Greens mired in group-think and gen Z zone: co-founder
Tess Ikonomou |
The co-founder of the Greens has warned party “group-think” and intolerance of free speech is hampering its electoral success.
Greens leader Adam Bandt lost his seat of Melbourne to Labor candidate Sarah Witty, with the ABC calling the result on Wednesday afternoon.
Labor has taken out two party leaders at the federal election, including Peter Dutton.
The Greens have lost three of their four lower house seats but are set to retain the balance of the power in the Senate.
Greens co-founder Drew Hutton said the Liberal collapse and preference flows played a major role in the election result, but the party needed to address internal issues.
“There’s a real lack of preparedness to countenance free speech in the Greens,” he told AAP.
“They’re very intolerant of anybody speaking outside of the accepted wisdom in the Greens, group-think if you like.
“That’s partly why they can’t communicate with ordinary Australians because they’re so intolerant of other opinions.”
Mr Hutton said the party had plenty of talent within its ranks and needed to drop the “moralistic tone” used in communicating with voters.
“If the Greens want to get out of their generation Z, young people’s sort of constituency, and expand it wider so they do become a more electable party … they need to learn better how to speak to ordinary Australians.”
Perceptions that the Greens stymied housing policies during the previous parliament had hurt them, Mr Hutton said.
“They probably need to be a bit more pragmatic and a bit more outcomes-focused in their dealings with government,” he said.
“A lot of people probably gave the vote to Labor ahead of the Greens this time because of that. I think they were probably a bit too hard-nosed in their dealings.”
Mr Hutton has had his membership suspended with the Queensland Greens because he defended someone who spoke out about transgender issues.
Former Greens senator Andrew Bartlett said while the counting needed to be completed, a post-election review was required.
“The Greens need to have a really solid, self-critical review of how things have gone, and do that in an objective, ideally independent, way – which I’d have to say they haven’t been particularly good at doing in the past,” he said.
“They’ve got plenty of capacity to regroup, to still have an effective role in parliament.
“Suggesting it’s catastrophic or the end … is just absurd.”
Mr Bartlett said the party’s members should be allowed to put forward their perspective “without fear of speaking up”.
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