Will Adam Bandt be the first Greens man?
| 12 July 2010
Andrew Shaw spoke with Greens’ federal candidate Adam Bandt about why queer voters should see the Green light.
On my doorstep last Tuesday was a flier, folded in half and with the words ‘Sorry we missed you’ handwritten across the back. It was on behalf of the Greens’ federal candidate for the seat of Melbourne, Adam Bandt, and in my case the door-knockers who delivered it probably would have been sorry not to have found me home, since the Greens want the queer vote.
Bandt is in with a good chance. At the 2007 federal election he got enough support to turn the traditionally safe Labor seat of Melbourne, which includes the city’s inner north, into a Greens/Labor marginal. He needs only one in ten Labor voters to switch to the Greens for him to win at the upcoming federal election. At the moment there are no Greens in the House of Representatives, so the lawyer turned politician could make history.
Bandt joined the Greens in 2004. Before that, from 1997 to 2007, he was an industrial and discrimination law lawyer at Slater & Gordon – in fact, he had Julia Gillard’s old job.
Last week the fight for Melbourne got even more interesting: the sitting member, Labor’s Lindsay Tanner, has resigned, and the party selected Cath Bowtell to run in his place. Bowtell would be the first woman to hold the seat if she won, and she has a strong track record of supporting unions and repealing Work Choices.
Adam Bandt, Cath Bowtell said yesterday she personally supports gay marriage and will do what she can to push the issue in Labor forums. Did you anticipate this?
That doesn’t surprise me, I’m sure she personally holds those views. But the choice in Melbourne is pretty clear: people can elect an MP who will vote for same-sex marriage, and that’s me, or an MP who will vote against it and that’s the Labor candidate.
But if Cath Bowtell could convince her party to change its policy, she would have the numbers to get legislation through the house. What chance would you have of getting anything passed as a lone voice?
The Labor Party likes to think that the only voters who really matter are the ones in outer suburban marginals, and they draft their policies accordingly. That’s what they make their MPs vote on. One thing, though, that politicians care about greatly, is not losing seats. At this election, voters in the inner city seat of Melbourne are in just as powerful a position as those in outer suburban marginals. When Labor starts losing seats on the basis of issues like gay marriage; that is when we will have a real breakthrough and really start to make a difference. Until then we’ll have these inner city Labor MPs who will say one thing but vote the other way.
So you’re saying that by voting for you and taking the seat from Labor, gays and lesbians are making the point to Labor that we are serious about equal rights?
Absolutely. We’ve had a strong record in the parliament of pushing to remove all legal barriers to discrimination, including on the basis of sexuality, and indeed gender identity. I think the more voices there are in parliament, the more we will change the debate. By making history and sending the first ever Green to the lower house, Melbourne will send an enormous message to all the parties that these issues are important and need to be agitated and pushed in parliament. Conversely, if the Labor Party is returned, they will see it as a vindication of their hard-line policy.
I see you’ve won the support of one of the trade unions, could you explain that?
That’s the Electrical Trades Union and they’ve been at the forefront of pushing through a switch to renewable energy. They understand that there’s lots of jobs in installing and creating solar panels and wind turbines, and they understand it’s the way of the future. So they’ve come out in support of us, despite the fact they’ve been traditionally supporting Labor for many, many years.
That must be scary for Labor.
I think there’s this general sense that the major parties are increasingly believing similar things and that groups like community groups and unions are now saying, look we need a voice in parliament who will advocate on the basis of principle not on the basis of what the latest opinion poll says.
By taking Labor’s traditional voters are you helping the Liberals get ahead?
If you look at Tasmania and the ACT, you have the Greens and Labor working together, sharing power in government, and getting great outcomes. I think that’s the direction Australia should head. If the Labor Party’s decided it wants to shift heavily to the right on these issues; I think that means we need more voices in parliament – but that those voices need to cooperate.
Having another Labor member sitting on the back bench isn’t going to achieve anything as far as getting these reforms is concerned. What will achieve it is more Green voices being able to shift the debate and hold [Julia Gillard] to account.
What’s your immediate agenda if you win the seat?
The top of my list of issues to push are getting Melbourne running as much as possible on renewable energy, moving more towards a sustainable future, [and] pushing for a better suite of policies for asylum seekers and refugees, a policy based on compassion rather than fear. And equality and same-sex marriage are high on my agenda as well. Things change when people speak out. I would be in parliament pushing hard to make legislative amendments to the Marriage Act, plus the remaining few areas of legal discrimination; for example, it’s still lawful in employment to discriminate against a person’s sexuality if you are working for a private religious school.
Given the Prime Minister’s recent ‘Timor Solution’ announcement, will this be another ‘refugee’ election?
I’m pretty disheartened by having to have these debates again. I hoped we had left them behind. It’s really distressing to be attending refugee rallies yet again. I think refugees shouldn’t be a political issue. We should have a consensus about what amounts to fair treatment and processing of refugees. I will be unyielding in my defence of people who are coming here fleeing appalling circumstances.
Subscribe to this comment's feedwritten by New Voter , August 21, 2010
Ok, can someone explain to me why we don't have a referendum on gay marriage? I don't know much about politics, but isn't that how everyone gets to choose either yes or no? That sounds like democracy to me.
written by peter green , July 16, 2010
Nice article on Adam Bandt, and as always great to see same-sex marriage/equality on the political agenda yet again. We do think it’s marvellous that the Labor candidate Cath Bowtell is adding her name to gay marriage support too. Over the years there has been one Labor candidate that has always impressed us though: Bronwyn Pike. She has been the ONLY political person to actually email a reply to several questions we have asked and as long as I can remember been a very vocal supporter of gay marriage. I seem to remember her saying 'Why should we put a fence around love anyway?'.
We support many of the Green party’s policies but I remember our house at Greville Street had its solar panels installed with support from a Labor state government as part of the 'solar 100 rooftop project'. Funny how you hear so little about the Liberals when it comes to renewable energy.
Thanks,
P and M
