Eight months ago, before election fever stole every headline, a voter in the Brisbane seat of Griffith answered a knock on the door. It was Greens candidate Max Chandler-Mather asking for support.
That door-knock points to the story that unfolded in Griffith last weekend. The Greens’ stellar success in Griffith and two other seats — Ryan and Brisbane — wasn’t just part of a green hue colouring inner-city seats. In Griffith, where the ALP’s Terri Butler conceded defeat on Sunday, it came down to damn hard work.
Almost 90,000 homes were door-knocked by Chandler-Mather and his huge crew of young volunteers; more than 30,000 conversations were held with voters in their own homes.
This is a seat that hugs Brisbane’s inner south, held by ALP luminary Ben Humphreys for almost 20 years and more recently by former prime minister Kevin Rudd. In recent years it’s become flash, with million-dollar homes up for sale each weekend.
The Liberals were never a show. And Labor’s Terri Butler, despite being opposition environment spokeswoman, was just not as visible as her young Green opponent.
This is a seat Labor never expected to lose. It was as safe as houses, their strategists told journalists. Terri Butler is safe. Look elsewhere. Pollsters thought the same — and Griffith remained firmly slotted in the “safe Labor” column.
But that never washed with locals, who tell a different story. It’s just that no one was listening to them, or noticing the front yards where Greens bunting dwarfed that of the bigger parties.
A couple of weeks ago, one voter received her first correspondence from Terri Butler — a text to her mobile phone but addressed to the woman’s husband. That changed her vote from Labor to the Greens.
Another tells of her 18-year-old, a first-time voter who was almost “harassed” by the Greens, desperate for her vote. She never heard a peep from either Labor or Liberal and rewarded that on election day too.
Labor wasn’t working hard enough — at least visibly — for their vote. “I’ve never, ever seen Terri Butler,” one local says. “Few can say that about that Max guy.”
The Greens may end up with the seats of Griffith, Ryan and Brisbane, but even if the party fails to take that hat-trick, its vote across those three Brisbane electorates will be one of the big takeaways from the election.
It would be easy but lazy to nominate the “greening” of our inner-city suburbs as the reason. That’s helped, but there’s more to the story than that.
In Ryan, Elizabeth Watson-Brown knocked LNP incumbent Julian Simmonds off his parliamentary perch. Ask voters there, before and after the election, and they’ll tell you about the LNP using community endorsements as part of a political campaign. Don’t take us for granted, they say.
In the seat of Brisbane, the story only varies slightly. Labor thought its candidate, Deloitte director Madonna Jarrett, had this seat in the bag. Indeed, as Labor strategists tried to dampen expectations of big wins in Queensland this seat was nominated as the first — and perhaps only — scalp the party would take from the LNP. But that too underestimated hard-working and savvy young Greens opponent Stephen Bates, who promised simply that he would fight like hell for those he served.
The lesson here is for pollsters and politicians alike. Local views count, perhaps more than they ever have. And communities shouldn’t be seen as cookie-cutter versions of each other.
Yes, these suburbs have developed a green hue in recent years. But that wasn’t enough to explain the historic numbers the Greens achieved on Saturday night.
That came down to working hard, and remembering that the job of politicians isn’t just about dressing up in Parliament. It’s about visibly serving the voters back home.
Really? The boundaries of all three seats – Ryan, Brisbane and Griffith – incorporate the Brisbane river which flooded twice shortly before the election. Similarly there’s a bounce for Mandy Nolan in flood affected Richmond. Greens are doing well in seats where people are confronted with the existential threat of climate change.
How about a piece on the failure of Limited News to influence the election – from a Murdoch’s Brisbane Curry or Maul insider’s perspective?
… Like the good old days of Steve Wardill trying so hard for so long to white-ant voter trust in Jackie Trad in South Brisbane : that he missed next door Maiwar going Green back in 2017, when Rupert’s Limited News Party’s Scott Emerson lost it.
Or the PR puff pieces by the likes of Renee Viellaris used to churn out for Dutton, to try to curry electoral favour – before she went to work for him officially, before moving on again to become “Manager Media and Public Relations Australian Federal Police”?
The anti-Labor/Green propaganda and bile produced by the bucket, day in, day out – including by King – trying to influence voter perception of “fitness to govern” and thus electoral outcomes, to Rupert’s way of politics :- a la “It’s The Sun Wot Did It!”
“Murdoch’s Media Influence in a Virtual One Paper State – Brisbane/Queensland – How it Works”
…. The (husband Dave Fagan?) “editorials” – in that week before the 2007 Ruddslide – to the whole state :-
a) trying to save Mal Brough’s sorry ass in Longman; a couple of days after
b) vilifying the Greens – trying to save Boswell’s senate seat.
The day before “backing Rudd” on the eve of that election….
Not many journalists seem to have picked up the enormity of aircraft flight paths being altered in Brisbane.
And the run around the locals were given over any attempts to change them. And their huge ‘grass roots’ efforts to change.
“ And communities shouldn’t be seen as cookie-cutter versions of each other. “
Nope. Yet here we are, with everything outside of the capital cities lumped together as “the regions”. Doesn’t get anymore cookie cutter than that.
‘the regions’ – I can’t tell you how much that irritates me – I try not to use the phrase as it just homogenises everything beyond capital city limits (I know, an Americanism)
Some facile analysis. What were the issues Madonna? What switched their vote? Green Badgering? Appearances?
I get the bit about Terri Butler and have aways found her ineffectual in my viewings of her, on TV and live. Nothing about the issues. I guess it was action on climate change which is terrific seeing as Griffith fronts Brisbane River, an area which flooded recently and badly. I would expect nothing less. It doesn’t saw much for the dopes in the Hawkesbury that live out my way who continually vote Liberal and who think the only solution is to raise the wall height of Warragamba Dam. This is the real tragedy to come out of this whole thing. Not so much that people lost their homes and livelihoods but that nothing is learnt for later when the same or worse happens.
I also suspect it is about the projected increased noise flows and flight paths for the resident of Griffith even though, like Sydney, their airport is largely fronted by water over which no one lives but sea life. There are other electorates which are more affected. I notice I haven’t heard much about this topic lately.
This was not a good article.