“We’re not normalising the abnormal, we’re not normalising genocide” – Remah Naji, Greens candidate for Moreton at Palm Sunday rally for peace and refugees on March 24, 2024, Magan-djin
After a hard-won candidate selection process, Palestinian-Australian Remah Naji has become Greens candidate for the seat of Moreton.
On the same day that the Australian government opposition leader, Peter Dutton, called Palestinians a security threat, Remah Naji threw her hat in the ring for the federal election. Remah is the Greens candidate for Moreton. The seat of Moreton stretches on the south side of Brisbane from Moorooka down to Kuraby, from inner-city to south east and it overlaps with the seats of Stretton and Rankin. All these seats have large migrant populations including Africans, Arabs, Afghanis and people from the subcontinent. Remah was born in Amman in Jordan from a family of Palestinian activists who were exiled from Yaffah in Palestine, and has revoked her Jordanian passport in order to be eligible to contest the next Federal election which can occur any time between August 2024 and May 2025, possibly in March 2025.
Former Prime Minister, John Howard, has called for Remah Naji and other Greens candidates to be placed last on LNP how-to-vote cards because of Green’s support for Palestine. Greens aim to win a fourth federal seat in Qld (Moreton) which will make them level pegging with Labor that will then have four seats. At local government level, the Greens won 23% with Jonathan Sriranganathan in the Brisbane Mayoral election this year, not far behind Labor. LNP could not obtain an outright majority in the mayoral race with their lack-lustre candidate. A generational shift has occurred in electoral politics.
Peace Movement
Over a thousand people came out in rainy weather for the annual Palm Sunday rally for peace and refugees on March 24, 2024. It was the largest Palm Sunday rally and march in years.
Here is a short video of Remah introducing Anglican Dean of Brisbane, Peter Catt, at this year’s Palm Sunday rally in Magan-djin (Brisbane). Remah is a former broadcaster on Radio 4EB, a mother of two beautiful children and an NTEU union member at University of Queensland. Here is a predictable article from the mainstream press about Remah’s candidacy.
If the spooks think Remah is a security threat, then what do they think of the Anglican Dean of Brisbane, Peter Catt, a terrorist sympathizer? At a time when Israel is backed by the US in its genocide of Palestinians who pose the greatest threat to peace?
Greens support
At her media launch Greens federal member for Griffith, Max Chandler Mather said: “Standing behind Remah will be one of the biggest people-powered campaigns Aus has seen. A multicultural coalition of renters, mortgage holders – everyday working people sick of being taken for granted by Labor/Libs who serve the interests of big corporations & billionaires.”
Labor promised the campaign would be ‘spicy’, they have a lot to learn, Palestine is a home of spice.
Remah will have a public launch of her campaign in Yeronga Memorial Park on Sunday, 10:30 on 1 September 2024.
Ian Curr, Editor,
16 August 2024.
–oOo–
Greens pick Palestinian protest leader to take on Labor in key seat
A key organiser of pro-Palestinian protests will become the Greens’ first Palestinian MP if the party can harness anger over Labor’s stance on the Gaza conflict to snatch a key seat from the government at the next election.
Greens leader Adam Bandt pledged a “huge, people-powered campaign” to win the Brisbane seat of Moreton, one of a handful of electorates where the party hopes its pro-Palestine stance will deliver its most successful election yet.
But the left-wing party’s chances in the seat, and in the three others it holds in Brisbane, may be complicated by the Coalition if, as expected, it adopts former prime minister John Howard’s call to put the Greens below Labor on ballot papers over its position on the war.
The Greens’ candidate in Moreton, Remah Naji, is a 35-year-old social worker and an organiser of the Justice for Palestine protest group who supports the movement to boycott Israeli companies and has previously said “people who commit genocide are not our friends”.
“Labor’s refusal to end two-way arms trade with Israel or sanction the Israeli government as it carries out a genocide underscores a wider inconsistency in their core values, and it will cost them seats at the federal election,” Naji said.
Lower mortgages, rent freezes and getting dental and mental health into Medicare were also among her campaign themes.
After gaining the inner-Brisbane seats of Griffith, Ryan and Brisbane at the last election – adding to its first federal seat, Melbourne – the Greens want to pick up several more to drop Labor below the 76 required for a majority and force Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to meet the crossbench party’s demands to pass bills.
Moreton is held by Labor MP Graham Perrett on a margin of 9 per cent. Perrett, a Left-faction MP viewed as a hardworking local member, will probably retire but has so far refused to confirm he will do so. He would be replaced as a candidate by former Queensland Labor state secretary Julie-Ann Campbell.
The Greens plan to knock on thousands of doors in Moreton, Wills and Macnamara in Melbourne and Richmond in northern NSW, telling voters Labor backs Israel’s invasion of Gaza, a claim made despite the government’s calls for a ceasefire, criticism of the Israeli war effort and rejection of claims it is exporting weapons or ammunition to Israel.
“With more than a third of the seat renting and many residents angry at Labor backing the invasion of Gaza, Moreton voters can now vote for a Greens MP who will fight for change,” Bandt said.
“You can’t keep voting for the same old parties and expect a different result. If you want change, the first step is to vote for it.
“Remah is a powerful voice for peace, and she will fight for a rent freeze, lower mortgage rates and getting dental and mental health into Medicare. The Greens are ready to launch a huge, people-powered campaign to get her elected.”
The Greens have spent months building relationships in Moreton, where 4.7 per cent of the residents identify as Muslim and more than a third are renters.
A Labor source unauthorised to speak on the record suggested the Greens would have less success in the poorer parts of the seat [Fact check – Greens Candidate for Mayor this year won a large swing from Labor in Kuraby in local government elections on 24 March 2024, – Editor’s note]. 
Paul Sakkal
August 15, 2024 — 7.45pm
Published in the Age and SMH
Editors Note: Paul Sakkal, the SMH/Age political correspondent enjoyed a free holiday to Israel in 2022.
you go Remah, we are all behind you