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NSW election: Greens claim four seats

The Greens appear to have won the inner-city seats of Balmain and Newtown and northern NSW’s Ballina and Lismore.

Jenny Leong has claimed the new seat of Newtown. Picture: Kristi Miller
Jenny Leong has claimed the new seat of Newtown. Picture: Kristi Miller

“CONVERSATION by conversation we can break the monopoly of a two-party council,” MP Jamie Parker shouted to a sea of screaming emerald-clad supporters gathered at The Grandstand bar at The University of Sydney for the Greens’ election party.

The party secured four lower-house seats: Mr Parker’s seat of Balmain, the newly created seat of Newtown in Sydney’s inner west and Ballina and Lismore in northern NSW.

“They said the Greens are just a minority force; well, we are here to stay and we are here to change politics,” Mr Parker said after he triumphed over Labor’s Verity Firth in his hotly contested electorate.

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Volunteers and candidates dined on a mostly vegetarian menu and watched the television screens with bated breath as the votes rolled in. Baby-boomer favourites Fleetwood Mac and Paul Kelly played in the background.

“Isn’t it great to say ‘all my parliamentary colleagues?’” said Mr Parker, who until tonight was the only Greens MP in the lower house.

‘I know now that, worst-case scenario, we’ll have a seconder for my motions and Jenny (Leong, for Newtown) will be sitting there with me in parliament,” he said.

“Let’s make Newtown Green from the beginning,” senator Lee Rhiannon screamed into the microphone when she introduced Ms Leong to the stage.

Newtown is the newest and smallest seat in the state, created to cater to population growth in the inner west area and spans from Surry Hills to Stanmore and Petersham.

“There will be no WestConnex coming anywhere near us,” Ms Leong,who won the seat with a two-party preferred vote of 60 per cent to Labor’s 39 per cent, said of the government’s massive roads project.

Ms Leong told The Australian that while she had many policy ambitions, the motorway “had to be the first cab off the rank.”

“We don’t want to see billions of dollars poured into a dirty polluting tollway,” she said.

“We need to stop the drilling on WestConnex now.”

Both Mr Parker and Ms Leong were hesitant but hopeful throughout the night until they secured their seats. Ms Leong said many of the votes she had picked up were from first-time Greens voters disillusioned with the two major parties.

“We have seen a toxic and corrupt and dodgy culture infect NSW politics,” she said.

Ms Leong started her speech by pledging to protect Aboriginal housing accommodation in Redfern, end “the sniffer dog program” at Newtown’s train stations and make them more accessible for bicycles.

“I don’t want to get on my bike and off my bike and on my bike,” she yelled to the crowd.

Ms Leong said she was proud she launched a renter’s rights campaign in her electorate.

“That took it to the big end of town – the dodgy landlords and the developers,” she said.

Her success was due to The Greens’ ability to listen to community needs and respond, she said.

“I don’t think it is a stretch to say it was our campaign in Newtown that led to Luke Foley’s allegedly immaculate conversion on marriage equality,” she said

The crowd went wild as the margins in Lismore and Ballina diminished where the party has been gaining support from farmers for their opposition for Coal Seam Gas projects.

“The concern about coal seam gas has alerted people that we are a consistent voice against mining and to protect farming and water resources,” Greens senator Lee Rhiannon said.

There is a growing excitement at the Greens gathering about the effect of their anti-CSG policy in in the northern NSW seats of Ballina and Lismore, where they are picking up votes from disenchanted farmers.

“The Greens and rural Australia are now in a very strong alliance,” party leader Christine Milne told the guests.

Read related topics:Greens

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/nsw-election/nsw-election-greens-claim-four-seats/news-story/18b30329dc6f00fafa4a72510ef346da