The Greens are plotting a populist pivot, but could that really hurt NSW Labor?

April 16, 2026 — 5:00am

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In the early 2010s, I was writing many articles about per and polyfluoroalkyl substances — you know them as PFAS, or “forever chemicals” — leaching out of a defence base and into the water in a place called Williamtown, north of Newcastle.

This was the first time the NSW Environment Protection Authority had ever really dealt with something like this — thanks to my colleague Carrie Fellner, they’ve dealt with it a lot more since — and they made quite a few errors, including drawing a big red line around the suburb, quickly dubbed a “red zone”, decimating the value of people’s homes and making some of them uninsurable.

During that time, one of the most persistent advocates for that community was federal Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, who helped the residents to organise and pushed the then-Labor government to provide a funding package.

At the subsequent election, in 2016, there was a big swing in the local electorate of Paterson, but not to the Greens. One Nation picked up 13 per cent of the vote – an 11-point swing. They won 14 per cent at the (admittedly small) booth in Williamtown. The Greens went backwards.

This week, the NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson, recently preselected at the top of........

© The Sydney Morning Herald