Without some serious soul searching, the Greens will never move beyond the 10% plateau
I'm butthurt, there's no doubting. But this - from a former Greens staffer - is really worth reading.
I don't really agree. Well, I do somewhat with the broad point; there is a kind of accepted wisdom, which I heard from a handful of political historians today at our annual conference, that the Greens will forever be a party of 10% of the vote.
But Faruqi's setup is completely misleading. He positions 2013 as a great success that Milne somewhat mysteriously talked down. On any measure, 2013 is actually the disappointment and 2016 went some way to advancing the Greens' cause. You can't call 2013 a success because they got ten Senators, when six of them were from the high-water mark of 2010 and not up for re-election. The Greens really only won four Senators in 2013, while this year they had a quota in every state (and I think would have under a regular half-Senate election everywhere but Queensland) and the likelihood of 3 more in the states where the vote is stronger.
I also think he overlooks a really important point, one that I think the Greens are trying to address: the nature of the vote, and their constituency, is changing. In 2010 the Greens were
the alternate/protest vote. The events of 2010-13 have now located them as more of an established player, losing some of the protest vote in the process. Also, in 2013 and 2016, they have had to compete for the protest/alternate vote with a brand new handful of prominent and well-funded rivals (or in One Nation's case, an annoyingly resurgent old rival once thought vanquished). I would suggest their result this year shows they are solidifying an actual base of support away from the protest vote - but how to extend that? They have tapped some areas of support that will never go to the ALP, as we've seen in Higgins and various regional areas uncomfortable with CSG. It's a start but not enough.
The NSW branch has something to answer for. Isn't that true of almost every party? What's with NSW branches and being shithouse? But they ran a bad campaign, they chose the wrong seat to target in the form of Grayndler, and chose the wrong candidate for that campaign. The Victorian campaign was better, but needed results - though, as much as Faruqi is right that there's nothing inevitable in politics, Ratnam and Bhathal have laid the kind of groundwork essential for a 2019 victory. It's easier to get a 5% swing than a 15% swing!
I do suspect the Greens may for the medium term have to rely on regional bases of power, especially Tasmania and Victoria. Aim to turn inner Melbourne into a fortress and build pockets of adherents in regional areas that may not be enough to swing seats (though a few in northern NSW could be a chance) but will be enough to push the Senate vote up a few percentage points. Queensland is probably never going to be a good state for the party, but WA at the moment has bottomed out in its hostility to the left and they need to be in a position to capitalise on the upswing. Having Ludlam there helps. If I were the Greens I'd be aiming for 4 lower House seats and 15% of the national vote by 2022.