2015-04-13
Giz Watson and Penny Allman-Payne (Australian Greens Co-Convenors)
Congratulations to our NSW colleagues on yet another fantastic election result! The NSW state election has again demonstrated the effectiveness of community campaigning and the targeting of our efforts. Commiserations to Adam Guise and the team in Lismore for missing out by the smallest of margins. And we've still got our fingers crossed for an additional member in the Council. One of the amusements of the campaign was hearing the ultimately unsuccessful ALP candidate in Newtown complaining that we Greens shouldn't be competing against a progressive ALP candidate and it struck us that the reverse argument could have easily been put!
Touch wood, we now have a long election-free stretch ahead of us before the Federal Election in 2016. This is a great opportunity to evaluate and organise! In 2016 we will have six Senators up for re-election as well as Adam Bandt in Melbourne. This will be the largest number of seats we've defended and of course we'd love to add more. We have less than 12 months to organise our biggest ever field campaign — so many doors to knock on, so little time! We know that approximately 4000 volunteers in NSW made all the difference and we will need to replicate this level of participation nationally.
So while the National Council is shaping up to provide improved co-ordination and leadership in this task, it's also a good time for members at all levels of the party to be spotting and nurturing rising talent in our groups and the broader community. It's a great time as well to be training up potential candidates and reviewing our policies. And if you're not yet a member, now is a great time to join the party so that you can have your say in the selection of candidates.
As well as building on successful field campaigning we know we're going to need a substantial fundraising effort to have a fair chance of competing with the huge advertising budgets of the other parties. So we've got a bit of time to get creative and have some fun with our fundraising too!
While some of us are keenly focussed on election results and planning for the Federal election, let's also salute the many who continue the important work on the ground of promoting climate change solutions, protecting our environment and fighting to prevent the closure of remote Aboriginal communities. These are just a few of the campaigns the Greens are leading as we continue to stand up for what matters.