Confusion reigns down in Australia as election results continue to trickle in and fears of a hung parliament look as though they may be realized. But one thing has emerged clearly: the Australian Green Party has scored a major breakthrough. They have won 14% of the popular vote, more than double their vote share from the previous election and won their first seat in the Australian House of Representatives, with Adam Bandt taking the Melbourne seat from Labor. They have also expanded their number of seats in the Senate (which is chosen by proportional representation) and may even end up holding the balance of power in the upper house.
The Greens can credit the fumbling climate change policies of the two major parties for a large part of their success. Tony Abbott, leader of the Liberal Party (which, despite its name, is the main conservative party in Australia) is a skeptic of global climate change, but the Labor Party of Prime Minister Julia Gillard has previously promised major action on climate change and then failed to deliver. The success of the Australian Greens indicates both a fatigue among the Australian people with the partisan gridlock of the two major parties and a desire to keep environmental issues at the forefront of political discourse in the country.
Global Citizens should cheer the success of the Australian Greens, which comes on the heels of the Green Party of England and Wales winning its first seat in the House of Commons in May. The Greens of the world certainly have their flaws, including a tendency towards ideological rigidity and (in the United States, at least) a habit of embracing extremely questionable candidates. But they also represent the only organized global political party, have had a powerful and positive impact on environmental issues in many countries, and raise subjects that other political parties would prefer to ignore, such as election reform. The world is a better place with the Greens than it would be without them.
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