Adam Bandt says Greens’ gains creates mandate for end of fossil fuels
“We’re up for conversations with Anthony Albanese and his Labor government about how we can deliver on that because we think this could be a period of very good progressive reform for the country.”
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Six so-called “teal” independent candidates beat Liberal MPs in formerly blue-ribbon Sydney and Melbourne seats on a policy platform dominated by more ambitious climate action. But Bandt claimed the teals’ seats were never in the Greens’ sights.
“A couple of years ago we were public about our strategy, and we were clear about which seats we wanted to we were going to target and that was done before the teal independents announced their candidacy or where they were going to campaign.
“There’s a myth that Queenslanders are inherently conservative, but they’re not. There’s just a clear understanding amongst many people here that politics as usual is not working for them.”
Greens’ votes in Queensland rose from 186,836 in 2016 to 234,209 in 2019. The election count continues, but the party appears to have secured a surprising win from the Liberals in the Brisbane electorate of Ryan.
The Greens captured 20 per cent of the first preference votes in Ryan in 2019, while the Liberal Nationals Party (LNP) won with 48 per cent. But the Greens ate into the conservative vote and picked up 32 per cent this time around, reducing the LNP to 37 per cent of first preferences, which means the minor party is likely to win with Labor preferences.
“A few years ago, the Greens won the Brisbane City Council seat, which is effectively the same size as a state seat in parliament. Then we won one seat in the state parliament and then a second one and the campaign here kept going after the past Queensland State election,” Bandt said.
“The very clear message from us is that we were offering an alternative to politics as usual.”
Labor looks likely to hold a majority of seats in the lower house, which means it can pass legislation without support from other MPs.
But counting for lower house seats continues and the Greens could still end up winning Richmond in NSW and McNamara in Melbourne, which would deliver them a say in the balance of power with other crossbench independent and minor party MPs.
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