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
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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.