Out with the old, in with new breed of young activists for the Greens

The Greens risk driving away traditional members and voters amid an ‘obsession’ with courting younger activists as it branched from its roots aiming to replace Labor as Australia’s ‘social democratic alternative’.

The Greens are hoping to replace the ALP as the party of the broad left.

The Greens risk driving off traditional members and voters amid a “single-minded obsession” with courting younger activists as it branches from its environmentalist roots in a bid to replace Labor as Australia’s “social democratic alternative”.

Current and former members speak of a party now driven by an inexperienced cohort that prioritises Palestine and identity politics, although others have said the Greens are internally “aligned”, labelling the suggestion it should remain a single-issue vehicle as “unfair”.

It comes as leader Adam Bandt told The Australian the aim was for the party to replace the ALP as “the country’s only ­social democratic alternative”, replacing Labor rather than working with it, although it could become kingmaker in what it hopes is a minority government after the next federal election.

Nowhere is that divide more apparent than in the party’s Victorian branch, where an “influx of single-issue, identity politics folk” drive the agenda.

“You’ve got a ‘traditional group’ who joined for its social justice and environmental policies, and then a group with a more narrow interest,” one member who left the party because of it says, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s not the party I joined or that a lot of members feel attached to.”

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That former member believes the party is prepared to “dump” its base to court a different demographic. “We want to fight injustice in our city (Melbourne), and what’s happening in Gaza is terrible,” they say. “But it should be the other way around (its priorities). A lot of us joined because we wanted to save the planet.”

One member alleges a “widespread targeted campaign” is trying to remove “older members, mostly women” from positions of influence or the party itself.

“A newer generation and an individualised form of politics has taken control,” they say, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Greens leader Adam Bandt at a Brisbane pro-Palestine rally. Picture: Dan Peled

At June’s state council elections, about 13 of the 15 seats are of this quasi faction, which has control of the misconduct and probity panel.“Of the two camps, one is clearly in the ascendancy, one is leaving en masse,” a source says.

“(It’s) undergraduate identity politics … there’s this absurd, ­single-minded obsession with just appealing to that (younger group).

“But in order to win places that aren’t Newtown, you have to appeal to a larger demographic.”

This “entryism” – the infiltration of a political party by a group with the intention of subverting its policies – was compared with that seen in Jeremy Corbyn’s British Labour Party as the party’s centre was “hollowed out”.

“You’ve got anarchists, hard-core Marxists, single-issue trans-rights activists entering,” one member says. “You can’t work with these people unless you sign up to (their entire agenda).”

Sources say the party is allowing “anyone to wander in”, giving little thought on how to maintain a stable movement amid a culture of “absolutism”.

Others say it has strayed from being “environmentally focused and relatively moderate” to adopt some of the hard left’s tendencies.

“It’s become ‘You’re with us or you’re against us’,” one federal parliament source says.

“It’s all about crashing through and pushing its ideas. ‘Greens do politics differently’ they used to say; not anymore.”

It was likely now to prioritise what it viewed as “electoral winners”, such as its hard-line pro-Palestine stance, which had been accelerated after October 7 as it targeted inner-city Labor strongholds with large numbers of Muslim or young voters.

Federal Greens, who members past and present said had taken the party left. Picture: Martin Ollman

An insight to the path the Greens hope to tread can be seen in Mr Bandt’s recent conference speech and an “18-year-plan”, penned by Griffith MP Max Chandler-Mather in 2021.

Mr Bandt told party faithful that the “political establishment” was not making the systemic societal changes that only the Greens could.“The establishment sees us as a serious threat, we have the answers… (but) we have to outline how we can fight for ­(people),” he said, saying Labor would be given a free pass if volunteers didn’t campaign harder.

Mr Bandt told The Australian the party was targeting Wills, Macnamara, Cooper and Higgins in Melbourne; Morton and Lilley in Brisbane; Richmond in NSW and Perth in Western Australia.

The Liberals will face attack in Sturt in South Australia and Bonner in Queensland.

Sources called Mr Chandler-Mather the “best campaigner in the country” and a driver of the Greens’ shift left.

“Max has said we’re an old party but that this is a new project,” one Queensland member said. “This I think is that young project moving to the left.”

One source from Sydney’s socialist scene says of Mr Chandler-Mather’s recent articles in the Green Left magazine: “It’s all pure Leninism.”

Max Chandler-Mather. Picture: Martin Ollman

“It was so filled with Leninist jargon that I was surprised to see it was from someone outside of the Trotskyist left,” the former Socialist Alliance member says.

In his “18-year plan”, Mr Chandler-Mather said the aim should not just be government but also building alliances within social movements and organisations, and trade unions, and a “power” that could withstand the neo-liberal policies “imposed” on left parties elected globally.

He foreshadowed the push towards a younger demographic, saying they were an “enormous base”, and with declining home ownership, so were renters.

Greens members, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss party matters, dispute it has jettisoned its traditional roots, saying it was wrong to think it was ever a single-issue party.

“Any idea to suggest the Greens be single issue is and should be wrong,” one member says, calling that notion “nonsense”. “Labor is born out of the union movement – you wouldn’t tell one of their MPs that they could only talk on (that topic).

“Why would any political party be expected to stay single issue? Society is complex.”

One member says the Greens were the “original and still the best” at identity politics, adding that young activists in its target seats were energetic and unified with a “clear sense of purpose”.

“(The party) all looks pretty aligned to me,” they say.