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Greens are here to stay

By Graham Young - posted Monday, 11 July 2011


The contrast between Greens voters and Labor voters in general is even more stark. While climate change is obviously important to Labor voters, traditional issues such as health and education take precedence. Both of these issues are virtually absent from Greens responses, including those of the Labor defectors.

Cost of living, a top concern for Liberals, is also absent, .

These differences possibly reflect the economic and social bases of the three groups. In our online sample Greens voters tend to be younger and more female than the general population of respondents. We also know from other studies that Greens voters tend to be better educated and wealthier than most.

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This probably insulates them from some of the cost of living pressures and gives them the liberty and inclination to pay attention to more long-term issues such as climate change, without undue concern for the financial cost of measures like a carbon tax or ETS.

To many other Australians this may make them look insensitive, but to Greens voters the future is more important than the present. You get a sense committed Greens voters see the party as prophetic.

These two things limit their potential growth. To displace Labor the Greens need to appeal to a much broader base, but with half their base using them to send Labor a message and the other half largely unconcerned with the issues of the middle ground, there is no institutional momentum to reach out. Either Australians will be converted to Greenness, or the party will self-limit around these levels. The latter is more likely.

At the same time their messianic approach impacts Labor's popularity, with the influence of the Greens one of the most cited reasons for voting Coalition. Labor and the Greens need to figure out how to work better more effectively together, or they may find themselves perpetually struggling over the spoils of opposition. Claims one party will take over from the other don't help.

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A version of this article was first published in The Weekend Australian on July 9, 2011



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About the Author

Graham Young is chief editor and the publisher of On Line Opinion. He is executive director of the Australian Institute for Progress, an Australian think tank based in Brisbane, and the publisher of On Line Opinion.

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