It’s been a sobering few months for the Greens. A recent Nine newspapers Resolve Political Monitor poll showed that the party’s approval had fallen to its lowest since February. Leader Adam Bandt’s popularity had plummeted, with only Lidia Thorpe and Pauline Hanson polling lower in likability.
In last month’s Queensland State election, the Greens were hoping to extend the number of seats they held from two to four. They ended up losing one of their two seats. In the recent ACT election, the Greens lost three seats in the legislative assembly after having six.
The Greens had mixed results in the recent Victorian council elections. In the cities of Yarra and Darebin, where the Greens once dominated, they are now only a minor force. In Stonnington, Port Phillip and Glen Eira all Greens have gone. But in the City of Merri-bek, in Melbourne’s north, the Greens had a significant swing.
Earlier this month, Victorian Greens MP Sam Hibbins resigned from the party following revelations of an affair with a staffer, prompting a by-election slated for early next year.
In Western Australia, 20 staff have resigned over the past three years from WA senator and First Nations spokeswoman Dorinda Cox’s office. Fifteen of those who have resigned have made complaints to Adam Bandt’s office about alleged bullying by Cox. There has been criticism that Bandt’s office has only had a muted response to the allegations.
So what is going on?
Well, there’s probably a PhD thesis on why the Greens are losing support among some sectors of the electorate. But if you are coming to the question from the perspective of a someone who will soon vote in next year’s federal election, you might see the Greens as a party of protest that is more concerned about the Israel-Hamas war and identity politics, and less focused on the environment.
The party that originally won support, particularly among women, for its policies on the environment and refugees, appears to be morphing into a political party that is repelling some of its supporters from the Bob Brown era and confusing the wider electorate with its stance on a range of issues.
A perusal of the federal party’s 2024 annual report which includes statements from each of the 15 MPs and senators shows the array of Greens’ policies. A central issue for some is the war in the Middle East. Leader Adam Bandt states, ‘The Greens have also been the only party in the Federal Parliament to oppose the invasion of Gaza.’ Deputy leader Mahreen Farqui suggests that Labor ‘will pay for their complicity’ in genocide because they have ‘refused to impose sanctions’ and ‘cut military ties with Israel’.
'The party that originally won support, particularly among women, for its policies on the environment and refugees, appears to be morphing into a political party that is repelling some of its supporters from the Bob Brown era and confusing the wider electorate with its stance on a range of issues.'
I know Jews who have great empathy for people living in Gaza, but some have resigned as members of the Greens because of the party’s muted response about the Hamas murder and rapes of women and children on October 7 last year. Others say they are disillusioned with the Greens.
I’m not surprised by the recent resignations. In pre-Covid times I was a member of the Jewish Working Greens Group, founded by the late David Zyngier. We met with former Greens leader Richard Di Natale, who was respectful and listened to us. When Di Natale resigned as an MP, Janet Rice filled his spot. The former Victorian Greens senator, Janet Rice, took an ideologically-driven hardline stance on supporting Palestinians and did not listen.
Interestingly, the Resolve Political Monitor poll indicates that Middle East tensions are not foremost in people’s minds, despite the emphasis the Greens have been placing on the conflict. Those surveyed were only marginally interested in ‘immediately recognising Palestine as a nation state’. Cost of living and housing affordability are top issues for them.
Housing is mentioned in the Greens 2024 Annual Report and for the need to freeze rents and make owning a home more affordable. However, experts have indicated that freezing rents would not have little impact on housing affordability and could only make affordability worse. Despite this, the Greens continue with the policy and to show their commitment to it, Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi froze rents on her investment properties whose combined value is worth mega-dollars. About half of all Greens MPs and senators own more than one property.
The Greens have also for months blocked Labor’s housing legislation, Help to Buy and Build to Rent bill, which aims to make it easier for first homebuyers to afford a home. Part of the scheme would see the government take a 40 per cent stake in a new home or 30 per cent of an existing one. A single person would have to earn less than $90,000 and a couple less than $120,000. There are pros and cons to the scheme, but the the Greens continued blocking of the legislation gives voters the impression the party is hard-lined: a‘party of protest’. At the time of writing, the legislation was still in doubt.
Identity politics has also caused angst in the party with members over trans issues. No one is disputing that trans rights should not be put on the table, but there has been a rigid line in the party that trans issues are not up for discussion. Members who have questioned whether trans rights may clash with women’s sex-based rights have been silenced. Some Victorian members have resigned or being ousted after being accused of transphobia.
A month ago, the Greens selected a trans woman, Tara Burnett as the candidate for the Victorian federal seat of Cooper. The selection of Burnett reflects the divide in the Greens between those focused on the transgender issues and those wanting more action on saving the environment. The media release announcing Burnett’s candidature has seven quotes attributable to them: four are on trans themes, two on housing and one on climate.
Will the Greens examine their performance of the last few months?
After the Queensland state election, Federal Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather, who spoke at a CFMEU protest in Brisbane, said the party needed to have a ‘long honest look’ at why voters turned away from them. I’d suggest that bitter internal battles within the Greens needs to be examined given ructions within the party over on covering a swathe of topics and silencing members who may question the Greens direction. These are pressing issues summed up in the recent Instagram post by the former City of Stonnington’s deputy mayor Mike Scott, who recently resigned from the Greens.
In his November Instagram resignation post he wrote:
‘In my opinion, the current culture and leadership tone has changed and no longer align with my values or goals for positive influence. The people in positions of power (both branch and state) continue to be a destabilising factor. I no longer feel welcome and therefore it’s time for me to move on.’
It’s difficult to know if the Greens will genuinely examine why they are losing support. If comparisons can be drawn between some Democrat supporters who have not made any rigorous analysis of why the Democrats lost the election and Adam Bandt’s recent social media post about the US election, then the Greens leader is not interested in analysing his party’s direction. On November 6 he wrote this X post in response to Donald Trump winning the election:
‘My heart is with every person in the USA and around the world who feels justifiable terror tonight. Hold your loved ones close. Tomorrow we pick ourselves up and we continue the fight. Hate will not win.’
Bandt wrote other posts that day about Trump’s win, but his posts give the impression that people who voted for Trump were far-right numpties. Expert analysis has suggested that the Democrats lost workers concerned about the cost of living. The widely circulated Blueprint polling indicted that inflation, immigration and the Democratic brand are reasons why the Democrats lost. The Resolve Political Monitor poll indicates that some of the policies the Greens are trumpeting are not resonating with voters. The Greens could learn lessons from the Democrats loss.
Dr Erica Cervini is a freelance journalist and sessional academic.