Brutal sign Aussies are fed up with Adam Bandt as new poll exposes ‘concerning’ trend for the Greens
Younger voters are abandoning the Greens, hurting the party’s ambitions to win the balance of power in the Senate in the coming elections, according to a new poll.
A Resolve Political Monitor poll for Nine newspapers showed that 23 percent of voters were between 18 and 34 years old, compared to 27 percent in the previous survey.
The figure is below the level of the last elections.
Greens leader Adam Bandt is said to be particularly concerned about support leaking back to Labor and the Coalition in inner-city voters, where the left-wing party has enjoyed the strongest support.
Resolve director Jim Reed said voters were starting to move away from the Greens in the demographic where they have traditionally thrived.
“We have seen a decline in the Greens’ vote nationally this year, but most worrying for them will be that the loss will be heaviest among their traditional base of younger and inner-city voters,” he said.
“Every small party needs its vote share to be concentrated in certain seats, because if the party is too dispersed, elected parliamentarians will not be formed.”
A decline in support would put pressure on the Greens to retain the three Queensland lower house seats they won in the 2022 federal election: Brisbane, Ryan and Griffith.
Greens leader Adam Bandt is said to be particularly concerned about support drifting to the major parties in inner-city voters, where the upstart small party has traditionally enjoyed its greatest success.
In the Queensland state election in October, the Greens lost South Brisbane to Labor and only just held on to Maiwar with a narrow victory over the LNP.
Mr Bandt had spoken boldly about the chances of winning more seats in the lower house at the election early next year, pegging Brisbane’s Moreton, Melbourne’s Wills and Macnamara, Richmond on the NSW north coast and Sturt in Adelaide’s east as winnable nominated.
However, the latest poll suggests that the Greens will have to put resources into retaining existing seats rather than targeting more seats, and trying to keep their 12 members in the Senate.
Since the last election, the Greens have also lost a senator, with Victoria’s Lidia Thorpe leaving the party in February 2023 over differing positions on the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
She later said she had filed a Human Rights Commission action against the Greens, claiming she had experienced racism during her time with the organization.
The Greens in turn caused a defection in the Labor House of Lords when WA Labor Senator Fatima Payman crossed the floor in June to vote with the minor party on a motion recognizing Palestinian statehood and subsequently splitting from the ALP.
This was part of a turbulent year for relations between the Greens and the Albanian government.
A Resolve Political Monitor poll for nine newspapers found that voters aged 18 to 34 reduced their primary voting power from 27 to 23 percent in the last quarter of the year (stock image)
After vociferously calling for additional measures in two Labor housing bills, the Greens eventually relented and passed both without amendments at the last sitting of Parliament in November.
During the previous impasse, the Greens were often forced to defend themselves against Labor attacks, claiming they were frustrating attempts to help renters and first home buyers; two core groups of potential support.
Both Labor and the Coalition have turned against the Greens over their condemnation of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and the wider Middle East.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused the Greens of backing violent protests and disgusting many voters by falsely claiming Australia’s role in the conflict aided ‘genocide’.
“It is tragic that the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people are being undermined by some people engaging in activities that completely alienate the Australian public,” he said in June.
“It is unacceptable that misinformation has been knowingly and deliberately spread by some Greens senators and MPs who took part in this demonstration outside offices and online.”
The firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne earlier this month led to accusations that the pro-Palestinian protests, largely backed by the Greens, have led to a rise in violent anti-Semitism.
Newpolls, conducted on behalf of The Australian, also showed that Greens support fell from 13 percent to 12 percent nationally in the last quarter.