wonderful to know that every other Green I speak to wants the same things as me – to put the planet first, to see a clear and timely transition from fossil fuels to renewables, to see real and heartfelt human justice and to take the fight to the heavily funded major parties and their right-leaning lobby groups.
Simon Chate