They’re shiny. They’re new. They’re Greens 2.0, and they’re mainly … men?

Or so it seems, looking at the mainstream media’s coverage of the Greens ever since Richard Di Natale was elected to the helm.

“One thing is clear: he has a kind of Aussie blokeyness, a robust masculine presence that is not normally associated with the Greens,” The Monthly noted approvingly.

“A devotee of the Australian religion of sport, he is a keen surfer and cricketer with six years as an Australian Rules footballer in the high-level VFA competition.”

Another article claims that “he is the type of guy you could imagine watching the footy at the pub with”, while a third seems to like this “father of two, who lives with wife Lucy in Victoria’s Otways Ranges, played VFA football for six years and labels himself a long-suffering Richmond Tigers fan”.

What a man; what an all-round ripper of a bloke.

So, after years of bashing the Greens as totally out of touch with everyday Aussies — led by “ideologue” environmentalists Bob Brown and Christine Milne who “forced” a carbon tax and a Resource Rent “miners” tax apparently without regard for the populace hip pocket, and also infuriated farmers after all that “ruckus” with animal cruelty and live export ban — these crazy Greenies appear to have suddenly won the media’s favour.

So what’s changed? The answer hit me as I was reading the papers one recent weekend. In among the usual weekend articles, I came across a photograph of the new Greens economic power team: three white, straight men, unthreatening and paternalistic in their navy suits and blue shirts, smiling calmly at the camera with their confident eyes, promising that finally, we’ve gotten rid of all those nutty “ideologues” and “activists”, and now, we’re on track.

These three men — doctor, health expert and new leader Richard Di Natale; industrial relations lawyer turned Treasurer, Adam Bandt (who, incidentally, cut his legal teeth at Slater and Gordon, the well-worn path of Labor aspirants); and former Wall Street broker Peter Whish-Wilson, who traded life on the high road for surfing and now handles the finance portfolio for the Greens — are the dream team promising to take the Greens into the new era of … well, mainstream.

First of all, they look exactly like the leadership teams of both Labor and Liberal parties — white, male and middle class (or rich).

Yes, their co-deputy is Larissa Waters and Sarah Hanson-Young isn’t exactly silent, but no one is profiling those two as the next respectable Greens, are they?

As the latest edition of The Monthly puts it: “Larissa Waters is a lesser-known quantity. On current form, it’s hard not to presume that she is there for gender balance, but she has brains, looks and charm, and has presented well in national forums like the ABC’s Q&A.”

Sarah Maddison, Associate Professor of politics at the University of Melbourne, says no party is exempt from sexism — even the Greens.

“It’s not surprising that the media is focusing on those aspects of Richard Di Natale’s biography and person that make him seem to fit more in the traditional mould or how we think about Australian political leaders,” she tells me.

“I mean, Christine Milne was an excellent leader of the Greens in so many ways, and you know, she pulled that party together, she oversaw extraordinary performance across the country and she was widely respected for her leader qualities within the part, and I don’t even recall the media talking about that.”

media_camera While the Greens’ deputy co-leader may be a woman, it’s the men who have been getting the big media run. (Pic: News Corp Australia)

Of course, when compared to the two major parties — mainly federal branches — the Greens ratio of male to female cabinet members is impressive. While Labor at least has Emily’s List to encourage female party members to give it a go, Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s own chief of staff, Peta Credlin, recently hit out at the “blokey” and “exclusionary” culture of the Liberal Party, saying that women cop it there like no one else.

“A bloke is ‘across the detail’, a woman’s a ‘micro-manager’. You know? A woman’s ‘a bitch’, but a guy is ‘strong and determined’. And we let people get away with this,” she said.

But it is not enough to appoint women to ministries — too often, women get saddled with portfolios which are valued less because of their relationship to femininity: childcare, education, women’s portfolio, and even health are traditionally fields associated with women, and therefore, valued less.

For example, we have yet to seek female Treasurer. The only female minister to hold anything resembling a financial portfolio in government is Senator Penny Wong, who was Minister for Finance and Deregulation in the Gillard Government.

I took the question to Richard Di Natale himself: does he think that the Greens adopting a more “mainstream” economics team — which, let’s face it, carries much more gravitas — has influenced an Australian culture which already associates leadership with masculinity?

“The Treasury portfolio has gone from Christine Milne, who’s retiring from the Senate, to Adam Bandt. Adam has handed his Finance portfolio on to Peter Whish-Wilson,” the new leader tells me.

“They’re well qualified for the roles, just as Senator Penny Wright is a lawyer who’s well equipped to be our legal affairs spokesman, covering all matters to do with the Attorney General’s department.”

“If there’s anyone out there treating the Greens with more respect because the Treasury portfolio has moved from a female MP to a male MP, well, that’s a reflection on them.”

Dr Di Natalie also says that the Greens consider all their portfolios to be economic — not just those directly associated with the budget.

“If you want to profile the Greens’ economic team,” he tells me, “I reckon you need to chat to every one of our MPs.

“Agriculture is an economic portfolio. Health is an economic portfolio. Education is an economic portfolio.”

Yes, former leader Christine Milne may have held the Treasurer spot — now passed onto Adam bandt — but she is part of the “old” Greens — the ones Dr Di Natale took pains to distance himself from.

So what does the future hold for this once protest-motivated party, which took so much pride in its difference to the mainstream?

Associate Professor Maddison believes that only time will tell where the Greens will end on the political spectrum.

“It’s interesting, because the new Labor candidate for Adam Bandt’s seat (Melbourne) has described herself as more Green than Adam Bandt,” she says, mentioning Sophie Ismail — a gay, former migrant, human rights and employment lawyer.

Maddisson says that while Dr Di Natale would never consciously “go out and represent himself” as the “straight, white bloke”, he still benefits from the media’s sexism.

“That’s just something the media is leading on here, in the same way like things about Julia Gillard’s childlessness,” she says.

“It’s just terribly, terribly limiting, and I think the biggest impact of that is, that it just limits the diversity of people who make it to that level of politics.”