Greens vote 'bucked the trend'

On October 10, the Greens were celebrating Christine Milne's Senate victory in Tasmania and were confident that they would win further Senate seats.

According to Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, "It's particularly encouraging that in an election which saw a swing to the conservative side of politics the Greens vote has bucked that trend and grown significantly".

However, Nettle noted: "Sadly it looks like John Howard will control the Senate with the help of the right-wing Family First, thanks to the Democrats and Labor sending their preferences to this and other right-wing parties ahead of the Greens."

Claiming forest industry workers were "manipulated" by Howard's forest package, Senator Bob Brown criticised the Tasmanian Labor government for failing to sell Mark Latham's forest policies. "The forests campaign is now set to grow", Brown concluded.

From Green Left Weekly, October 13, 2004.

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From GLW issue 602