I was bitterly disappointed to see over the weekend that the Greens didn't win the seats of Balmain or Marrickville in the NSW election. If they couldn't win either seat in a year where the ALP's brand was at its lowest ebb, it's unclear if they ever can.
But I should be very clear here: I'm not disappointed that the Greens' candidates Jamie Parker and Fiona Byrne won't be in parliament instead of ALP members Verity Firth and Carmel Tebbutt. Indeed I have very little doubt that Firth and Tebbutt are more talented and capable members than Parker and Byrne. More about that in a second.
What disappoints me is that I worry this result will embolden those in the ALP who disregard progressive issues and voters, judging the Greens to be a minor threat. If the ALP learns from this that their most progressive members aren't going to lose to Greens our politics will be poorer. I wanted to see Firth and Tebbutt cast out to send the opposite messsage: the the ALP faces a credible threat on its left and that it needs to act to address it.
As much as Firth and Tebbutt themselves are probably not anti-gay marriage*, they are part of a party that still is. Maybe the national conference this year will change that. But when we're dealing with massive state-sponsored discrimination, I don't see why anyone should be content to wait. I refuse to support a party that lets progressive issues slide, and lets discrimination continue because it would rather win the votes of bigots than try to win them over.
Now the Greens have to take a big share of the blame here. They put forward to terrible candidates. Fiona Byrne, former Mayor of Marrickville council, voted for that council's boycot of Israel and Israeli products. That was a decision that placed her clearly out of the mainstream at a time when the Greens needed a candidate who could win the votes of disgruntled ALP voters and strategic-voting Liberals.
Jamie Parker, mayor of Leichhardt Council, was involved with a company that made false claims about the health benefits of herbal remedies it sold. In the run up to the election I received a mailer from him that said he opposed the privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank and Telecom! Again, not a candidate who is going to attract many new voters to the Greens' cause.
I still would have preferred to see them both elected, my reasoning being that in Parliament they were more likely to campaign for marriage equality, action on climate change and other key Greens policies than divestments from Israel or the return of lumbering state utility monopolies. More importantly, I thought their presence would have given the ALP a real scare and sent it the message.
So who wins from the Greens' failure? Not the Greens, that's for sure. And not people who care about the mainstream causes that only they champion. The winner, of course, is the ALP. The question is whether it will prove a phyrric victory. If the ALP realise that the Greens' own ineptitude saved them, then they may be able to save themselves. Having Firth and Tebbutt make up about 10% of their lower house caucus may help. But if they conclude from this victory that they're untouchable and can continue to ignore their left flank, their day of reckoning will come sooner rather than later.
* I understand that issue is primarily federal, but that's no reason why state-level candidates can't campaign on it.