http://www.theage.com.au/news/state/2001/11/12/FFXNKNLOVTC.html

Greens no longer lost in the political wilderness


By CLAIRE MILLER
Monday 12 November 2001

When the Greens won the balance of power in the Western Australian election last March, the mainstream parties - Labor, the Coalition and Democrats - were quick to run the line that this was not an emerging political force. The Greens, they argued, were just a single-issue party that got lucky with a local row over logging old growth forests.

The single-issue tag exasperated Senator Bob Brown. He protested to journalists at the international Greens conference in Canberra at Easter that while the environment was a foundation plank, the party's platform was no more limited by its colorful name than if the Liberal Party were called the Blues or the Labor Party the Reds.

The national electorate got that message loud and clear when the Greens campaigned heavily on asylum seekers, taking a principled humanitarian stand. Observers say it prompted voters and the media to take the party seriously as an alternative voice on a range of other issues.

The result was the Greens' strongest showing yet in the polls. The party doubled its national vote in the House of Representatives from 2.14 per cent in 1998 to 4.3 per cent. It polled particularly well in inner-city seats in Melbourne and Sydney, winning up to 16 per cent of primaries.

In the Senate, Senator Brown picked up 13.74 per cent of the Tasmanian primary vote to retain his seat. In Victoria, Senate candidate Scott Kinnear, an organic food retailer, is in a tight three-way contest with Democrats senator Lyn Allison and Labor's Ted Murphy for the sixth upper-house seat.

Mr Kinnear won 5.9 per cent of the primary vote compared with Senator Allison's 7.66 per cent, but Greens strategists say preferences from Liberals for Forests, Phil Cleary's Independent Australia, the Hope Party and other small groups could be enough to get Mr Kinnear over the line.

Similar battles are under way in New South Wales and Western Australia; with four seats, the Greens would share the balance of power with the Democrats.

Mr Kinnear said that win or lose, he was ecstatic about the party's performance in Victoria.

"It's an extraordinary vote for the Greens in Victoria, absolutely extraordinary - a 3.8 per cent swing, giving us 5.8 per cent in the House of Representatives and 5.9 per cent in the Senate," Mr Kinnear said.

The Greens' strong showing has boosted their fortunes in other ways as well. For the first time, the party has got over the magical 4 per cent line to qualify for public campaign funding. Victorian campaign coordinator Gurm Sekhon said the state campaign cost $80,000; now the party would have $500,000 and fewer cake stalls.

Mr Sekhon said the Greens primarily gained the social conscience vote from Labor's disaffected left, including influential union support with the left-wing construction, electrical and manufacturing unions the Greens' largest donors.

He was confident that voters, having made their protest, would not drift back to Labor. He said the lack of compassion on asylum seekers was the last straw for many on the left, coming on top of state Labor's handling of issues such as health, education and using the police on S11 protesters.

"At the booths, we had people who had voted Labor all their lives and they couldn't believe what has happened. Labor has lost them. The betrayal is so deep they were looking for something different and they have found it. We have out-Labored Labor."