David Killick Analysis: Challenge ahead for Greens after O’Connor departure

Cassy O’Connor’s departure from state parliament may be good news for the government — but also lays bare the unresolved long term challenge facing the Greens as the third force in state politics. ANALYSIS >

Greens Leader Cassy O'Connor MP announces her resignation with Dr Rosalie Woodruff MP at Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

Cassy O’Connor’s departure from state parliament may be good news for the government — but also lays bare the unresolved long term challenge facing the Greens as the third force in state politics.

Ms O’Connor has been a powerful voice in the House of Assembly whose contributions – from acid interjections to passionate speeches – have left little doubt about her intellect, her work ethic and the power of her convictions.

Her 15 years in the parliament began as the Greens reached their zenith and shrugged off the “single-issue” tag, with five members in the 25-seat chamber and seats at the cabinet table in the power-sharing government with Labor.

She flagged the Tasmanian Forestry Agreement as among her proudest work, and not staying until the Commission of Inquiry Report was tabled as her major unfinished business. Along the way she was prominent in the passage of voluntary euthanasia laws, in reforms to laws affecting transgender and intersex people and in the fight for the Commission of Inquiry and the closure of Ashley Youth Detention Centre. As the leader of a party with just two MPs, Ms O’Connor played an outsized role in the parliament, a leader who wore her heart on her sleeve – and frequently suffered the consequences of ejection by the Speaker.

But Labor and the Greens have paid the price for their brief alliance and the minor party has not returned to its glory days of five MPs.

Despite her orderly departure and the profile of her likely replacement Vica Bayley, Ms O’Connor’s departure will cause problems for the Greens. Transitions take time and come with a cost. While there has been a slow drift in the polls away from the two major parties, voters seem to be shifting to independents and micro party candidates and not the Greens. This was witnessed federally with the Teals. Ms O’Connor was the top-polling candidate overall in Clark and won a quota in her own right at the 2021 election.

The challenge ahead for the new Greens leader will be build a profile and to find a way to grow the party’s representation in a rapidly shifting political environment.