Pioneering Greens councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan to exit Brisbane politics

The colourful and bombastic Greens politician who spearheaded the progressive party’s surge in Brisbane, Jonathan Sriranganathan, is quitting politics – for now.

Brisbane City Councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan is quitting as the Greens representative for the Gabba ward, and will be replaced by Trina Massey, who will be the first openly queer woman of colour to serve on the council.

The colourful and bombastic Greens politician who spearheaded the progressive party’s surge in Brisbane, Jonathan Sriranganathan, is quitting politics – for now.

Mr Sriranganathan, 34, who became the first Greens councillor elected to the Brisbane City Council when he won the Gabba ward in the city’s inner-south in 2016, will give his final speech on Tuesday and resign in April.

He will be replaced in May by 40-year-old Trina Massey, an experienced arts administrator and DJ, and intends to rest for at least a few months before deciding what’s next.

“A lot of people would like me to run for mayor, but the party hasn’t started that preselection process,” Mr Sriranganathan told The Australian.

“Right now, I’m looking forward to having a bit of a holiday. I probably wouldn’t entirely rule out running for higher levels of government at some point in the distant future.”

When Mr Sriranganathan – and his campaign manager Max Chandler-Mather – successfully ran for council in 2016, the Greens’ presence in Queensland consisted of Senator Larissa Waters.

Sriranganathan locked himself to a front door in Taringa to prevent the eviction a public housing resident. Picture: Richard Walker

The pair overhauled the party’s campaign techniques, introducing an exhaustive process of grassroots activism focusing on door-knocking and face-to-face public forums. And the party’s policy interests were widened, from koala habitat protection and stopping coal mines to a broader remit of housing affordability, opposition to overdevelopment, and access to public transport.

Now, the Queensland Greens have the Brisbane City Council Gabba ward, two state seats, three federal seats – including Mr Chandler-Mather in Griffith – and a second senator.

“Ten years ago the Greens were seen as a single-issue party in Queensland, that’s definitely changed,” Mr Sriranganathan said.

He said based on last year’s federal election results, the party had a doable “stretch goal” of winning as many as 10 seats on the Liberal-dominated Brisbane City Council.

Mr Sriranganathan – a musician, rapper, writer and former youth worker, mediation facilitator and events organiser – said he was looking to have more time to dedicate to civil disobedience and other activism.

He courted controversy during his time in council by organising protests, chaining himself to the door of a resident about to be evicted from social housing, and supported Extinction Rebellion activists.

Ms Massey, who until recently was commuting from her home in Woolloongabba to work as an arts administrator with Ipswich City Council, said she was also intending to protest and “put her body on the line” in support of issues.

“Protest and resistance is one of the most important ways that we can actively challenge structural power,” she said.

Arts administrator and DJ Trina Massey will become the next Greens councillor on the Brisbane City Council, replacing Jonathan Sriranganathan in the Gabba ward. Picture: Jeff Camden

She said she believed she would be the first openly queer woman of colour to hold a seat on the Brisbane City Council – and possibly serve in politics in Queensland – and it was “about damn time”.

“Growing up in Australia, I never really saw … people that look like me as politicians,” Ms Massey said.

“Visibility really matters.”

Before entering politics, she was the program manager of QMusic and helped un the BigSound music festival, was the executive producer of the Queensland Music Awards, performed at Splendour in the Grass and Laneway festivals as a DJ – alias Black Amex – and started Gimme Shelter, a mental health program for artist managers across Australia.

As the future representative for the Gabba ward, Ms Massey said she would continue to campaign against the Gabba stadium being knocked down and rebuilt at a cost of $2.7bn to Queensland taxpayers to host the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“We still think it’s not too late to find a better location than the Gabba, if the Olympic Games are going to happen,” she said.