Rise to power of Australian Greens
[This is a review of an essay entitled “GROUNDSWELL: The Rise of the Greens” by Amanda Lohrey, in an Australian publication called “Quarterly Essay”. -Thomas]
33) The Canberra Times; February 8, 2003
AUSTRALIA: THE GREENS: FROM GRASSROOTS TO POLITICAL POWER
LONGSTANDING Labor supporters despair that the party can provide a
genuine alternative to conservative liberalism on grassroots social
issues. Disenchanted, the middle-class vote is giving support and votes
to smaller parties and to Independents.
In the elections of 2001 the Greens played a decisive role in 19
electoral divisions and the figures strongly suggest that they are set
to outstrip the Democrats in the next elections in both the Senate and
the House of Representatives. Since the election Green Party membership
has doubled across every state, and since the recent Green victory in
Cunningham, applications to join the Greens have, on some estimates,
jumped from one to five a week. It is tempting to conclude that the
Greens have sprung into prominence faute de mieux, or as a protest vote,
given the ills of the Labor Party and the apparent fragmentation of the
Democrats. The thesis of this essay is that their victory is, rather,
the outcome of a long developmental process. It reflects the many years
of political activism at local, state and federal level.
Unlike the Democrats, the Greens have a core constituency and ongoing
leadership. They belong to a growing international movement. They
represent a genuine movement towards what Lohrey calls ‘a new ecological
constituency’, accelerated internationally by pollution scandals, a
distrust of biotechnology and a perception of global warming. Its
leadership is organic, based on grass-roots activism and a sense of
tradition.
This essay is about the growth of that constituency. Lohrey examines the
philosophical background to the Greens, its growth as a movement, a
history of its campaigns, the failures and successes in saving the
wilderness. It is underpinned by a detailed analysis of election results
since its inception, how it became a major force in Australian politics,
its growth as a state political party, then as a federal, one,
culminating in its dramatic win at Cunningham in 2001. An unusual
political scientist, Lohrey has taught and written both academically and
creatively three novels, two of them political. Coming from a staunch
labour tradition, she has clearly been an activist and deeply committed
to the subject about which she writes.
She takes us systematically and in economical detail through the origins
of the Green Movement as a new paradigm of what politics is or should be
about the ecological, the knowledgable, respectful and restrained use of
nature.
She vividly recalls the tragic story of the flooding of Lake Pedder,
‘the Greens’ own Genesis story’ and its ‘paradise lost’ which UNESCO
referred to as ‘the greatest ecological tragedy since European
settlement in Tasmania’. That failure resulted in the formation of the
world’s first Green party in 1972. The Green Constituency to which this
has given life was a grassroots movement from radical social-justice
reformers, Christians and Buddhists, doctors and nurses, informal as
well as formal groupings.
Even more dramatic was the campaign to save the Franklin, with its
Ghandian-style civil disobedience. People came from all over, their
cause highlighted by the arrival of naturalist David Bellamy, who was
arrested along with the others. The Franklin made a minority cause a
mass movement. It culminated in an election leading to the fall of the
state government, a controversial state referendum and the election of
the first Green activist to the Tasmanian Parliament. It also
contributed to the success of the Labor Party under Hawke and his quid
pro quo statement on election night that Labor would use federal powers
granted by world-heritage listing to prevent the flooding, a decision
challenged by the state government and upheld, albeit narrowly, by the
High Court.
Though the Greens tend to discourage personality cults, the movement has
its heros, both probable and improbable. Bob Brown stands out, an emblem
of political integrity. He gave up an income as a doctor to work
full-time for the environment movement. He conducted a prolonged fast on
Mt Wellington to protest at the arrival of USS Enterprise with its cargo
of nuclear warheads.
A more improbable but highly effective hero, Graham Richardson, was, as
Environment Minister, in 1987 won over by the movement and quick to see
its electoral significance for the Labor Party, an alliance that
resulted in a massive Green preference vote for Labor in the 1990
election. A temporary plateau was reversed in the mid-1990s by a
resurgence in Western Australia and Queensland, leading to a broad
diversification of support with special groups identifying with their
causes. They made a dramatic comeback in the Tasmanian State elections
with the highest Green vote recorded in any general election.
Groundswell is valuable addition to Quarterly Essay’s contribution to
political, intellectual and cultural debate. It will be a useful
addition to political-science reading lists.
