Greens turned to populism to win my seat: Terri Butler

Terri Butler has accused the Greens of resorting to populist tactics of the right wing to oust her from her seat in a stunning upset on election night.

Butler was on course to become Australia’s new environment minister until the Greens’ Max Chandler-Mather snatched her Griffith electorate with a 10.9 per cent swing to the party.

Terri Butler was ousted as the Member for Griffith in May 2022. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

A large part of his campaign was promising the suburban electorate he would address the aircraft noise from nearby Brisbane airport with a curfew and cap on flight numbers. It was one of three Brisbane electorates where the Greens campaigned on aircraft noise.

Butler says the party did not have the power to effect any change on aircraft noise if elected federally, but their campaign was a sign they have learned the populist lesson from right-wing movements overseas and are bringing them home.

“The real answers are complicated because they go to flight paths and distribution of noise but a populist approach to campaigning on those issues is really just about the attribution of blame,” she said.

“It’s the tactic of finding divisive issues, campaigning on them and providing ostensibly simple solutions to complex questions.”

Greens supporters congratulate Max Chandler-Mather at West End’s Montague Hotel in Brisbane, after the party’s unprecedented federal success in Queensland on election night.Credit: Matt Dennien

Butler said it was not immediately clear how Labor could combat left-wing populism but restoring public confidence in political institutions was key.

“Unless you have confidence in institutions then you are going to continue to get not just anger but anger that’s coming from a place of exhaustion,” she said, arguing that these voters would “look for people who will just provide a simple answer”.

Butler insists the result on election night was not about individual seats such as hers but about whether Labor had won a majority.

“On election night we didn’t know whether we’d won the seat or lost it, but my primary emotion was one of happiness and relief that we’d had a change of government,” she said.

“It wasn’t snatched out of our hands. We have an Albanese-Labor government and that’s what I really wanted,” she said, in a telephone interview to discuss her new role as chair of Circular Australia, a non-profit organisation aiming to speed up the country’s transition to circular economy practices, including reducing material use and the amount of waste.

While Butler watched from the sidelines as her former parliamentary colleagues took up the ministerial reins – Tanya Plibersek took over the environment portfolio she had held for nearly three years in opposition – she hopes her new job will enable her to make a contribution.

She flagged an approach of brokering partnerships in the private sector to drive innovation in the reuse of materials.

“Policy settings are really important but they’re just one piece of the puzzle,” she said when asked if regulation was required to spur large-scale reuse of materials including electrical waste.

Butler did not rule out a political comeback but said it was not likely in the short term as she had enjoyed being more of a hands-on parent to her two children, who were aged two and four when she was first elected in a 2014 byelection.

“I didn’t choose to be removed from parliament but having gone, I can tell you what – I’ve seen the silver lining pretty rapidly. I’m not saying I will never, ever, ever but I am telling you it’s just not on my radar right now.”

Butler says she does not know if the party can win back Griffith, the seat held by former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

She said the electorate had long been an outlier seat in terms of income and household wealth.

“If you have a look at the median house price in Griffith, it is way higher than the median house price of even the next most wealthy Labor-held seat.

“My sense of this election was that it’s always harder and harder to win this seat and if anything we can be very proud of having won it three times since Kevin was the member without having someone who was the prime minister as the MP.”

She said Chandler-Mather had an advantage as the Greens, unlike Labor, did not observe a six-week moratorium on doorknocking during the Omicron peak in the summer before the May poll.

“I don’t know if it even would have made a difference but I think it was morally the right decision of the party to put the moratorium on doorknocking.”

A spokeswoman for Chandler-Mather said: “Max and his team spent those weeks delivering free food boxes to those stuck in lockdown, while following health advice at all times.”

“If Labor still hasn’t worked out the real reasons they lost to the Greens then they have some soul-searching to do.”

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