Chris Kearney is running in the Federal seat of Jagajaga for the 2025 election as a “Voices Of” branded community independent. He previously ran for the Greens in the state seat of Bulleen in 2018, and the seat of Mill Park in 2022. In the three years since last running for the Greens, Chris Kearney has done a different kind of runner and is now running as a community independent.
The “Voices of Jagajaga” facebook page was created on the 4th of August 2024 by retiree Richard Snow. Richard Snow and Chris Kearney are both signatories to “The Docklands Declaration”, a document that on its surface level is a quite reasonable call for “differences of opinion” within the Victorian Greens to be “aired openly”. As of today, this document is currently controlled by Linda Gale, an outspoken Greens member who has provided comment to the media several times to complain about the party’s staunch internal activism in favour of trans solidarity. While on its surface this “Docklands Declaration” is quite reasonable, when The Age asked some of its proponents for more details, they had this to say:
They say the party has been increasingly unable to debate a range of topics. Gender policy, yes, but also the Voice to parliament and so-called “Big Australia”. Cancel culture and closed-mindedness are rife, they say – without wanting to be named.
Richard Snow, the aforementioned creator of the “Voices of Jagajaga” Facebook page, even wrote an article on a now deleted Substack called “Green Ideas” titled “Why I think the Docklands Declaration is important” on 13th August, 2023. Under his heading “Legitimate Questions” he gets into what exactly “The Docklands Declaration” will help him ask:
is it reasonable to put a twice-convicted rapist in a women’s prison amongst female prisoners?
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can a child who has never had an orgasm give informed consent to go on drugs that may make them non-orgasmic for life?
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can a child with several co-morbidities or ‘associated conditions’ (i.e. depression, anxiety, autism, ADHD, obsessive disorders, eating disorders, self harm, recent sexual assault, bipolar disorder, recent death of a parent, evidence of abuse with in the home) legitimately be sent to an endocrinologist aer only three evaluation sessions, without extensive psychotherapy to get them into a t state to understand the implications of their treatment?
Why I think the Docklands Declaration is important, Green Ideas
Richard Snow’s questions are similar to those raised in the moral panic which preceded Trump’s recent second-term executive orders. They seem like a reproduction of American politics and import the creeping authoritarianism and single-issue obsessions of the Trump administration.
Another administrator of the “Voices of Jagajaga” Facebook group, Liz Chase, was recently featured in an article about a preselection she lost within the Greens. The article states that the context for the “feud” is, “…a broader dispute in the Victorian Greens over whether party members are permitted to raise concerns on trans rights and if they conflict with the rights of biological females.”
Progressive politics are obviously on the side of LGBT+ rights, and this has thankfully also played out in the Climate 200 and Voices movements. Zali Steggal has repeatedly spoken in support of the LGBT+ community, as has Cathy McGowan and Zoe Daniel. A pertinent question for Voices Of and the Climate 200 movement more broadly is, do they support the so-called “legitimate questions” that prominent members of the Voices for Jagajaga campaign, seem to support?