Fremantle state by-election

[Jovial Monk]

The Greens are in a state of euphoria that their candidate won with 40% (or so) of the primary vote. Some see a future, say 10 years or 3 elections where Labor is govt with Greens a Left opposition and the Fibs/Nuts a minor irrelevance.

I think that is wildly overoptimistic, tho the Fibs have a date with minor Party status.

Nevertheless, a new order looms.

[mantra.]

Yes this is wonderful news. The Greens are making good inroads. At times they might take a step back, but then it follows with two steps forward. The problem for Labor is that they made a lot of promises to the Greens prior to the last Federal election and haven't followed through with many of them. Perhaps next time around the Greens will be more inclined to do a deal with the Liberals. It's a pity, but Wong & Garrett are hopeless.

[Jovial Monk]

From PB:

As others have commented, the real opportunity here is being seized by the Greens, as in Fremantle. In a few years time the political landscape is likely to see the ALP firmly astride the centre and under attack both from the Left (ie Greens) and Right (ie Coalition) but with no viable alternative government. Troubling.

I doubt it myself. greens will never be more than a very minor party. The first time they compromise on some 'green' thing they are gone, and when you become important you do have to compromise to get things done. I could see a Senate with more Greens and less Fibs/Nuts but someone sometime on the Right will revitalise them. Mind you, they only havce a small, shrinking window for that.

[JW Frogen]

Who cares, just as long as that slobbering idiot Jim McGeinty is long gone into that gray and hollow man night.

His departure is a win - win for everyone.

Even him.

[Hebe]

greens will never be more than a very minor party.

The great achievement of the Greens is that so many of their policies have been adopted by the major parties. If they do no more than this, they've done a great deal. Especially in Tasmania.

[Jovial Monk]

In Tasmania they stopped a big renewable energy project. Yup, go the greens! NOT!

The Greens have opposed windfarms everywhere.

The Greens are middleclass hippies who want things to stay all purdy.

[Ethnic]

If the Democrats are any indication, the Greens will have their time in the sun before fading away into irrelevance when the next novelty minority party comes along to make us all feel warm and gooey on the inside.

[Jovial Monk]

The Greens are really three parties:

1. The old ALP socialist Left

2. People who want their neighborhood really pretty: windfarms spoil the view kind of flatheads

3. Those with strong environmental convictions

1 & 2 form the majority of Party members, those in Parliament probably come from 3

[Hebe]

The old socialist left may have turned a bit green, but there's a clash with the unions involved there, so the left is a battlefield. Don't confuse Greens with greenies - there's a big difference, and true Greens are pretty hard-core, not at all fuzzy and don't have a sense of humour. (Look at Christine Milne.)

They probably attract a partly warm and fuzzy vote, and the vote of the disaffected with the major parties, but they also attract serious voters from both right and left, and a lot of professional people - the well-educated, rather than the more poorly-educated.

The United Tasmania Group (UTG) is generally acknowledged as the world's first Green Party. The party was formed on 23 March 1972, during a meeting of the Lake Pedder Action Group (LPAG) at the Hobart town hall in order to field political candidates in the April 1972 state election. They received 3.9% of the statewide vote and came within 200 votes of winning a seat.[1] They also contested the 1976 election, this time receiving 2.2% of the votes.

The party's first President was Dr Richard Jones.

The UTG lasted for five years, and was briefly reformed in 1990 for the federal election. Most of the original candidates, including Bob Brown went on to form the Tasmanian Greens, who enjoyed considerably more success, then ultimately the Australian Greens of today.

That's from Wikipedia. I was a member of the UTG and believe me, being an involved Green is not for the faint-hearted.

[JW Frogen]

See, this is the one benifit of parlimentary democracy, the Far Left has some where to go.

In the US they have put their hopes, dreams, fears, even sexual fantasies on Obama, who ran far Left and now is moving ever rightward on issues such as Afganistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Military Comissions, holding prisoners of war rather than sending them to civilian courts, prosecution for alledged torture.....All this is just the first few months!

Hell, give the guy four years and he might end up being Barry Goldwater.