Election campaigns are a rollercoaster. When the dust settles and the signs come down, what remains is the deep work of reflecting on what we fought for, what we held, and what comes next. It’s painful to lose hard-won and hard-fought seats in the Federal Parliament, but it happens.
This election we even had the racist, fossil fuel, billionaires’ dirty big money being poured into a direct single objective campaign of misinformation – to shrink the Greens vote in the seats we held. Despite the millions that were spent by those self-serving vested interests, the Greens vote held strong.
We retained, with increased support, every one of our 11 Senate seats, and we are returning to parliament as the largest and most progressive crossbench party in the country. That means we will once again hold the balance of power in the Senate.
Labor’s majority win is an excellent win against the politics of hate and Trump style politics that has now been rejected by the people. Labor will now form a majority government – on just over a third of first preference votes. That’s not an actual landslide, and it is certainly not a blank cheque. It is a majority achieved with strong and growing Greens preferences, on top of the complete collapse of the Liberals.
Here in the Northern Rivers, the Greens vote remains very strong. We saw incredible campaigns powered by community hope, thousands of wonderful volunteers, led by brilliant candidates who spoke clearly about the need to better address climate breakdown, end native forest logging and fix the broken nature laws, deal with the housing crisis in earnest, wipe student debt, provide public childcare and get dental and mental health into Medicare.
In Richmond, Mandy Nolan had to face the tough dynamics of a three-cornered contest. When the Coalition vote is so low, and it was even lower than the revolt against Scott Morrison, preferences flow to Labor, even if the Greens are polling first or second.
We’ve also seen more contests with single issue parties like Legalise Cannabis, and while we share common ground on drug law reform, we must be honest about where they choose to run and how preference flows shaped outcomes. In tight races like Richmond and Wills in Victoria, votes for Legalise Cannabis, as I understand was intended, helped deliver Labor the win, despite many of their supporters wanting similar outcomes to those the Greens are working very hard to achieve.
I can say hand on heart, the way the numbers have fallen, is not the outcome I actively hoped for my party and those in our communities who are hungry for justice, delivered through a mature and robust parliament, the way it was designed. However, as it turns out what we have is a majority Labor Government with the Greens controlling the Senate, because that’s what the people voted for.
Labor has the power to end native forest logging, legalise cannabis and expand Medicare to mental and dental health. They can now take real action on climate, raise the age of criminal responsibility, and reform our broken nature and environmental protection laws. They can Close the Gap for First Nations people and communities, roll back the anti protest laws and they can fix the housing and cost of living crisis in earnest.
There is nothing stopping us, because the people have now given Labor and the Greens a clear path through the Parliament to do all of these things and I can’t wait for it all to get started!
