Ben Oquist
Ben Oquist was involved in the establishment of the Australian Greens in
1992 and was a long term adviser for Greens Senator Bob Brown in Canberra as well past
staffer for Greens NSW MLC Ian Cohen. Ben currently works as media and
political consultant on a range of environment and social justice issues,
including the campaign against coal mines in the hunter valley and freedom in West Papua.
Ben has worked for a range of environment organisations, was trained in communications and media at UTS where he was student president and remains an avid supporter of, and contributor to, community radio. Ben has worked with the New Zealand Greens during election campaigns as well as taking a six month sabbatical to Brussels in 2004 to observe the European Greens campaign for their Parliamentary elections.
Ben’s achievements include:
Helping to overturn mandatory sentencing for indigenous children in the Northern Territory and charting the Greens’ response to Tampa while adviser to Senator Bob Brown (1996-2005)
Securing the public release of secret documents on the desalination plant, as adviser to Ian Cohen (1995 and 2005-06)
Establishing more effective ways to communicate - instigating the Wild Young Greens, creating NSW Greenmail and helping start our podcasting initiative
Working with the European Greens on the 2004 EU Parliament campaign
Working round the clock to help elect Greens MPs ‐ including Lee Rhiannon, Ian Cohen, Sylvia Hale, Michael Organ and Kerry Nettle.
Helping establish the Australian Greens in 1992
To contact Ben please check out www.benoquist.com, email benoquist@gmail.com or call 0419 704 095.
