New Greens MPs respond to internal bickering on first day of politician ‘school’
The new Greens MPs have responded to recent division within their party as they arrive at Parliament for ‘school’.
The new Greens MPs have brushed off recent internal division as a sign of a “healthy” party whose members feel comfortable disagreeing in public.
Stephen Bates, Max Chandler-Mather and Elizabeth Watson-Brown say their “grassroots” party remains united as it grows in size and influence, despite the contested individual causes of some of its MPs.
Their victories in three Brisbane-based electorates mean the Australian Greens have four lower house seats, as well as the balance of power in the Senate, for the first time.
The trio were among 35 new MPs who arrived in Canberra on Tuesday for their first day of ‘school’ — a two-day crash-course on life in Parliament House.
Speaking to reporters after the first session, Mr Chandler-Mather said part of the Greens’ success in Queensland could be attributed to the major parties having taken voters for granted.
The new Griffith MP said he thought people were frustrated that there had been “a lot of bickering and not enough working together” in politics.
Asked about recent “bickering” within the Greens, Mr Chandler-Mather said his party was able to build on disagreement to reach “good positions” on policy.
“I think that’s one of the strengths of the Greens — that we can reach a consensus position after having good constructive debate about policies and politics,” he said.
“Frankly, I think that’s a good healthy sign of a party where their people feel comfortable about having disagreements in public.
“As long as they’re policy and politics based, right, and not personality based, then I think that’s a good thing.”
The Greens have recently stirred controversy over an internal row over transgender issues, as well as leader Adam Bandt’s refusal to stand in front of the Australian flag at a press conference.
Victorian Greens senator Lidia Thorpe subsequently said the flag “represents dispossession, massacre and genocide” and declared she was only in parliament to infiltrate the colonial project.
The party’s Victorian branch earlier this month dumped its newly-elected convenor Linda Gale over a 2019 internal discussion paper about trans issues that she co-authored and which sparked accusations she was a transphobe.
The three new federal Greens MPs on Tuesday said they were united and would generally vote together on legislation to push the Albanese Labor government on climate change and other progressive issues.
The new MPs will join Mr Bandt, who had spent more than 10 years as the sole Green in the lower house, in the party room.
Mr Chandler-Mather said: “The positions that we adopt in parliament are based on consensus decisions that we make in the party room. Obviously, also, in line with Australian Greens policy as well”.
Stephen Bates, the new Greens MP for Brisbane, said political parties should be unafraid to hold “contests of ideas”.
“That’s what’s been missing from the major parties for so long. So while it may come across as bickering, I think it just seems out of the norm, but I hope it becomes the norm for the major parties,” he said.
Mr Bates, 29, is a formal retail worker who has become one of the youngest politicians in Canberra.
“It’s such an honour to be in this position that the community have given me this opportunity to actually, you know … fight for them,” he said.
“I want people to feel like they have a voice again (and) feel like they have a voice for them in Parliament.
“So I’m really, really excited.”
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