Who are the Australian Greens? Surveying the membership

Transcription

1 1 Who are the Australian Greens? Surveying the membership. Ariadne Vromen Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Sydney NSW Abstract The October 2004 federal election in Australia gave the Coalition government extensive new powers with majorities in both houses of parliament, but it also led to the anointing of the Australian Greens as the third force in Australian politics. The Greens are significant due to their deliberate stance as a social movement-based party with a clear left-libertarian ideological base. This paper places the emergence of the Greens electorally into the broader context of their policy and organisational agenda. Rapid growth in membership is affecting the issues the Greens campaign on, and provides new challenges to the party s commitment to a participatory, grassroots structure. This paper will describe the Greens membership in NSW based on original survey results. It will particularly highlight the demographic backgrounds of Green party members and their experiences as active participants in politics and society, including social movements. Keywords: Green party, party membership, social movements, environmental politics Introduction The Greens, here and in Europe, focus on the promotion of ideas and distinctive policy agendas and pair this with a participatory membership. These factors differentiate the party in style from other Australian political parties, especially the major parties. Party theorists such as Frank Sorauf (1984), and also Richard Katz and Peter Mair (2002), have constructed several typologies of political parties. One significant differentiation is made between mass parties and electoral/professional parties. The Australian major parties, as have most major parties internationally, have evolved into the electoral professional type that focuses on elected MPs and election campaigns at the expense of active membership and broad-based policy development. The Greens are not a Mass party because they do not have the broad societal base that a mass party needs, but they do focus on the participatory elements, listed in the table below, that facilitate an active membership.

2 2 Table 1: Comparing Broad Party types and the role of the membership Organisational feature Members Activities Organisational continuity Position in party Source: Adapted from Sorauf 1984, p. 42. Electoral-professional party Generally few Predominantly electoral Active chiefly at elections Subordinate to party in government Mass membership party Many dues paying members Ideological and educational, as well as electoral Continuously active Some influence over party in government Richard Gunter and Larry Diamond (2003) describe species of parties: elite-based parties; mass-based parties; ethnicity based parties; electoralist parties; and movement parties. The Greens are clearly a movement party of a left-libertarian type. Gunter and Diamond (2003: 188) describe left-libertarian movement parties as quintessentially post-materialist in their attitudinal orientation and behaviour. This discussion builds on the work of Herbert Kitschelt (1989: 64) who argues that this party type rejects the central status of economic issues and is characterised by a negative consensus that the predominance of markets and bureaucracies must be rolled back in favour of social solidarity relations and participatory institutions. This paper will demonstrate that the Australian Greens encapsulate this post-materialist, participatory membership base similar to Green parties elsewhere. Greens Electoral Presence The Greens support in the Australian electorate is strengthening. For example, in the recent 2004 federal election the Greens scored an average of 8.1% among the 50 NSW based House of Representatives electorates and 7.3% in the Senate. 1 This is a high proportion of the vote when compared to European Green parties. For example the successful German and Austrian Green parties have averaged 5.7% of the vote over the last 20 years. Belgium has been the highest at 6.5%; however Greens parties in Europe are at an advantage because of proportional representation and lower 1 They are most successful in Tasmania from where they now have two Senate representatives.

3 3 thresholds for representation than in Australian parliaments. The Greens crossed the 4% threshold for public funding in 43 seats out of 50 in NSW. In 2001 it was only 25 out of 50. The importance of obtaining this proportion of the vote in so many electorates is that it will provide resources for the Greens state offices and the capacity to further strengthen their party organisation. At the same time as the Greens electoral success they are also experiencing rapid membership growth, especially in NSW and Victoria. There are now about 10,000 members nationally. The party membership increased significantly after the 2001 federal election where Senator Bob Brown was a high profile advocate for asylum seekers to Australia. This activist role and membership growth continued through the high profile involvement of both Senator Brown and Kerry Nettle in the anti-war movement of 2002/2003. Senator Nettle links this involvement of the Greens with social change movements as integral to their political practice and an indicator that the Greens are more than a parliamentary presence: I think the Greens are as well as being a political party are part of a social change movement. So to just call us a minor party, I think, misses out on a lot of the influence that we have. The examples of that are things like Bob speaking so clearly on the Tampa [asylum-seekers] issue, really early on, and that that became the genesis for a whole lot of extra- Parliamentary social and community action, that the Greens are central to. That far exceeds the role that you play as a minor party. And equally on the Iraq war. The stance that we ve taken provided us with that ability to play that role, within the community and the progressive movement generally (Nettle 2003). The presence of Green politicians in these social justice causes is in addition to major environmental campaigns on logging of forests, in Tasmania and NSW, and climate change. In NSW, in particular, Green politicians and activists have campaigned on the provision and funding of public education. For example, research conducted by The Greens (NSW) into how the federal government funds wealthy private schools was cited extensively in the mainstream media (Burke 2004; Silmalis 2004). The high profile, broad ranging social and environmental justice issues in Green campaigns suggests that new members are attracted to the Greens because of the broad progressive position the party takes in policy debate. Reinforcing this Senator Bob

4 4 Brown, during a National Press Club talk in the 2004 federal election campaign, labelled himself and the party as social democratic (see Vromen 2004). The party is also gaining in strength at the local government level. For example, in NSW the party has the first directly elected Green mayor in Byron Bay; and in the 2004 local government elections the Greens doubled their representation to 57 councillors on 34 local councils. The party encourages activism by local groups (branches) and allows them considerable autonomy in pre-selecting local candidates and conducting independent campaigns in their region. There are currently 50 local groups in NSW alone, and most local groups meet once a month. The local groups vary in their membership numbers and their level of activity. It seems that the most active groups are those with Green representation on local councils. The Greens state decision-making body, NSW Delegates Council, meets about every two months, and local groups take turns at hosting the meeting. Method Very little has been written on party membership in Australia (see Ward 1989; Ward 1997). In mass opinion surveys it is regularly found that at most 3% of the Australian population are a member of a political party (McAllister 1992; Smith 2001; Vromen 2003). Party membership is a form of committed political participation that is entered into by only those with existing political resources and belief structures that support institutionalised party politics. As a separate population of political participants party members are very difficult to research without provision of access by political parties and their private data-bases. Thus this study makes an original contribution because access to members was provided by The Greens, and we were the first Australian researchers to use the methodological approach of original survey research with party members 2. The questionnaire was predominantly a partial replication of a questionnaire that had already been sent to Green party members in 13 European countries and New Zealand (Rudig 2003). This study was coordinated by Wolfgang Rudig at the University of Strathclyde and was itself based on influential studies of 2 Political scientists have had difficulty accessing members of Australian major parties. For example, Patrick Seyd recently tried to replicate his UK-based survey work with both the ALP and Coalition but was not given permission to access members.

5 5 party membership undertaken by Patrick Seyd and Paul Whitely with the major parties in the UK (Whitley, Seyd and Richardson 1994; Seyd and Whitely 1992). An 8 page questionnaire was sent out with the Greens NSW quarterly newsletter, Greenmail in September The questionnaire was sent with the newsletter for 3 reasons: economy, as only printing costs were paid for, not initial postage; legitimacy of the survey, as it was clearly endorsed by Greens NSW; and for ethical considerations, through preservation of anonymity of members as we did not need to access membership lists. An Australia Post authorized, addressed reply paid envelope was provided with the survey; and they were all returned to the University of Sydney. Reminders to fill in and return the questionnaire were issued through the Greens NSW local groups structures, and the fortnightly lists of the Greens NSW MPs. There were 2400 members at the time the questionnaire was distributed and 806 questionnaires were returned, leading to a response rate of 34%, which is acceptable for a mail out survey that did not use individual solicitations. Who are the Greens? In this section of the paper I will briefly describe the demographic backgrounds of Green party members in NSW. The respondents are highly educated: 79% have attended university and, as shown in Table 2 below, 67% have completed a degree significantly more than both Green voters and the general public in NSW. Furthermore, of those with degrees 40% have a Masters or PhD qualification. The majority (64%) of those with degrees have them in the broad social sciences: including economics, law, business, politics, psychology, sociology and the humanities. Most Green members work in either the public sector (47%) or the nongovernment sector (16%). These background characteristics of the members substantiate the idea of the middle class radicals orientation of the Greens, similar to new left social movement participants (della Port and Diani 1999: 30, 113). 3 Only Greens NSW were included as there is no federal database of all Australian members; and resources prevented the coordination of eight separate mail-outs to include all the membership.

6 6 Table 2: Green member demographics compared to voters and general population Green members Green voters 4 General public 5 Average age 47 years 44 years years Proportion female 52% 58% 51% Have university degree 67% 43% 14% Professional occupation Public sector employment 59% 42% 29% 47% 28% 16% Participatory backgrounds and social movement involvements The respondents have been highly active in social movements. They were asked whether they had been active in a range of social movements, and across the last four decades (in Table 3 below). I also did analysis to find that the established Green Party members (pre-2001) and the new Green Party members (post-2001) have participated in the majority of these movements equivalently. There are however, three exceptions which may reveal more about the ideological and political tendencies that differ between the sets of members. The established members are significantly more likely to have participated at some stage in the environmental movement (76% of pre-2001 members and 61% of post-2001 members), the anti-nuclear movement (62% and 51%) and indigenous rights (53% and 43%). Both the environmental and anti-nuclear movements were at their height in Australia in the early to late 1980s (Hutton and Connors 1999), this finding about the newer members suggests that the party may be developing different links with a broader social movements base including the reemergence of the peace movement, the anti-globalisation movement and the refugee rights movement. Table 4 also shows that Green members have higher rates of participation in more individualised forms of participation than do the general public, especially in terms of protest activity (see Papadakis 2001; Vromen and Gelber 2005: 301-5) 4 From Bean et al (2001 )Australian Election Study 2001 data; N=137 Green Senate voters 5 From ABS (2001) national Census, based on NSW population characteristics.

7 7 Table 3: Social Movement involvement Movement Ever involved? Involved 2000s Peace movement 69% 50% Environment movement 68% 47% Anti nuclear movement 57% 22% Refugee rights 51% 48% Indigenous rights 48% 32% Student movement 44% 8% Unions 38% 20% Anti-globalisation movement 36% 31% Feminist movement 28% 13% Animal rights movement 21% 11% Gay and lesbian movement 19% 10% Table 4: Green Participation patterns Members Green voters General public Environmental group member 58% 29% 10% Trade union member 32% 23% 20% Frequently worked in community organisations 37% 23% 20% Frequently boycotted products Frequently participated in demonstrations 56% 44% 79% 38% 51% 12% Ideology The vast majority of respondents were happy to identify both themselves and most Australian political parties on a left right ideological scale. On a scale of left 0 to right 10, the members unambiguously saw the Greens NSW as a left wing party with an average of 2.3, similarly they saw themselves as left wing with an average of 2.4. Figure 1 below shows that the Green members and voters consider themselves left

8 8 wing but that members see both themselves, and the party itself, further to the left than the voter s perception. The chart comparing members with voters and the general public also shows that the members think the party system in Australia encapsulates a broader range of ideological viewpoints that the general public does. That is, for the general public parties range on the scale from nearly four to about 7 with themselves right in the middle at 5. Left-Right scores: members, voters, general public 10 8 score Green members Green Voters Self Greens Aust Democrats ALP Liberal National General public party The Table below orders the policy goals that respondents believe the Greens ought to follow in the next few years in terms of their top priority status. Notably improving Australia s economic competitiveness was the least important goal with only 7% suggesting it as a top priority, it was also the only policy goal that had a majority (66%) state that it was not a high priority or not a priority at all. The top priority policy goals listed here show that the members are committed to a broad environmental and social justice agenda. They are not limited to a deep green environmental agenda, blending in issues of peace and public provision of services, such as education. This links in with a Green oriented post materialist agenda as post materialists tend to highlight societal shifts toward valuing non-material goods such as the natural environment, public interest and debate, freedom of speech and a more humane society (Inglehart 1990; Pakulski 1991). More traditional material areas, such

9 9 as the public policy concerns of poverty, unemployment and economic competitiveness, are rated by very few Green members as high priorities for the party s policy agenda. Thus while the Greens rate themselves unambiguously as left wing this needs to be interpreted through their social justice agenda rather than one predicated on ideas of economic equality as is traditionally associated with the Australian labour movement. Conflict between the social and economic justice policy agendas, driven from within by the Green party members, will necessarily be an area for ongoing scrutiny in the conservative Australian political environment. Table 5: Top Priority Policy Goals for The Greens Protecting forests & opposing land clearing 71% Settling international conflicts with peaceful means 64% Supporting public education 63% Stopping global warming 59% Protecting civil rights 56% Creating a more democratic society 53% Promoting nuclear disarmament 50% Phasing out nuclear energy/uranium mining 44% Opposing globalisation 44% Helping the poor in society 41% Combating the use of genetically modified food 32% Fighting unemployment 29% Improving the status/rights of women 23% Constructing a multi-cultural society 17% Improving Australia s economic competitiveness 7% Conclusion This paper shows that the Greens attract a distinctive group as party members. Most are highly educated, in their mid to late 40s, working in professional occupations for either government or the non-government sector. The members have been highly active both in individualised and institutionalised forms of participation and in social

10 10 movement politics. That the members are already active and politicised partly explains why the Greens - as a clearly activist, grassroots oriented party - would appeal as an arena for continuing activism. The members are comfortable expressing a Green, left wing and social justice oriented ideology and this follows through to the policy agenda they seek to foster. The members do not prioritise traditional left-wing issues based on ideas of economic justice and if the party hierarchy tries to implement this broader left policy agenda they will surely face dissent from within. Their policy agenda and activist involvements will shape the Greens ongoing interaction with mainstream institutionalised politics. Unlike Green parties in other nations the Australian Greens remain on the margins of governmental politics. The strength of the party, and its member s backgrounds, lie in its protest role working with NGOs and social movements, and setting policy agendas through media work and participation in parliamentary committees. The peculiarities of Australia s predominantly majoritarian electoral system leave little scope for the Greens forming government coalitions. The only exception is Tasmania that uses proportional representation and where the Greens retain a strong electoral presence. Everywhere else the main focus for the Greens will be to consolidate their primary vote, develop better preference exchanges with the ALP and to win more seats in state and federal upper houses that will enhance their balance of power and legislative deliberation role. There are several environmental policy issues that the Greens focussed on in the 2004 federal election which will continue to be contentious such as climate change, Australia s reluctance to sign the Kyoto Protocol, renewable energy sources, and protection of Tasmanian forests. The party may be able to mobilise public opinion in support of these issues, despite arguments that the environment as a political issues has become routinised as part of conventional politics (Tranter 1999: 346; see also Lothian 2002). Other issues that were important to the Greens 2004 election campaign, such as preservation of federal public health and education funding and withdrawal of troops from Iraq, will have less resonance in a conservative political climate.

11 11 While the Greens have been successful in generating a media presence at both the national and state level this is not always positive. Subsequent to the federal election much mainstream media has been critical of the Greens, many suggesting that the increase in the party s vote was minimal and leading one high profile commentator to call the Greens the most extreme political movement seen in this country for many decades (Kelly 2004). The increased scrutiny by the media and the advent of a more conservative national political context will provide challenging times for the Greens in Australia, but it seems that both the established and newer members will be keen for the party to maintain its social justice, protest oriented role. References Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001) 2001 Census Basic Community Profile and Snapshot: New South Wales, available at Bean, Clive, David Gow and Ian McAllister (2001) Australian Election Study 2001, Australian Social Science Data Archive, Australian National University. Burke, Kelly (2004) Wealthiest Schools Reap Funding Windfall Sydney Morning Herald, February 19: 3. della Porta, Donatella and Mario Diani (1999) Social Movements: an introduction, Oxford: Blackwells. Gunter, Richard and Larry Diamond (2003) Species of Political Parties: A New Typology Party Politics, 9 (2): Hutton, Drew and Libby Connors (1999) A History of the Australian Environment Movement, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne. Inglehart, Ronald (1990), Values, Ideology and Cognitive Mobilization in New Social Movements pp in Challenging the Political Order, Russell Dalton & Manfred Kuechler (eds) New York: Oxford University Press. Katz, Richard & Peter Mair (2002) The Ascendancy of the Party in Public Office: Party Organisational Change in Twentieth Century Democracies pp in Political Parties: Old Concepts and New Challenges, Richard Gunther, José Ramón-Montero & Juan J. Linz (eds), Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kelly, Paul (2004) Captain contradiction The Australian, October 13: 15. Kitschelt, Herbert (1989) The Logics of Party Formation, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Lothian, Andrew (2002) Australian attitudes towards the environment: Australian Journal of Environmental Management, 9: McAllister, Ian (1992) Political behaviour: citizens, parties and elites in Australia, Melbourne: Longman.

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