The Greens have announced their five candidates for the next state election.
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Their pitch is increasingly as a mainstream party, albeit with a strong orientation towards protecting the environment. They now also focus on being ready to hold the balance of power between the major parties if there is no clear majority after the next election.
But the dilemma for the Greens, and therefore for voters, is what it would mean to be simultaneously mainstream, protect the environment and hold the balance of power.
To date, relatively few non-core green voters have valued the Greens' roles in holding governments to account or brokering more balanced policy positions.
Hence, the relative stability of the core green vote is associated with core values around the environment, especially ending native forest logging.
However, for many years now, the Greens have demonstrated they are highly effective at negotiating on a range of issues other than traditional environmental ones, especially around progressive social policies - the cost of living, healthcare and housing - and good governance.
They are sharp performers in Parliament and, over the years, have been the only people to hold both Liberal and Labor governments to account effectively in the House of Assembly.
So, whilst the Greens are actually good at what will be needed in a likely coalition parliament - negotiating skills, willingness to work cooperatively, a focus on good governance and good outcomes for all Tasmanians; it is unclear how many additional voters will trust them with this potential balance of power role.
The Jacqui Lambie Party and Andrew Wilke have shown a focus on skilfully 'keeping the bastards honest' and looking after the battlers, which is a vote winner in itself.
The major parties will point to what they see as the 'failed' partnerships with the Greens in the past. However, much of that failure was an inability to understand how to be cooperative rather than adversarial.
One of the advantages the Greens can claim is that they are a unified group. Therefore, if they hold the balance of power, it effectively reduces the number of independents required to support a policy position as they will (presumably) vote as a bloc.
In this election, the Greens will benefit from the increase in younger voters (who tend to vote Green). If they can attract more voters with their claims around cooperative and negotiating expertise, they could well hold the balance of power.
Professor David Adams, University of Tasmania
Will the Greens hold the balance of power in the next Tasmanian Parliament?
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07.02.2024
The Greens have announced their five candidates for the next state election.
$1/
Login or signup to continue reading
Their pitch is increasingly as a mainstream party, albeit with a strong orientation towards protecting the environment. They now also focus on being ready to hold the balance of power between the major parties if there is no clear majority after the next election.
But the dilemma for the Greens, and therefore for voters, is what it would mean to be simultaneously mainstream, protect the environment and hold the balance of power.
To date, relatively few non-core green voters have valued the Greens' roles in........
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