PROTESTERS: Shame Labor Shame! Shame Labor Shame!
ALEXANDER BULCHER, REPORTER: Protestors swarmed outside this Brisbane restaurant in July.
PROTESTERS: (Bleeped) you!
ALEXANDER BULCHER: Inside, the Prime Minister at a dinner for the party faithful.
PROTESTERS: Shame Labor Shame!
ALEXANDER BULCHER: A Greens councillor promoted it, and a Greens state MP was amongst the crowd.
PROTESTERS: Shame Labor Shame.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: One of the rally’s organisers was Remah Naji from the Justice for Palestine movement.
Five weeks later, she was announced as a candidate for the Greens.
REMAH NAJI: While millions cry out for peace, Labor wouldn’t sanction Israel as it carries out a genocide.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: In Sydney’s inner west last month, a Greens councillor promoted and spoke at a rally ahead of a Greens motion on investment in the Middle East.
PROTESTERS: Nazis, nazis.
URI WINDT, JEWISH COMMUNITY MEMBER: People were kind of losing a little bit of their control and people felt unsafe and we decided to leave at that point.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: The Greens vocal pro-Palestine stance has drawn criticism and claims the party has become more radical.
Not so says the party’s co-founder Bob Brown. He was arrested in the 1980s protesting the damming of the Franklin River.
BOB BROWN, FORMER GREENS LEADER: Every time you do that, you’ll have somebody in politics or in the media pointing the finger at you and saying you’re radical or you’re extreme. No, you’re not. You’re speaking out for humanity.
The Greens should be spread across the whole spectrum of issues, because our job is to replace Labor and the Liberals and the National Party. It’s no good just trying to keep them honest. That’s a hopeless pursuit.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: The Greens now hold more seats across Australia than ever before, and with that growth comes greater attention and scrutiny.
PROF. ANDY MARKS, POLITICAL SCIENTIST: The Greens are going through growing pains at the moment which makes them a very different party from the single-issue outfit they were in their early days. All parties go through that process when they’re wanting to shape up for the mainstream.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: The Greens are making a concerted push in the Lower House where they hold four seats – they want five more after the next election.
ADAM BANDT, GREENS LEADER: The Greens are now Australia’s social democratic alternative. You’ve got the Liberals moving to the hard right. Labor is moving to the centre right, and the Greens are now the country’s only social democratic alternative.
KOS SAMARAS, REDBRIDGE GROUP: The growing sentiment within the Australian public right now, whether the people are voting for Greens or other minor parties or the teal independents, people want to see the duopoly broken up.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: Greens leader Adam Bandt used a recent address to the National Press Club to promote his party’s progressive ambitions to tax big multinationals, banks and supermarkets.
ADAM BANDT: Invest that money in things that people actually need like wiping student debt, affordable housing, expanding Medicare to include mental and dental health.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: Ambitious goals that Bill Shorten labels populist and unrealistic.
BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES: The Greens can say whatever passes through their brain because they’ll never, ever be in a position where they’ve got to actually implement all the promises that they’re making.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: But earlier this year the Greens did gain traction on housing policy.
ANDY MARKS: The Greens were incredibly effective earlier this year, Max Chandler-Mather on policies designed to appeal to renters, which is vacant ground that the majors have left. There was an incredibly large gap that the Greens very successfully walked into.
MAX CHANDLER-MATHER, GREENS MP: The five million adult renters in this country will not forget Labor’s betrayal.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: Last week the Greens combined with the Coalition to stymy one of the government’s key commitments – housing policy.
ADAM BANDT: I hope the Prime Minister stops bulldozing and starts negotiating because we need to take action on the housing and rental crisis now.
BILL SHORTEN: Why am I not surprised that they now work with the Coalition to stop 40,000 people a year being able to access home ownership. I mean it is just consistent with their playbook which is be anti-Labor 100 per cent of the time.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: In August Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather addressed a CFMEU rally in Brisbane after the Government introduced new laws to put the union into administration.
MAX CHANDLER-MATHER: Labor has used these untested allegations as an excuse to attack an entire union.
ADAM BANDT: There’s been some very serious and concerning allegations, and the Greens have always taken an approach that the rule of law and the separation of powers are important in this country, and where serious allegations are made then they should be investigated.
ANDY MARKS: When it comes into a situation like the CFMEU example, which is one that’s involving some investigations and some very serious accusations, I’d suggest that that’s a misstep at this point.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: Former Labor strategist Kos Samaras runs the polling group Redbridge.
Their analysis shows the Greens stuck on around 12 to 13 per cent of the vote.
KOS SAMARAS: We’re seeing this in out sort of dynamic going on with the Greens base, where they’re growing exponentially amongst younger Australians, but actually losing some of their traditional base amongst older Australians.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: In Sydney 52-year-old Brendan Winter is planning not to vote Green for the first time in his life.
BRENDAN WINTER, FMR GREENS VOTER: I think a lot of us who vote Green were always attracted by their environmental policies and I remain so, but I think the gap has potentially narrowed with the major parties on that particular issue whereas on a number of other issues notably and including the Middle East but some other issues as well they’ve become quite extreme.
ADAM BANDT: We’ve taken this position because it’s based on humanity, it’s based on international law, it’s based on principle, and we’re going to continue to push for it.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: But among younger voters the Greens housing policies are winning support.
CHLOE HOLMES, GREENS CANDIDATE: So, I think the one that’s prevalent for me right now as being someone whose had to move around a lot is housing stress.
JY SANDFORD, GREENS CANDIDATE: For me it is very much wanting to not live in a time where housing prices are completely outgrowing wages, and with the cost-of-living crisis as well with supermarket price gouging.
ALEXANDER BULCHER: Former Labor leader Bill Shorten says the Greens aren’t a party of government.
BILL SHORTEN: Unfortunately, they’ve become quite radical which means that I think their prospects for looking after about 90 per cent of Australians, unfortunately, is low.
KOS SAMARAS: They have to probably be a bit more moderate and negotiate with the government of the day, be it the Labor Party in particular, on issues that they may not agree with.
ADAM BANDT: I think what we’re seeing in Australia is more and more people moving to the Greens and to third parties because they want our voices to be heard in parliament. They want us to push for action on the things that matters to them.
