2015-02-03
Grahame Bowland (WA Co-Convenor)
In the last few months, WA volunteers have phone banked for the Victorian Greens in support of their state election campaign, and provided assistance to the Queensland Greens as they contested a very short snap election. Over fifty volunteers participated, making more than 5,400 calls to Victorian voters, and then around 2,500 calls to Queenslanders — around a quarter of the total calls made during the Queensland campaign.
All WA Greens can take pride in our contribution to these interstate campaigns. However, WAs efforts arent unique — many other state parties made similar efforts. Its easy to see our growing ability to organise across state lines reflected in the outstanding results the Australian Greens have achieved in recent elections.
In the coming year well do what we can to assist New South Wales in their state election campaign, and weve begun considering how we can support Greens (WA) members in the November local government elections.
Above all, 2015 is our chance to build the infrastructure which will let us successfully contest the 2016 federal election, to be closely followed by our 2017 state election. To that end the working groups of the party are getting busy.
Our election campaigners are commencing research efforts, and planning community campaigns. Work is being done to map out the capabilities we require, and how were going to get those capabilities in place.
The ICT working group have been steadily building a new Greens (WA) web site. Its almost ready to launch, so look out for it in February or March.
All of WAs regional groups (branches) operate by consensus. Excitingly, several outer-urban region groups have been moving their consensus decision making online. Theyve found this opens up decision making to more people (not just those who can make it to a meeting), and reduces the amount of time spent discussing administrative proposals during the face-to-face meetings. Those meetings then have time available for other things, such as community campaigning, or policy discussions.
Members from the Pearce-Hasluck and Moore-Cowan regional groups have agreed to present at a forum on online consensus, so that other groups can learn about it and potentially adopt it. If it goes well in WA, this might well be something for other states to look at (if they are not already).
The newly formed Membership Engagement Working Group will be having its first meeting soon. The group aims to help new members get started in the party. Most people who join the Greens have something in mind which they wish to achieve — perhaps a policy idea, or a wish to campaign for climate action. This new group will work to open up the party and help new members put their passion to work.
As if we dont have enough to do, during 2015 both our state and federal electoral boundaries are under review. A new federal electorate will be created, WAs sixteenth. The Greens (WA) will be making submissions to both reviews, and Id encourage all those interested to get involved and make their own submissions. Check out the AEC and Electoral Boundaries WA sites for more information.
We have an exciting year ahead, our springboard to two crucial elections. There is much work to be done, so muck in — its time to take our country back, and build a Green future.