Are you British? UKIP and MRLP, as well as FPTP, make me think perhaps you are. This is a thread about Australian politics.
We have a proportional(ish) system for our federal Senate (equivalent(ish) to you House of Lords), while the House of Representatives uses Instant Runoff Voting (sometimes called “the alternative vote” in the UK, or “ranked choice voting” in the US). Our Greens are very much a viable third party. More so than the LibDems are in the UK, for example, though for now they’re still only a minor third party. At our last federal election they won 4 federal seats out of 151, a quadrupling of their previous performance. That on top of their current 11/76 Senate seats.
This is in the state of Queensland, where our unicameral legislature also uses IRV. The Greens have 2/93 seats.
But the post is specifically about Brisbane City Council, which is by some measures the largest city council in the world. (By comparison, Sydney and Melbourne are similar to London. The area we usually call “Sydney” is in fact made up of dozens of city councils including the City of Sydney proper, but also Blacktown, Cumberland, and more, similar to City of London, Kensington and Chelsea, and Islington.) Brisbane by contrast is all one big council—or at least mostly one big council.
Currently, Brisbane has just one Greens councillor out of 26 local wards plus the directly-elected Lord Mayor who represents the whole city. Jonathan Sriranganathan, the man quoted in this article, was the Greens councillor elected at the last election, but due to a quirk of how our system works he has stepped down to allow a different Greens member to get some experience in the role before she contests the next election. A few months after stepping down he also announced his Lord Mayoral candidacy.
The Greens in Australia are a much more serious political party than in the UK, both in terms of their direct political representation, and their ability to shape the debate and bring into the mainstream ideas which previously would have been considered impossible. Sriranganathan has pointed out numerous times in BCC history where policies he brought to the Council chamber and were laughed out, a few years later got brought by the LNP majority. I’ve heard (though don’t know for sure, because I was too young at the time) that the gun laws Australia’s conservative LNP famously brought in in the 1990s were actually based on a bill that the Greens already had drafted ready to go.
As far as nuclear goes, Australia is pretty anti-nuclear in general. You won’t find Labor or the mainstream wing of the LNP supporting nuclear either. Though the Greens do often seem to be criticised for their opposition to it. It’s worth noting though that the economics, at least in the Australian context where we previously have no nuclear, are firmly against nuclear. A report from almost a decade ago found that nuclear would be more expensive than just going all-in on renewables, and the cost of renewables have only gone down since then.
Are you British? UKIP and MRLP, as well as FPTP, make me think perhaps you are. This is a thread about Australian politics.
We have a proportional(ish) system for our federal Senate (equivalent(ish) to you House of Lords), while the House of Representatives uses Instant Runoff Voting (sometimes called “the alternative vote” in the UK, or “ranked choice voting” in the US). Our Greens are very much a viable third party. More so than the LibDems are in the UK, for example, though for now they’re still only a minor third party. At our last federal election they won 4 federal seats out of 151, a quadrupling of their previous performance. That on top of their current 11/76 Senate seats.
This is in the state of Queensland, where our unicameral legislature also uses IRV. The Greens have 2/93 seats.
But the post is specifically about Brisbane City Council, which is by some measures the largest city council in the world. (By comparison, Sydney and Melbourne are similar to London. The area we usually call “Sydney” is in fact made up of dozens of city councils including the City of Sydney proper, but also Blacktown, Cumberland, and more, similar to City of London, Kensington and Chelsea, and Islington.) Brisbane by contrast is all one big council—or at least mostly one big council.
Currently, Brisbane has just one Greens councillor out of 26 local wards plus the directly-elected Lord Mayor who represents the whole city. Jonathan Sriranganathan, the man quoted in this article, was the Greens councillor elected at the last election, but due to a quirk of how our system works he has stepped down to allow a different Greens member to get some experience in the role before she contests the next election. A few months after stepping down he also announced his Lord Mayoral candidacy.
The Greens in Australia are a much more serious political party than in the UK, both in terms of their direct political representation, and their ability to shape the debate and bring into the mainstream ideas which previously would have been considered impossible. Sriranganathan has pointed out numerous times in BCC history where policies he brought to the Council chamber and were laughed out, a few years later got brought by the LNP majority. I’ve heard (though don’t know for sure, because I was too young at the time) that the gun laws Australia’s conservative LNP famously brought in in the 1990s were actually based on a bill that the Greens already had drafted ready to go.
As far as nuclear goes, Australia is pretty anti-nuclear in general. You won’t find Labor or the mainstream wing of the LNP supporting nuclear either. Though the Greens do often seem to be criticised for their opposition to it. It’s worth noting though that the economics, at least in the Australian context where we previously have no nuclear, are firmly against nuclear. A report from almost a decade ago found that nuclear would be more expensive than just going all-in on renewables, and the cost of renewables have only gone down since then.