Source : the age
The Greens are considering sharing leadership and deputy duties among the likely three contenders for the top job, as the 12 remaining federal members meet in Melbourne on Thursday to decide the party’s future after former leader Adam Bandt lost his seat in a near-wipeout of the minor party in the House of Representatives.
Senators Larissa Waters, Sarah Hanson-Young and Mehreen Faruqi are the frontrunners for the roles, as a party member told this masthead all three could be given a job as leader or deputy leader.
Larissa Waters, Mehreen Faruqi and Sarah Hanson-Young.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
This will be the third federal leadership contest this week, but unlike the Nationals or the Liberal party, the Greens do not formally nominate candidates or openly campaign for leadership. Instead, members discuss leadership in the partyroom where anyone can run for the role.
The party members will meet in Melbourne’s CBD at lunchtime on Thursday, and have previously decided on their leader by consensus rather than ballot.
A flatter party structure with two deputies would be a substantial shift from the last term, which relied on Bandt’s top-heavy style.
Former party leaders Richard Di Natale and Bandt both worked with co-deputies between 2015 and 2022.
“We are definitely considering a flatter leadership model,” said a Greens MP speaking on the condition of anonymity, due to the party’s practice of conducting leadership ballots behind closed doors.
This proposal would follow the structure of the NSW division of the Greens, which is the most left-wing branch of the party.
The person chosen as the Greens’ next leader will have to steer a party reeling from a devastating outcome after lower-house MPs Bandt, Max Chandler-Mather and Stephen Bates were booted from their electorates.
The party maintained its 11 senators but now has just a single lower House of Representatives member in Elizabeth Watson-Brown.
Senior party figures have criticised the Greens’ agenda in the last term of government, following Bandt’s shock defeat.
Co-founder of the national Greens Drew Hutton last week slammed the party for shifting focus from its environmental roots.
“The Greens have experimented with what I would call a hyper-militant approach during the last three years,” Hutton told this masthead last week.
“What will broaden their base is if they lose this terrible way they have of expressing their moral superiority over everyone else and their refusal to talk meaningfully with ordinary Australians.”
Ian Cohen, the first Greens member elected to the NSW parliament, urged the Greens to revive its focus on conservation, arguing “the environment must be a priority”.
Former Greens leader Adam Bandt. Credit: Wayne Taylor
However, Bandt attributed the loss of his seat and the two in Brisbane to voters deserting the Liberals and moving to Labor.
“The Greens got the highest vote in Melbourne, but One Nation and Liberal preferences will get Labor over the line,” Bandt said last Thursday.
“To win in Melbourne, we needed to overcome Liberal, Labor and One Nation combined, and it’s an Everest we’ve climbed a few times now, but this time we fell just short.”
Bandt denied that the party’s loss was because of a focus on the Gaza conflict. However, on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attack last year, this masthead revealed Australians strongly rejected the use of public protests to take sides in the conflict.
Some party members privately felt frustrated by the focus on the Gaza conflict, as they believed the Greens should go back to focusing on the climate crisis.
Waters, Faruqi and Hanson-Young were contacted for comment.
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