Battle over crucial Brisbane seat of Ryan held by the Greens

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Greens are hoping to hang onto the seat of Ryan, in Brisbane's inner west. Elizabeth Watson-Brown has held the seat for one term

Transcript

00:00Elizabeth Watson-Brown, thank you for joining me.

00:04The Greens have gone backwards at a state level, with just one MP left in Queensland

00:10Parliament after the recent October election.

00:13Was that a surprise to you, and has that changed your upcoming election campaign at all?

00:18It was a surprise because we certainly get the sense, and certainly when it comes to

00:22federal politics, that there is a lot of support out there.

00:26And we were very happy to oust the Morrison government last time, and get more Greens

00:33into a position of power that we have actually utilised since then.

00:37So I think that people do see a bit of a difference between the state scenario and the federal

00:42scenario, and certainly having four lower house MPs in the federal House of Representatives

00:49has been really critical and I think really useful for Queenslanders.

00:52Is this upcoming election campaign more difficult than the last?

00:56It's very different from the last one, you know, and there are lots of reasons that it's

00:59quite different.

01:00One of those is that they didn't see us coming last time.

01:03I had to get a nearly 10% swing, you know, to get into this position of a slim margin.

01:09But what was really clear on the ground during that campaign was that people wanted change.

01:15Clearly the Morrison government was on the nose.

01:18Do you think in a cost of living crisis the appeal of the Greens wanes?

01:23I think it increases because what we are offering is real practical solutions, and that's absolutely

01:30a mantra and an obsession of mine.

01:32You know, it's not just idealism, and they've seen what we've been able to achieve in this

01:37last parliament.

01:38You know, we've got $3.5 billion extra for housing.

01:41We've won $1.7 billion for houses and businesses to convert from gas to electricity.

01:48We've got a real cap on emissions, a real hard cap on emissions, and we've stopped public

01:53money flowing, you know, to fossil fuels.

01:56In the last term of government, you and the Greens were criticised for opposing housing

02:00legislation that the government put forward, in fact teaming up with the coalition at points.

02:05As someone who is a big proponent of housing, do you think that will hurt your re-election

02:10chances?

02:11Well, we passed the housing legislation, you know, and in the meantime and during those

02:14negotiations, we won so much more for housing as a $3.5 billion of funding that wasn't going

02:21to be there.

02:22That's six times what the government was actually going to spend on housing.

02:25So we negotiated hard and we won that for real people.

02:29We need to be in there to pressure a minority government to do better, and that's the power

02:35of the Greens.

02:36We definitely need to keep Dutton out.

02:39There is a real kind of existential fear out there in the community about the potential

02:45of a Dutton government.

02:46The Greens hold three federal electorates in Brisbane.

02:50The two major parties are certainly targeting all three.

02:54Which one do you think you have a best shot at hanging onto?

02:58Look, I'm superstitious of polls, you know.

03:03We know that Dutton is specifically targeting Ryan.

03:07They think it's their birthright.

03:09They couldn't believe it when we actually won it last time, but there were real influences

03:13there and real reasons why the community didn't want an LNP government representative anymore

03:18there.

03:19Make no mistake, they're targeting the seat of Ryan.

03:22Do the Greens support a new Olympic and Paralympic stadium at Victoria Park?

03:27We don't.

03:28We don't.

03:29There are so many locations in Brisbane to build new stadiums.

03:32We need to hang on to our green space, and this has been a very bad history in Brisbane

03:37of wholesale handing over public space, really important green space, which is the lungs

03:42of our city, to private entities again.

03:45On the Games itself, are you supportive or would you rather it was scrapped?

03:49Look, I would be supportive of a Games that left a really great legacy for the whole community.

03:54You know, we could have the benefit, the legacy, of an enormous number of, you know, potentially

03:58affordable housing for people, which is something obviously we really critically need.

04:03That could be the legacy of the Olympics.

04:05That could be the framework in which the Olympics is planned for.

04:09In the event of a hung parliament, what would the Greens do and how would you yourself advocate

04:14for Queensland?

04:15I'd advocate for Queensland for the things that Queenslanders really need, and we know

04:19what people are wanting.

04:21We need, you know, dental cover and mental health cover in Medicare.

04:25We need housing.

04:26You know, everybody needs to have a roof over their head.

04:29And the way we can pay for it, it's actually making the billionaires and the big corporations

04:33actually pay their fair share of tax.

04:36You know, we've had the fossil fuel industry ripping our resources out of the ground, making

04:41enormous profits from that, and not paying tax in Australia.

04:46You know, tell me that that's economically rational.

04:48In terms of a hung parliament, though, which major party would you be supporting?

04:52I wouldn't be going with Dutton.

04:54Dutton wouldn't be coming to us, I can assure you.

04:57We're the ones who are in there actually trying to kind of change that system that has been

05:01a benefit and that is opening the door to this really terrifying Trumpian type of politics.

05:09Dutton's been out there sowing division, you know, promoting a mad, you know, irrational

05:15actually and dangerous nuclear policy.

05:21People don't want that.

05:22Elizabeth Watson-Brown, thank you so much for joining me.

05:25Thanks, Alex.

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