Queensland elects its first Greens councillor, Jonathan Sri [Australia]
Source: The Guardian
Asked why it had taken until now for the Greens to take a local government seat in Queensland, Sri said the party’s refusal to accept large corporate donations to fund campaigns was “probably one of the biggest things holding us back”.
“When you look at cities like Sydney and Melbourne they’ve had Greens councillors down there for a while and even when they haven’t had a majority on council, they’ve been able to effect meaningful substantive change,” he said. “So the first thing you can do is raise issues and policies that they other parties simply aren’t thinking about.” <snip>
“So lots of town hall forums, lots of online voting, neighbourhood councils, community meetings, where it’s not just me making the decisions but it’s ordinary citizens taking control over the future of their city – that’s how we’re going to change things,” he said. <snip>
No Greens candidate has previously succeeded in a local government election in Queensland, although the party had one state MP when Ronan Lee defected from Labor in 2008. The Queensland Greens senator Larissa Waters said Sri’s election was “wonderful news for Queensland and for our party, which has been campaigning in Queensland now for decades and has had some challenges in our voting system here.”
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/mar/23/queensland-elects-its-first-greens-councillor-jonathan-sri
Sounds familiar.... change is starting to show green shoots