From our CEOs – with Richard Denniss
The Greens’ recent switch from Larissa Waters to David Shoebridge was both rapid and polite. But while the change might have come as a surprise, what is more predictable is the hand wringing from much of the commentariat and the PM about whether the Greens should be ‘populist’ or ‘pragmatic’, and whether they should act like a ‘party of government’ or a ‘party of protest’.
Have you ever heard that question asked of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation?
Senator Shoebridge has taken on one of the most powerful roles in Australia at the midpoint in the Albanese Government’s second term. To be clear, whenever the Prime Minister can’t get Angus Taylor to support his proposed laws his next call is, quite literally, to the Greens.
While the PM may take comfort in the fact that Angus Taylor is so receptive to much of Labor’s legislative agenda, for example his recent cuts to the NDIS and his weak efforts on gambling reform, much to his frustration sometimes his Cabinet and party room push him to do things that even Angus won’t support. And that’s when he needs the Greens’ 10 votes in the Senate to combine with Labor’s 30 to get the minimum 39 votes he needs to pass a bill through the Senate.
Obviously, Anthony Albanese would like the Greens to hand those 10 votes over for free, and obviously both the Greens elected representatives and their voters want them to extract a progressive price. And that’s where Senator Shoebridge’s job becomes so interesting.