New Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, has made an immediate appeal to the electoral mainstream, saying his party was “the natural home of progressive mainstream voters” and he was a non-ideological bloke who entered politics simply to “get stuff done”.
Di Natale was elected unanimously in a snap ballot after the shock resignation of Christine Milne. But Greens sources suggested Di Natale, and his fellow senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters, who were elected co-deputy leaders, might have had prior knowledge of the ballot in a bid to sideline other potential candidates, including former deputy leader Adam Bandt.
Over at Comment is free, electoral analyst Ben Raue argues that Richard Di Natale is the Greens’ “establishment choice”.
He writes:
The election of Richard Di Natale as Greens leader, and of Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters as co-deputies, is a generational change in the party. It also reflects the Greens’ changing national focus.
The two previous leaders Christine Milne – who announced her retirement today after three years as leader – and Bob Brown, were both former state leaders of the Tasmanian Greens. They held much safer Tasmanian Senate seats and rose in the party at a time when the Greens lacked federal representation in a number of states – prior to the 2010 election, the Greens held no federal seats in Victoria or Queensland.
The new leadership team are all aged between 38 and 45, and include senators from three mainland states.
Greens and labour could form a coalition if both parties can get their act together... this would be a formidable and progressive alliance but extremely unlikely to happen. So as aresult we will be saddled with 19th century conservatism fron the lnp
And another reader’s observation on Labor’s criticism of the Greens’ leadership election process:
ALP, in their rush to criticise the Greens, conveniently overlook the fact that the Greens changes of Leadership are voluntary - not as a result of any "spill". This is due to the fact that Geens politicians are conviction politicians who are not just there for their own advancement and ego.
Continuing the theme raised by Chris Bowen earlier this afternoon, Labor leader Bill Shorten has joined the compare-and-contrast exercise on leadership election processes.
Only one political party in Australian gives its members a say in choosing their leader. Labor https://t.co/0XYIyOhnCF
Shorten’s tweet contains a link to a curious video on “how Australian political parties elect their leaders”. It contains excerpts of news reports on the Greens’ process today, the Coalition’s attempted leadership spill in February, and the Labor ballot after the 2013 election.
There was no footage of the early Rudd-Gillard showdowns between 2010 and 2013. The overarching message was that “major reforms” adopted in 2013 allowed grassroots members of the Labor party input into the leadership (equally weighted with caucus).
A bit of context. The leadership change comes at a time when Labor and the Greens are locked in an electoral battle for progressive votes in Australia.
In his first press conference as leader, Richard Di Natale, portrayed the Greens as “the natural home of progressive, mainstream Australian voters” and said the party would serve as an opposition to Tony Abbott.
The Greens have previously targeted the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, for not fulfilling his role as opposition leader when it comes to issues like offshore processing of asylum seekers and mandatory data retention. This will no doubt continue. Labor’s left faction will be agitating for a stronger stance on some progressive issues when the party holds its national conference in July.
On the other hand, the Coalition under Abbott ran a relentless campaign against the Gillard Labor government, partly on the basis that the ALP was too heavily influenced by the Greens. And the issue of Greens preference recommendations pops up periodically around election time.
Labor’s treasury spokesman, Chris Bowen, took the opportunity to give the Greens a serve at a press conference a short time ago.
After offering his best wishes to Christine Milne and Di Natale, Bowen said:
The Greens’ leadership election process is about as secret as the process to elect the Pope. What we see from the Greens is behind-closed-doors, back-room deals. The Greens, if they were truly democratic, could adopt Labor’s policy of having every single party member elect a leader, together with the caucus.
The Labor Party is the only party in Australia which is confident enough and mature enough to have our leader elected for a proper process, consulting party members right across the country, giving every party member a vote. It is about time the Greens and the Liberal Party take those actions.
It’s time now for a taste of reaction to the changing of the guard in the Greens:
The Australian Medical Association president, Brian Owler, noted that Richard Di Natale was a GP and was likely to put health policy at the front and centre for the party:
He has worked in the front line of health service delivery, including in Aboriginal health, and he is a strong voice about the harms to individuals and the community from alcohol and drug abuse.
As health spokesman, he regularly sought advice and discussion about health policy. He listens, and is not afraid to actively prosecute his views.
Di Natale also received some congratulations from across the ditch. The New Zealand Greens party co-leader Russel Norman said Di Natale would “be able to lead the Australian Green party to even greater success”.
We look forward to continuing, and building on, the constructive Trans-Tasman relationship between our respective Green parties with Richard now at the helm.
We wish Christine Milne all the best for her future. Senator Milne has been a tireless advocate for the Australian environment and people over her 26 years of public service. Christine has made a huge impact in Australian politics, in particular the leading role she played in negotiating with the Labor Government to set Australia’s climate change policies.
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s chief executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, praised Milne’s “significant contribution to public life, action on climate change and the protection of nature in Australia”.
ACF also congratulates Senator Richard Di Natale and the new deputy leaders of the Greens party, senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam ... We urge the new Greens leadership team to take seriously the job of representing the large number of Australians who are deeply concerned about nature and climate.
Shalailah has also prepared an overview of the outgoing Greens leader’s activism and political career:
Christine Milne was a secondary school teacher in the early 1980s when the proposal to dam the Franklin River in Tasmania spurred her to change tack and become an environmental activist.
A born and bred Tasmanian, and self-confessed “farm girl”, Milne was instrumental in the ultimately successful blockade of the dam, though the protest saw her jailed for three days.
“I thought, if that’s the worst they can do to you in Tasmania, then I’m up for it. From that time on there was no looking back for me as an activist,” Milne told the Monthly in 2008.
Who is Richard Di Natale? My colleague, Shalailah Medhora, has prepared a short-and-sharp profile on the new leader of the Greens, which you can read here.
Right at the end of the press conference, Di Natale revealed that he had spoken to his wife, Lucy, about the possibility of becoming leader as early as six months ago.
I had a long chat with my partner, Lucy, and the impact it’s going to have on my life.
Q: Does that mean you knew beforehand, before Senator Milne announced the resignation?
Here’s a news flash. We’re 1.5 years away from an election and there’s a chance that the leader might step down. I was talking to Lucy about this six months ago because I might not be from a political background but I’m smart enough to know when something could happen.
So we had a chat. I would not be doing this if I didn’t have her full support and not just her support, she’s encouraged me to do it because she cares about the same things I do.
Q: Senator Di Natale, will you be offering Mr Abbott a bit of an olive branch? Will you be prepared to negotiate more on pieces of legislation rather than let Clive Palmer and some of the other extreme senators to do deals?
It’s nice to refer to other senators as extreme for a change. I’m going to talk to him and see if there’s areas where there’s common ground. Sadly I don’t think there are many. I think what you’re seeing is a deeply ideological government and you’ve got the previous budget that we’re apparently in this dire crisis, we needed to slash and burn all the things that make Australia a decent country and now we’re being told we’re in for a dull budget, there’s something going on there.
I’ll sit down and have a conversation with him and if there are things we can agree on then absolutely. As I said before, I want to get things done, I’m not in here just to sort of stand up and look at my team here and think we missed some opportunities, I want to get things done. We’ve got to get this place working better where there is agreement across party lines, we’ve got to make sure that we utilise that and we get things through the parliament.
There’s been a bit of focus on the decision to name two co-deputy leaders. Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam will share that duty.
The new leader, Richard Di Natale, says this arrangement “will work really well”.
Larissa and Scott came up with the proposition. They put it to the party room and we all thought it was a good idea.
Now I know it doesn’t fit what normally happens in this place but God knows this place needs some modernising and I think it is a terrific proposal. We’re going to work well as a team. We are a good team.
Outgoing leader Christine Milne says it is part of modernising the party. She mentions the intense workload on politicians in the 24-hour media cycle while people juggle family responsibilities:
If you want a new generation of people to come into parliament from across all political parties, not just the Greens, you have to offer them a way of life that is actually reasonable.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion