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How Australia’s Greens Are Winning a Left-Wing Vote in the Heart of “Conservative Queensland”
Environment Oct 28, 2020
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Max Chandler-Mather is state strategist for the QLD Greens; Larissa Waters serves as a senator for Queensland. (@MChandlerMather / Twitter) The Australian Greens were founded in 1992, although the party’s origins can be traced to the anti-nuclear and environmental campaigns of the 1970s, as well as to the Green Bans movement, pioneered by the Builders Labourers’ Federation under Jack Mundey . After gaining momentum and a number of senate seats during the 1990s, green triangles bearing the party’s name became ubiquitous at demonstrations opposing the Iraq War, in the 2000s.
Bob Brown, then the Green leader, shot to international prominence for his protest in parliament against George W. Bush. Between the 2007 and 2019 federal elections, the Greens drew a primary vote of between 8.7 and 13 percent, locking them in as Australia’s third party (after Labor and Liberals), but also raising questions about whether they could break out of minor-party status. Amidst a string of concerning results, Green members began to agitate for greater party democracy . Simultaneously, the New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD) Greens, state branches to the left of the party, bucked national trends. NSW maintained the Green vote, while QLD extended it. Then, […]
