Council Elections 2012

Council Elections 2012

Reflections on Greens performance at Local Government Elections 2012 for Hornsby Council

Firstly, a big thank you to all the volunteers. So many of you did a long stint.  Thankfully it was beautiful day for it, though I know some were not lucky enough to have shade. I hope most of you found it a positive experience, and would be willing to do it again – Federal election probably next year :-)

Next, let's recognise some of the successes

• we stood a team of candidates in each Hornsby ward, for the first time. 3 real candidates.
• Ku-ring-gai council continues to have an "Independent Green"in Elaine Malicki. And, drawn from the hat, she is Mayor again.
• We got 14% of the vote, when the State average was reportedly considerably lower. The national polls were showing us at a short term low of around 9%.
• The SMH actually "congratulated" Hornsby on an increased Greens vote ~without realising our Green vote count was up only due to running 3 wards for the first time, and thus increasing our vote count despite the dipping percentage.

The Campaign

Obviously, we have done better, we could have done better, we should have done better, we must do better. What are the major things we could have done better.

• Better engaged with the community in the first place
• Started our campaign and endorsed candidates much much earlier
• Somehow energised more people to be really active in the campaign

In this campaign we ended up with really only 4 people highly active in the campaign ~Sherrie, Janet Castle, Jack Gough and myself (Excluding Janet Ellis, who, although one of our candidates, was busy running the Ryde Epping campaign). With support delivered as promised by John Inshaw. With only small contributions from a very few  others.

Personally, this meant I as a candidate had no time for issues or the media. I was 100%  occupied with materials and logistics. No door-knocking  no attending community events and meetings for months. Similarly, Sherrie was buried trying to get coverage for us in the media, writing letters to the editor, organising and preparing for the related planning forum.

Janet did a great, almost lone job of ringing volunteers, but even she was absent for the last week. (On holiday!!! What kind of an excuse is that?)

And of the main four of us, three had full time jobs, while Sherrie was dealing with an elderly sick mother in and out of hospital, and a couple of times threatening to die.

And, let's put it on the record, our 3rd lead candidate contributed nothing to the campaign, and was actually a negative to the campaign a couple of times. OK, a seriously damaged knee put her out of action in one way, but actually gave her time off work, still well able to use phone and internet, if she felt like it.

The Vote

But that was the campaign. When it came to the vote, why did we not do better. Have previous campaigns really been much better ?

My belief is that there are a lot of people who have values that fit well with Green values better than with Present Liberal party values. But they are turned off voting for us, particularly at local elections, for a couple of reasons.

• The Greens, as a political party, are tainted in the eyes of the voters just for being a party. As far as they are concerned, as a political party we are probably as bad as Liberal or Labor; controlled from head office, not listening to local issues. This is particularly an issue at local elections when there are notionally independent candidates running.
• Voters somehow expect us, as Greens, to be perfect, but then they find fault with one or two national policy details, such as non-negotiation over "boat people, BDS etc. Largely mis-perceptions, bless our beloved mainstream media, but nevertheless perceptions held by people who should be voting for us, if they are voting on values held in common.
  
  Consequently they can't quite yet bring themselves to vote for all the good things that they do know that Greens stand for. Some would rather play pot luck by picking a local "independent", even if they really have no idea what the person stands for.
  
  True, many expressing such thoughts are only looking for anything to use as an excuse, rather than tell us they never would vote for Greens anyway. But equally, I know many friends, supporters and sympathisers who do find these issues are a hurdle to real commitment to the Greens.
• Of  course, Hornsby was particularly impacted by the Liberals running under the party name this time, instead of as independents. So many people just grabbed the Liberal How To vote, and voted without any more thought than that, whereas previously they had to pay more attention to find out what the different independent groups stand for.

Next Time

Perhaps at the next election we should consider running a mixed group ticket, with Greens and green minded independents. Perhaps a Greens lead candidate, funded by the Greens, but supported by well known locals. At this election, if we had played it right, we might have got Mick Gallagher on our ticket for Ward A. Perhaps we could have supported Linda Wu in B ward and had Sherrie as lead candidate for Ward C. Perhaps we should be seen to be active in Ku-ring-gai by providing a support candidate for Elaine Malicki.

Or could we get away with running a group called "Local Greens", but funded by "The Greens".

But what do other people think ? I know for instance that many advised us to find 3 or 4 specific local issues and run on them, whereas we tended to run on the more general values of grass roots democracy; openness and transparency; appropriate development.

What do you think we could or should have done better ?

How can we do better next time ?