We're pleased to present some new features here on GreensMPs - this new site for the Greens Senators was always a work in progress, and we still have a few things up our sleeve.

You'll notice a few additions to the site;

• Events - keep up to date with functions, events & important dates.
• Forums - take part in discussion on a variety of topics.
• Petitions - put your name to important petitions run through GreensMPs.
• Polls - make your vote count here on various issues.
• Tip-offs - keep your GreensMPs informed on important issues, totally anonymously.
• Links - branch out into our best picks of the world wide web.

Welcome to the all new, singing, dancing and blogging GreensMPs website.

You'll find a range of web based systems designed to better inform you of the Australian Greens Senators' work, including newsroom, galleries, videos, parliamentary achives, info and our collective GreensBlog.

Those of you coming through from our old blog site will notice we have switched blogging platforms - please update your links and rss feeds. 

We are extremely confident that this new GreensMPs site will provide you, the users, with a much better service in terms of both finding out the Greens' position in detail and commenting on it, making your views heard, contributing to the democratic process.

It's been noted a few times - in comments and in direct emails to the moderators - that there has been quite a lull in the use of GreensBlog recently. This is sad but true, and I just wanted to briefly explain it.

As well as working with the new Senators and their teams and preparing for the avalanche that is about to come with the shifting balance of power in the new Senate, a fair chunk of our time recently has been dedicated to preparing a new website for the 5 Greens Senators that will encompass each of their sites, an umbrella site, newsroom, galleries, videos, parliamentary archive and, of course, the blog itself.

We are extremely confident, as the new site begins to take shape, that it will provide you, the users, with a much better service in terms of both finding out the Greens position in detail and commenting on it, making your views heard, contributing to the democratic process! It will also, I might add, be a lot easier for us to use than our current outdated mishmash of sites...

I've been somewhat troubled recently by the growing tendency of some commenters to launch personal attacks, use the comments threads as venues for spurious cricitisms, and turn the threads into quite unpleasant and personal arguments.