Qld election 2020: Greens surge in inner city as statewide vote drops
They might be celebrating unprecedented support in inner Brisbane, but the Greens should be concerned by the bigger picture.
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Inner Brisbane residents have delivered a major surge to the Greens, with the minor party confident of being within striking distance of winning four seats in 2024.
But it was a different story across the rest of Queensland, with the Greens suffering a drop in its total statewide primary vote after voters flocked to the major parties.
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Nevertheless, the party was celebrating yesterday after Michael Berkman reclaimed his Maiwar electorate, and their South Brisbane candidate Amy MacMahon defeated former deputy premier Jackie Trad.
In a surprise surge, the Greens’ candidate for Cooper Katinka Winston-Allom was on track to win a massive 30 per cent of the primary vote – up from the 20 per cent recorded from the 2017 poll.
And in McConnel, the Greens’ primary vote was also expected to lift slightly to about 28.2 per cent – but it won’t be enough to unseat incumbent Labor MP Grace Grace.
Asked yesterday if LNP preferences helped her win her South Brisbane seat, Ms MacMahon pointed to her high primary vote – which was sitting at about 38.4 per cent, up from the 34.3 per cent she secured in 2017.
“We’ve seen a huge surge in people who are voting first Greens and lots of people voting Greens for the very first time in their lives,” she said.
“We knew that the support for the Greens was surging here in South Brisbane and we knew that people were feeling fed up with both Labor and the LNP.”
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Sunday credited the LNP’s decision to preference the Greens above Labor for Ms MacMahon’s victory.
But the Greens believe they still would have won the electorate based on the current primary vote, even if the LNP had preferenced Labor – pointing to the 2017 preference flows.
The minor party had hoped to secure the balance of power during this term of parliament, but will now be forced to deal with an emboldened majority Labor government.
Quizzed if he believed the Greens could realistically achieve any of the policy proposals it pushed at the election, Mr Berkman would not say – but insisted they would keep on pushing for those issues.
They included plans to slap a levy on the banks, jacking up mining royalties and making public transport free for everyone.
“The question is for the government whether they’re going to take the steps necessary to give people the things they need to make their lives better,” Mr Berkman said.
