2025-03-18
Well done but could do better
By the Green Issue Co-editors
In the WA state election concluded on 8th March, as of 19th March, the Greens received 10.7% of the vote in the Lower House (Legislative Assembly), an upward swing of 3.8% from the 2021 election. In the Legislative Council it was 10.8% with a positive swing of 4.4%. This means that the Greens achieved their major objective for this election – of having at least four members elected to the Legislative Council.
Congratulations to Brad, Sophie, Tim and Jess.
Due to the decline in the Labor vote from its stratospheric heights in the 2021 election, and the clawing back of some votes by the Liberals, the Greens find themselves in the balance of power – something dreamt about but now realized. This means that any legislation that Labor wants to get through, and that the Liberals and Nationals would not support, would need to pass the pub test of the Greens.
Thus the Greens will be able to directly hold the Labor government to account on climate action and environmental issues. A priority task would be to amend Labor’s Climate Change Bill such that a 2030 target is incorporated and that a credible plan to reduce WA’s greenhouse gas emissions towards 2050 is legislated. The Greens will also very much be at the table when measures to ease cost of living and enhance housing attainability are discussed, and voted on.
The Greens need to be grateful to Labor for changing, in the previous parliament, the Upper House voting system to one of “one vote one value”. Previously it was based on a regional system whereby regional votes had much more value than metropolitan ones, but the Nationals lose out under the reformed system.
Although overall a good result for the Greens there are aspects where we did not do so well and will need to sharpen up on, particularly with a federal election coming up in two months. Although the Greens vote increased substantially in most Lower House electorates, in some cases more than doubling previous votes, it slipped in four electorates – Churchlands, Cottesloe, Fremantle and Nedlands. This can be attributed to strong showings by independent candidates in those electorates, rather than Greens loss of votes to Labor or the Liberals.
In the case of Fremantle the independent candidate, Kate Hulett, was a well known local supported by Climate 200 – essentially a Teal independent candidate. Her focus was on climate action and other progressive policies, attracting votes that would have otherwise gone to the Greens. But it needs to be questioned how the Greens, a long-time advocate of realistic climate action, could be so sidelined. However, the net outcome in Fremantle was a strong public endorsement for climate action. Nevertheless the Greens-progressive independents predicament needs to be addressed.
Former WA Liberal leader Mike Nahan ascribed the minimal Liberal claw back in this election to members and supporters who "didn't get off their bums". Although many Greens members and their supporters were on the job throughout the campaign, enough to get this excellent result, it could have been much better if we had had more bums on booths, and phones and letterboxing and doorknocks. Many pre-polling and polling booths could not be fully staffed by Greens members or supporters, thus allowing many votes of the undecided to slip away. A priority for future elections would be to much better mobilize the membership and other likely supporters, by phone calls well before the election date.
Where booths could not be attended, attempts were made to leave how-to-vote (HTV) cards to be picked up by voters. This turned out to be not very effective compared to being physically handed a HTV. It has been suggested that a QR code with HTV details should be placed on Greens placards. Many voters did not like the idea of all of that paper floating around. Some also complained, that while their letterboxes were regularly stuffed with Lib and Lab pamphlets, there were none from the Greens. More effort at targeting letterboxing seems worthwhile, in areas not feasible to doorknock. Which of course is all the more reason for increased campaigning mobilization of the Greens fraternity.
Header Photo: The 2021-25 WA Legislative Council. Credit: Government House Western Australia