Jamie Parker: Greens MP’s Links to Terrorists, Marxists and Anarchists

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Jamie Parker and David Shoebridge

Jamie Parker has an unusually long list of associations with extremists who want to overthrow the government, even for a Greens MP. Such a long list going back so long in fact that it might be better to simply lay them out year by year so you can see for yourself.

Keep in mind that despite all this being freely available public information not a single mainstream media outlet has considered any of it to be worth reporting on, despite Parker being a prominent elected member of Australia’s third largest political party.

Jamie Parker has some interesting friends.

In 1992 while editor at the Macquarie University student magazine Arena Jamie Parker wrote an article for Green Left Weekly, then the organ of the revolutionary Trotskyist group the “Democratic Socialist Party” (DSP). For context the DSP at that time had just been purged from the infant Greens (Jamie’s future party) by Bob Brown for being too extreme. Jamie didn’t confine himself to the DSP however, he was also being published in Socialist Worker, the magazine of the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) another revolutionary Trotskyist group and at the time the DSP’s fierce rival.

Jamie was very involved in campus politics being elected National Union of Students NSW State President in 1995 and National Environment Officer in 1996 on the ticket of an anarchist group called the Non-Aligned Left (NAL). Other members of the NAL at the time included Marcus Westbury (who went on to become an ABC arts reporter) Kerry Nettle (who became a Greens Senator) and Van Badham (who went on to become a Guardian Australia columnist).

In his capacity as NUS NSW President the young Anarchist Jamie Parker had extensive contact with other extremist groups. In 1995 at the Cross Campus Education Network (CCEN) meeting in Sydney he joined with the revolutionary Trotskyists of the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) and the DSP to frustrate the proposals of the even-more-extreme revolutionary Trotskyists of the Spartacist League.

It’s clear Jamie has a very good working knowledge of the internal politics of Australia’s extreme left. In 1996 he was again writing for Green Left Weekly in his capacity as coordinator of the “Free Burma International Student Solidarity Network”.

In his post uni career Jamie moved away from Anarchism and became the NSW state convenor for the Greens, being elected to Leichhardt Council in 1999 as a NSW Greens member. He never lost touch with his old extremist allies, trying to negotiate with the DSP in 1999 over preference issues via posts on an internet discussion list run by the National Broad Left (the successor to the NAL). Also in 1999 Jamie Parker was serving as the liaison between DSP leader Peter Boyle and his Greens patrons Lee Rhiannon and Ian Cohen regarding the Greens vote against legislation on nomination fees, party registration fees, and party membership requirements that would at that time have crippled the DSP.

The argument was short lived, by 2000 Jamie Parker was sharing a microphone at a “Free Burma” rally with DSP members Aaron Benedek and Kerryn Williams. In January 2003 as deputy Mayor of Leichhardt Parker organised the “Leichhardt Stop the War Group” against the Iraq war along with Communist Party of Australia National co-ordinator Denis Doherty and the DSPs Paul Benedek. This latter Benedek was at the time standing against Parker for the Socialist Alliance in the seat Port Jackson for the 2003 NSW election. The Socialist Alliance was at this stage a recently formed electoral coalition between the ISO, the DSP and several smaller groups that had sprung up in the wake of the S11 riots in Melbourne in 2001.

One month later in early February Deputy Mayor Parker held another Leichhardt Stop the War meeting and again spoke alongside Paul Benedek. In late February he held another meeting and invited Socialist Alliance Legislative Council candidate Lisa Macdonald to speak alongside him.

On March 12th on the eve of the 2003 NSW election Sam Wainwright, Socialist Alliance candidate for Bankstown publicly defended the Greens after the Sunday Telegraph ran a front page attack on the Greens’ drugs policy, alleging that the party supported the free distribution of ecstasy. Wainwright specifically mentioned his support of Jamie Parker in his rebuttal. On March 19th Barker again shared a stage with Paul Benedek at another “Leichhardt Stop the War Group” event in Balmain.

During the election campaign it was revealled that Mr Parker was the communications director of herbal outfit, Naturopathica. Naturopathica was (rather famously at the time) marketing the wondrous “Horny Goat Weed Plus”, an aphrodisiac that claimed to “lift your performance and unleash your desire”. Despite (or perhaps because) of this association Parker did extremely well in the election, winning 29% of the vote and beating the Liberals into third place (Paul Benedek came last with 1.5%). The Greens did extremely well at the 2003 poll, almost doubling their vote statewide.

Jamie continued his association with the Socialist Alliance, joining with other Greens councillors on Leichhardt Council to get a waiver of the hire fee for Green Left Weekly’s fundraising dinner held at the Leichhardt Town Hall. This amounted to a $1500 donation to the Socialist Alliance by the Greens using the council ratepayers money. Speaking at the dinner was Venezuelan charge d’affaires in Australia, Nelson Davila, a representative of the socialist regime of Hugo Chavez.

In 2008 when Parker was elected Mayor of Leichhardt, his friends in the Socialist Alliance cheered. In 2009 Parker as mayor hosted a public meeting to show support for Sydney Ferries and invited long time leading member of the Communist Party of Australia (and recent convert to the Greens) Jack Mundey to speak. In August 2010 Parker was a speaker at the launch of a collection of leftist poetry at Leichhardt Town Hall alongside veteran Marxist activist Solidarity founder, and first co-leader of the Socialist Alliance Ian Rintoul.

In March 2011 Jamie Parker spoke at a rally in Sydney on to call for an end to the persecution of WikiLeaks (this was back when leftists still liked Julian Assange). The protest was organised by Socialist Alliance activist Kiraz Janicke and also included Trotskyist activist Amy Thomas of the ISO successor group Solidarity as a speaker.

In the 2011 election Parker won the seat of Balmain from Labor’s Verity Firth. In the lead up to the election he received the endorsement of the Stalinists at the Communist Party of Australia and gave an interview to their newspaper. He was the first member of the Greens to sit in the NSW Lower House. Again Peter Boyle from the Socialist Alliance welcomed the success of his friend. In a fit of tongue bathing Kiraz Janicke also of Socialist Alliance conducted a congratulatory interview of Parker for Green Left Weekly.

In May 2011 Parker addressed a rally for public housing again organised by Communist Party of Australia national co-ordinator Denis Doherty. In October 2011 Parker attended a dinner celebrating Green Left Weekly’s 20th birthday at Leichhardt Town Hall. Parker gave a glowing toast to Australia’s largest Marxist newspaper and urged the assembled crowd to buy it when they saw a seller or take out a subscription, and praised all the people involved producing it.

In November 2011 Parker joined and addressed an anti coal seam gas rally outside NSW parliament house led by Jess Moore and Paul Benedek of the Socialist Alliance.

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Jamie Parker posing with fellow Greens MP John Kaye with a friend from the Socialist Alliance.

In February 2012 at the Sydney Mardi Gras Fair Day Jamie Parker along with fellow NSW Greens MPs John Kaye and David Shoebridge (a man with a long list of extremist links of his own) posed for a photograph at the Socialist Alliance stall while holding a huge Socialist Alliance banner. The photo was meant as a taunt to The Australian newspaper after they pointed out that Shoebridge had been a speaker at the Socialist Alliance national conference in January.

Jamie Parker and David Shoebridge
Jamie Parker, David Shoebridge and the late John Kaye all posing with a Socialist Alliance banner.

In April 2012 Parker shared a stage at a rally against the Malaysian government with Socialist Alliance’s Peter Boyle and Solidarity’s Mark Goudkamp. In September 2012 Barker addressed another rally against the Malaysian government again alongside Peter Boyle.

In March 2013 Barker signed a petition to the Australian government organised by Socialist Alliance activist Pip Hinman calling for cowardly anarchist murderer Jock Palfreeman, then in prison in Bulgaria, to be brought back to Australia. In February 2013 both Jock Palfreeman and Jamie Parker wrote letters of congratulations to the Green Left Weekly on their 1000th issue.

In April 2014 Parker again joined Communist Party of Australia activist Denis Doherty in another rally for public housing in Glebe. In June 2014 Parker organised a protest against the first budget of the new Abbott government and invited fellow Greens Lee Rhiannon (formerly of the Stalinist Socialist Party of Australia) and Jim Casey (Formerly of the Trotskyist ISO) to speak. I guess the Greens should be congratulated for having an ex-Anarchist provide a platform for Stalinists and Trotskyists to collaborate?

In 2015 Parker joined a call from many Marxists and fellow travellers for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to be removed from the Australian list of proscribed terrorist organisations. The PKK is of course a notorious Marxist terror group that has been engaged in a bloody on off civil war against the Turkish state since 1984 that has led to roughly 50,000 casualties and which continues to this day. In November 2015 Parker also spoke at a Sydney rally in support of the PKK which was part-organised by Peter Boyle of Socialist Alliance.

Parker was a speaker at the “Stop Westconnex” rally in the Sydney inner city suburb of Rozelle in June 2016. The rally chair was Socialist Alliance activist Andrew Chuter and also speaking was “former” Trotskyist Jim Casey. Interestingly future opposition leader Anthony Albanese was also in attendance. In September 2016 Jamie spoke at a rally in support of public housing again alongside “former” Stalinist Jack Mundey. In October 2016 he appeared alongside Socialist Alliance’s Peter Boyle in support of Renas Lelikan, a Kurdish man who once tried to set himself on fire outside Sydney’s Town Hall before going on to fight as part of the PKK terrorist group on the border of Iraq and Turkey.

In Februrary 2017 Jamie was the main speaker at a rally held outside NSW Parliament by “Newtown Residents Against WestConnex”. Speaking alongside Parker was the leader of “Newtown Residents Against WestConnex” Peter Boyle of Socialist Alliance.

Peter Boyle
Peter Boyle, co-convenor of the Socialist Alliance and friend of the Greens Jamie Parker

In January 2018 after the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria Parker signed a petition calling on the Australian Government to immediately recall its Ambassador from Ankara. Among the other thirty signatories were Sue Bolton of Socialist Alliance and Carole Ferrier of Socialist Alternative

In August 2019 Parker spoke at a rally in Sydney against the Turkish government’s sacking of three elected Kurdish mayors. Speaking alongside him were fellow Greens MP David Shoebridge and Peter Boyle from Socialist Alliance. A message was read out to the rally from Socialist Alliance Moreland City Councillor Sue Bolton. Also in August Parker spoke at an event in support of Kurdish militants in Blacktown alongside the Socialist Alliance’s Susan Price.

In October 2019 Jamie Parker again spoke at a series of rallies in support of Kurdish militants outside NSW Parliament and Sydney town hall, declaring the “solidarity” of the Australian Greens with the “Kurdish people”. Sharing the podiums with the Greens MP were Susan Price and Peter Boyle of the Socialist Alliance, Josh Lee of Socialist Alternative a representative of the Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan and the longtime revolutionary Trotskyist and leader of the Solidarity group Ian Rintoul.

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Jamie Parker speaking at an event in support of the PKK, a group designated as a terrorist organisation by the Australian government.

How Serious Is this?

We’ve now seen that an elected member of the NSW Parliament with the third largest political party in Australia started his political life as an Anarchist who wanted to destroy Australia and has spent the last two decades cooperating with Marxists who also want to destroy Australia and supporters of a group designated as terrorists by the Australian government.

None of this is shocking, Australia hating fringe extremists have sadly always had a place in Australian society back to our very foundation. What is worrying is that Jamie Parker has managed to spend almost his entire adult life as a public player in the Australian political scene without anyone in the Australian media even noticing his links to people who don’t believe Australia deserves to exist and who spend their waking hours working to destroy it.

Jamie Parker is entitled to his extremist opinions and his extremist friends, he’s not entitled to escape scrutiny for them, yet thanks to the Australian mainstream media that’s exactly what he’s done.

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