The Australian Greens’ Deputy Leader Scott Ludlam told Neos Kosmos this week that his party’s efforts to back the Tsipras government in June was no political stunt, and that there were “strong lessons” to be learned in Australia from Greece’s tussle with its creditors.

At the height of the tensions surrounding the bail-out terms being offered to Greece by the IMF, EU, and European Central Bank, Mr Ludlam and fellow Greens MP Lee Rhiannon put forward a motion asking the then treasurer Joe Hockey to appeal to the IMF to amend the fund’s austerity conditions.

While the motion was not supported, as a symbolic gesture, the Greens’ credentials as arguably Australia’s most Philhellenic political party were certainly boosted.

Speaking at the farewell reception in Canberra for Greek Ambassador H.E. Mr Haris Dafaranos, Senator Ludlam said: “It didn’t look as though the Australian government had lifted a finger, and it’s not as though we’re an innocent bystander on the other side of the world.

“Some of the European institutions which the Australian government has a good standing with were putting unforgivable pressure on the Greek people, and we just felt somebody should do something.”

Senator Ludlum said that the lessons for Australia in the narrative of the Greek and eurozone crisis was the need for courage in the face of “prevailing economic orthodoxy.”

“You have to be very brave. There was an attempt by the troika to crush the so-called ‘Greek experiment’ in case what the Greek authorities were trying to do, with their democratic mandate, might spread to Spain, Portugal and elsewhere.”

The senator added: “While Australia is not part of what became a dysfunctional monetary union, we’re still subjected to many of the same tensions within the global financial system. I think there are strong lessons – political as much as economic.

“Sometimes forces which appear quite benign can turn very rapidly, and the costs were all being paid by the people with the least ability to adapt and respond.”