Previously, Crikey has kept an eye on the crises circling the Liberals, Labor and Nationals. However, it is not tokenism that gets the Greens a spot in our series; in many ways, the sense of calamity surrounding them often borders on the existential, and at times makes the other three parties’ crises look positively amateurish.
Alex Bhathal and the ‘bullying’ problem
Crikey has long chronicled the factional dispute that engulfed perpetual candidate Alex Bhathal. At the beginning of last year, as a potential byelection loomed in Batman, a complaint went from the Darebin branch of the Greens to the Victorian state Greens head office calling for Bhathal’s deselection and possible expulsion for alleged bullying and misconduct. More vague and damaging allegations followed, leading party leader Richard Di Natale to concede there was someone in the Darebin Greens who would rather see the party lose than have Bhathal in parliament. It worked: Bhathal suffered a 3.4% swing against her, and Labor held the seat.
Alleging her campaign had been destroyed by sabotage, Bhathal (who had run six times previously) announced she would not run again. And in January this year, she announced she was quitting the Greens altogether, after years of “relentless organisational bullying”.
Sexual misconduct
The Greens are no strangers to a sexual misconduct scandal. The most prominent case has of course been the long-running and acrimonious saga around former NSW Green Jeremy Buckingham.
Buckingham was been accused of inappropriately touching a female colleague in 2011, and then attempting to intimidate her into silence. He denies the allegations, and dismisses them as a “factional smear”. The long public fallout between Buckingham and his colleagues (including Greens federal leader Richard Di Natale) would be bad enough, but it seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. As Holly Brooke reported Crikey as the allegations first began to surface:
The Greens’ institutional response to sexual violence is just one illustration of a dangerous political logic taking hold in the party, one that values electoral success and vote-winning above principle, including the principle of justice for survivors of sexual assault.
The Greens’ unsatisfactory responses to sexual violence has been pointed out elsewhere, by alleged victims and their supporters.
During the the Victorian state election, one candidate (with a fairly questionable social media history) quit on election eve after a rape allegation became public. Before this came the curious case of Footscray candidate Angus McAlpine, whose years-old lyrics performed in his pre-politics career as a rapper — featuring references to date rape and “choking a bitch” — weren’t enough to sink his candidacy. Meanwhile, federal Higgins candidate Jason Ball has faced (and refuted) allegations of sexual misconduct too.
These kinds of allegations and the Greens’ response to them are, in some way, the thread connecting many of the Greens’ troubles; their factional wars, confused messaging and electoral disappointments.
Hemorrhaging membership and factional wars
After the NSW organisation voted that Buckingham should vacate his spot on the party’s upper house ticket, he quit the party (illustrating his disillusionment with the not-at-all hilariously literal step of ripping up a piece of paper with “TOXIC NSW GREENS” written on it). Following that, two candidates for the upcoming state election quit, one blaming the “a small, insidious far-left faction full of vitriol”.
Further, an internal NSW Greens report was leaked, detailing the “significant and worrying” loss of up to 485 party members in the year leading up to November 2018 — a decline of almost 13%.
Loss of representation
The 2018 Victorian state election campaign was a particularly bruising one for the Greens. The history of Greens candidates and staffers kept being dredged to the surface — particularly old examples of extremely weird online humour — to haunt the party. So jokes about shoplifting, drug use, and, um, “greasing oneself up in pig fat and oinking like a grunter at the traffic lights” knocked out candidates and staffers.
A combination of brutal political tactics from their opponents, and the presence of Glenn “preference whisperer” Druery working with micro-parties, meant the Greens were more or less wiped out, losing four of their five seats in the Legislative Council.
Given the rampant disunity and plummeting membership in NSW, the party will be worried about a similar result there in March.
How will the Greens fare at the federal election? Send your thoughts and comments to boss@crikey.com.au.
On top of all that they don’t actually represent any specific environmental issues… they are obviously more a bile green than an natural connotation of that colour.
Once the Black W(r)iggler took over it began down the well trodden path to me-threeism as if abandoning principle for respectability was not a, very short, dead-end.
It’s extremely disappointing, really. Policy-wise, especially with respect to the environment, they are closest to what this country so desperately needs. Pragmatically, huge question marks hang over their political nous and their practical ability to govern.
I’m not sure where we can turn for a decent, ethical, egalitarian and progressive political solution.
Agreed that it’s very disappointing AND that they’re the closest to what this country needs. So what to do? Give Greens candidates your first preferences which a. means you’re voting for the things you actually believe in and b. means that the Greens receive $$ for your vote, money which will help toward the better resourcing of the party and thus to its better governance. We also need to acknowledge that our toxic political culture is not simply confined to major parties. All political parties attract people who are ruthlessly ambitious (this is not to suggest that any of those named in the article are like that) and who may create difficulties for those managing expectations and party procedures. This is further complicated by gender politics. Perhaps we need to think harder about how to strengthen notions of public service in our remaining institutions; parliamentary, party political and public sector. And to talk not only about how power is won, but about how it is exercised.
Their only recourse now is to disband the current party and rise again under a new constitution as a federal party with state branches.
The way of the democrats and the dodo lies before them.
NSW Greens are a totally different animal to the Greens in other states. As are their conflicts and problems.
That’s true, but the underlying cause would appear to be the same – a small group of career minded pragmatists using any means possible to win internal battles and preselections.
A careful reading of the media coverage of the NSW Greens shows that it is largely the result of media backgrounding by a people in senior positions who are unable to advance their ambitions using the party structures. You can see it commence shortly after the 2011 NSW election.
The backgrounded narrative becomes the accepted explanation and drives unease and division among less engaged Greens members and supporters. The damage done to the party’s image is considered less important than gaining internal advantage.
This seems to be the same in the Victorian example and, of course, in many other parties. It’s a fundamental problem of political life – in many cases the people who most want to be MPs are also the ones who will do the most to avoid accountability for their actions.
“a small group of career minded pragmatists using any means possible to win internal battles and preselections.” This is a description of all political parties, including micro parties and Independents once they get a taste of power and the perks of office!
As I keep repeating though, it’s the policies we should be voting on, not the personalities. Perhaps the solution is to have members rotated through positions as was done in classical Athenian democracy. That way everyone has to check their egos in at the door!
I think what has hurt the Greens here in Victoria has been the lack of a clear political message. Too much of their campaign during the state election was based on achieving social goals. It’s not that they’re unimportant, but it’s a far cry from the party that used to campaign aggressively for things like 90% renewables by 2020. I live in Greens heartlands and I barely heard a peep from the party.
Instead they seem only interested in giving positions to future party hacks who would probably join the Liberal party if that was the more #woke option.