By Lisa Macdonald
Almost three weeks after the federal election, the last Senate position has finally been decided, won by the Australian Greens' Tasmanian candidate, Bob Brown.
On March 20, Democrat candidate Robert Bell conceded defeat even before all the preferences had been distributed. In the process, he accused the Greens of conducting a "vicious, negative and personal campaign" against him and of duping voters into believing that both he and Brown could be elected.
Bell's comments may contain some truth, but they are hollow coming from someone whose unprincipled preference deals with the extreme right in Tasmania were a far more dangerous and desperate manoeuvre for votes than any of the name-calling he says he endured.
Brown's victory has, one hopes, taught the Democrats that they don't have a monopoly on the electoral alternative. The Greens were quite justified in standing against them, regardless of whether they believed that both candidates could be elected.
Brown's election is a victory for the progressive movement. He won the seat despite the establishment media's best efforts to censor and/or attack the Greens as the too radical, irresponsible alternative to the "respectable" Democrats. And he won having run a campaign based on a more explicitly left program than many other so-called alternative candidates.
During his campaign, Brown pledged not only to defend the environment but also to defend workers' rights, to fight attacks on the welfare system and to oppose privatisation. If he is able to implement these words, Brown's election to the Senate will mean a bit less space for immediate and major attacks on the living conditions of ordinary people and the environment. Given that the overall election outcome has boosted the confidence and position of the most conservative forces in Australian politics, however, the pressures on the newest Green senator to eat his campaign words will be intense.
Brown's election maintains the parliamentary status quo for the Greens: the loss of WA Green Christabel Chamarette's seat means that they still have only two senators. This is a much weaker position than most Greens expected prior to the election. It is likely to underline the need to pay more attention to building a grassroots base of activist support by using their parliamentary positions primarily to assist the rebuilding of movements for social justice and the environment.