Sarah Hanson-Young has signalled her intention to nominate for the Greens leadership. Photo: SHY Facebook.
Sarah Hanson-Young is a definite starter in the Greens leadership contest, with fellow senators David Shoebridge and Mehreen Faruqi possible contenders.
The Australian Greens are deciding their next leader after the sudden resignation of Larissa Waters, who stepped down Monday night (28 September) due to ill health.
Party members are meeting in Sydney for two days from today (Wednesday), with a decision expected at any time during the retreat.
The gathering was already scheduled, but its agenda has shifted to negotiating party positions.
Senator Waters shocked her team by quitting the leader’s post due to a chronic kidney condition.
She plans to take leave to recover before returning to Senate duties.
Senator Hanson-Young has confirmed she intends to nominate for the leadership.
“I am shocked and saddened by Larissa’s decision to resign as leader,” she posted on social media.
“I know this was an incredibly difficult decision for her, and my thoughts are with her and her family.
“Larissa has given so much to our movement and to the parliament and we wish her a full and speedy recovery. We look forward to welcoming her back as a full-time senator when she is ready.
“I am speaking with my colleagues about the best way to help the Greens and have asked for their support to be the next leader.
“We are at a defining moment. Australians are doing it tough and are looking for hope and courage.
“People deserve better than the failed policies and weak excuses from the Labor and Liberal parties and the hate peddling from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
“Our communities and environment are being hammered by a rigged system and they want politicians that will fight for them.
“I will fight with everything I’ve got.”
Greens Defence spokesperson David Shoebridge has not ruled out running for the leadership either, but paid tribute to Senator Larissa’s efforts in the top job and her “bravery” in stepping down to deal with her health issues.
“Larissa took on the leadership after the last federal election and she took it on with such good heart, such good spirit and her collective leadership model brought out the best in the team,” he said during a press conference on Tuesday.
“I’m not here to rule anything in or anything out in terms of leadership.
“That will be a matter that the party room makes a decision on.”
Deputy leader Senator Faruqi is reportedly “considering her options”.
All party positions will now be spilled and the party might try to avoid a leadership ballot through negotiations.
Former Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has called for the party’s membership to vote on its next parliamentary leader.
Mr Chandler-Mather was the Greens member for Griffith but was defeated at last year’s election.
He now runs the party’s think tank, The Green Institute, and wrote an open letter on Tuesday (29 September) suggesting a membership-wide vote for the next leader.
Describing it as a “radical idea”, the former MP suggested the Australian Greens should follow the examples of the Greens in the United Kingdom and in the New York mayoral race.
“People often ask how to recreate the political success and energy of UK Greens leader Zack Polanski or New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani,” he wrote.
“The recipe for their success doesn’t just lie in their policies, rhetoric or even organising strategy. It lies in the process by which they won their elections. In both instances they were elected by direct member elections.
“If we want to win real change, then the Greens should aspire to become a genuine mass membership party with well over 500,000 members, where its support and organisation reaches into the working class communities long abandoned by the Labor Party.”
In 2020, the party held a membership plebiscite proposing to give general party members a direct vote in federal leadership contests.
Although 62 per cent of members voted in favour, it fell short of the two-thirds majority required to change the party rules.
Anthony Albanese offered his best wishes to Senator Waters and thanked her for the constructive relationship they shared.
“I just wish her all the best on a personal level,” the Prime Minister said.
“Obviously, I have differences with the Greens political party, but this is a human issue, and I can also have compassion.”
Environment Minister Murray Watt, who worked closely with Senator Waters to pass his environment protection laws last year, also spoke well of the outgoing leader.
“I feel I’ve got a positive relationship with Larissa. We don’t agree all the time, but I worked very constructively with her and Sarah Hanson-Young when it came to passing those reforms to the EPBC Act last year,” Senator Watt said.
“Absolutely, on a personal level, Larissa has my very best wishes towards her recovery.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
