For The Greens, the election was a coming of age and is a cause for celebration. Overall, the Green vote trebled across the state. There are now 3 Green MPs in the upper house (Legislative Council) – Ian Cohen, Lee Rhiannon and Sylvia Hale. Although no Greens MPs were elected to the lower house, in all but 8 electorates candidates received the crucial 4% of the vote to secure reimbursement of some electoral expenses. Greens candidates came second in three seats and polled more than 10% in 23 seats. Many commentators are saying that the election re-affirmed our position as the third mainstream party in the Australian political landscape.

In Clarence, the local campaign effort was rewarded with a large increase in Green votes. Clarence is a large electorate – from Dundurrabin and Mullaway in the south to Wardell and Tabulam in the north – with 49 local booths. At the 1999 election, only 3 booths recorded higher than 10% Green votes; at this election, 15 did. Swings of more than 10% were recorded at Broadwater, Mallanganee, Nymboida, Rappville and Red Rock. The booth with the greatest increase in the number of primary Green votes was Mullaway (148 people voted Green, 99 more than last time). Huge increases were also recorded at Yamba (increased by 86 votes) and Evans Head (increased by 76 votes). Apart from Mullaway, three-fold increases in votes were recorded at South Casino, Mallanganee, Palmers Island, Yamba West and Maclean Hospital. Five-fold increases in votes were recorded at Broadwater, Cooper, Red Rock and Woombah. Remember, playing with statistics can be meaningless: Grafton Hospital had a seven-fold increase but this only meant that we had 7 votes this time. The Greenest booth was Nymboida with 30% of primary votes for the Greens, followed up by Dundurrabin with 22%. However, the 9 booths in Grafton remain hard nuts to crack – in these we still only averaged 3% of the vote and there wasn’t a large increase at any of them. So, there’s still more work to be done! Overall, the primary vote for the Greens’ Clarence candidate, Mark Purcell, almost doubled from 3.4% to 6.6%. In addition to the primary vote, 255 voters of the other candidates directed preferences to Mark before the ALP and Nationals.

The election was a learning experience. For the first time, we attempted a preference deal. What the preference deal amounted to was a commitment by us, in return for ALP promises, to recommend our voters preference the ALP above the Nationals. At a local level, we secured promises from the state ALP for a feasibility study into desalination, and financial support for a youth club for South Grafton. Protection of icon forest areas was one of the State-wide promises. Of course, what we couldn’t promise is that our voters would follow the how-to-vote card. How someone votes is a decision the individual voter makes in the polling booth – a party doesn’t decide it. Our how-to-votes might have recommended numbering 2 in Terry’s box, but 47% (or 1363) of our voters didn’t do it (1133 exhausted their preference, and 230 chose Cansdell next). Some Greens supporters were disgusted at how Flanagan distanced himself from The Greens and the promises made after we’d registered our how-to-vote. Terry Flanagan lost Clarence for the ALP by only 1173 votes. In the end, after the distribution of preferences, it seems that individual Greens voters decided the outcome of the election.

Thanks to all our supporters and voters. Without you, The Greens in Clarence wouldn’t be able to voice an alternative point of view. Thanks also to Mark Purcell for being a great candidate. But it isn’t time to rest on our laurels – there’s always another election coming soon. If anyone still has banners or posters, please return them to the CEC. Meetings of The Clarence Greens are held on the 4^th Monday of the month, at the Clarence Environment Centre, at 12:30 pm.