ONE of the more bewildering moments of the Braddon byelection was seeing the Green candidate, and party members, including senators, seem happy with their vote. First-timer Jarrod Edwards received four per cent of the primary vote – or, on current counting, 2504 number ones out of 66,427 ballots cast. To put this into perspective, that’s almost 1300 votes less than the tally of informal votes. In other words, more people failed to cast a valid vote – deliberately or otherwise – than gave their support to the Greens. While it’s a slight improvement on the 3.57 per cent share of the vote the party received at the state election back in March, that’s hardly worth crowing about. After all, the state election saw the Greens lose one of their three seats and go dangerously close to losing another. Clearly much has changed since the 2010 poll when the Greens won five seats – one in every electorate – and subsequently gained seats around the Cabinet table through a power-sharing deal with Labor. The leadership has changed, with a state leader seemingly less interested in those living north of Bridgewater and a federal leader few could name. Interstate, the Greens seem to be wracked by a factional fight between those whose primary focus is environmental activism and those for whom the party is a vehicle to pursue their social agendas. In this region, the Greens are firmly committed to their campaign for a Tarkine national park – it overshadows everything else the party might stand for. During the recent campaign they released polling showing high levels of support across Tasmania, and in Braddon, for such a park, yet when it came to polling day the party failed to make an impression. How do we reconcile the two? It can, of course, be reasonably argued they are separate matters, but, as a conservation group made clear in its election ads, the Green candidate was the only one to support a Tarkine national park. What is clear is the Greens have some thinking to do because right now the voters aren’t buying what they’re selling.

EDITORIAL: The Braddon byelection saw fewer voting Green than informal