Younger voters are deserting the Greens creating a bleak electoral outlook for the minor party, according to a new poll.
A Resolve Political Monitor poll for Nine newspapers showed voters aged 18 to 34 have cut their primary vote from 27 to 23 per cent in the final quarter of the year.
The figure is below the level recorded at the last election.
Greens leader Adam Bandt would be particularly concerned support is bleeding away to the major parties in the inner city electorates where the upstart minor party has traditionally enjoyed its greatest success.
Resolve director Jim Reed said voters were starting to ‘peel away’ from the Greens in the demographics where they traditionally flourished.
‘We’ve noted a drop in Greens vote nationally this year, but most concerning for them will be that the loss is hardest in their traditional bases of younger and inner-city voters,’ he said.
‘Any minor party needs their vote share to be concentrated in particular seats, because if it’s too spread out, it doesn’t convert into elected MPs.’
It particularly puts pressure on the Greens to keep the three Queensland seats they won from the major parties in the 2022 federal election – Brisbane, Ryan and Griffith.
Greens leader Adam Bandt would be particularly concerned support is bleeding away to the major parties in the inner city electorates where the upstart minor party has traditionally enjoyed its greatest success
October’s Queensland state election could be an ominous portent with the Greens handing the seat of South Brisbane back to Labor and only able to barely hang onto Maiwar with a nail-biting narrow win over the LNP.
In public Mr Bandt’s talk has been of expansion with him nominating Brisbane’s Moreton, Wills and Macnamara in Melbourne, Richmond on the north coast of NSW and Sturt in South Australia as seats the Greens will target at the next election.
However, Labor and Coalition operatives say they have heard it all before with grand forecasts of Greens electoral success failing to materialise in extra Victoria and NSW wins at the last federal poll.
Since the last election the Greens have also lost a Senator with Victoria’s Lidia Thorpe quitting the party in February 2023 over differing positions towards the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
She later said she was lodging a Human Rights Commission against the Greens, claiming she experienced racism during her time in the organisation.
The Greens in return caused a Labor Upper House defection when Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman crossed the floor in June to vote with the minor party on a motion recognising Palestinian statehood.
This was part of a turbulent year for relations between the Greens and the Albanese government.
A Resolve Political Monitor poll for Nine newspapers showed voters aged 18 to 34 have cut their primary vote from 27 to 23 per cent in the final quarter of the year (stock image)
After noisily demanding extra measures in two Labor housing bills the Greens eventually caved and passed both without amendment at Parliament’s last sitting in November.
During the previous stalemate the Greens were often forced to defend themselves against Labor attacks alleging they were frustrating efforts to help renters and first home buyers, two core groups of potential support.
Both Labor and the Coalition have turned on the Greens over condemnation of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and the wider Middle East.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused the Greens of supporting violent protest actions and of disgusting many voters by falsely claiming Australia’s role in the conflict was aiding ‘genocide’.
‘It is tragic that the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people are undermined by some people engaging in activity that completely alienates the Australian public,’ he said in June.
‘It is unacceptable that misinformation has been consciously and deliberately spread by some Greens senators and MPs who have engaged in this demonstration outside offices and online.’
The firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne earlier this month led to accusations that the pro-Palestinian protests, largely supported by the Greens, have led to an increase in violent anti-Semitism.
Newpolls, conducted for The Australian, have also shown Greens support sliding nationally during the last quarter from 13 per cent to 12 per cent.
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