Australians have voted for climate action

Australians have voted and Anthony Albanese is now our 31st?Australian Prime Minister. After nine years of a Coalition government, Labor has won the election with what is set to be a majority of seats in the House of Representatives.?

Why Scott Morrison lost

The media has highlighted many reasons Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party lost the election, including a number of incidents and comments throughout his term that the public have been unable to forget. There was the holiday to Hawaii during the catastrophic bushfires of 2019-20, during which Morrison initially denied being away and later defended his trip with the now famous line “I don’t hold a hose”. Then there was the “it’s not a race” line in response to COVID-19 vaccine delays. Or his reported lack of empathy around the Brittany Higgins rape allegations and his controversial comments at March4Justice rallies noting protestors "are being met with bullets" in other countries, which lost him a significant number of female votes.?

These are all contributing factors, but perhaps the most significant reason the Liberal Party lost is that Australians are more concerned than ever about climate change. This is outlined?here?in the annual?Ipsos Climate Change Report 2022?which indicates “the majority of Australians are?concerned about climate change?(83%) and 70% consider that?Australia is already being affected by climate change, primarily with more frequent and extreme natural disaster events which is a steady increase in concern and up from 56% in 2011.” Given this snapshot of public opinion, re-electing a man who once showed off a lump of coal in parliament, stating, “this is coal… don’t be afraid… don’t be scared”, was always going to be a challenge.

Historic voting changes

While Labor is set to hold the majority of seats, the historically high number of so called “teal” independents who have been elected (alongside the Greens) also speaks to the climate being a fundamental concern of voters. Teal independents are thus named because they represent a voting base that is a traditional conservative Liberal stronghold (blue being the traditional colour of the Liberal party) combined with green climate policy views.?

Teal has become campaign colour of choice for many independent campaigns and a large number of these independents received some funding from a group called Climate 200. This group was founded by Melbourne billionaire philanthropist Simon Holmes à Court in 2019 and relies significantly on crowd funding. Their established goal is to provide funding to independent candidates who are committed to a science-based approach to climate change and to restoring integrity in politics.?

Five of the independents Climate 200 gave funding to were elected. Holmes à Court is not without his detractors, with former Liberal MP Jason Falinski claiming that he is “attempting to take over Parliament with money” and Aboriginal leader and politician Warren Mundine describing him as just “Clive Palmer but on the left”.

Additionally, the Greens have also recorded their most successful electoral result yet, adding at least two-house seats in QLD to the seat already held (and retained) by Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt. The Greens are also looking likely to have gained at least two (and potentially three) new senate seats – for a likely total of 12 senate seats and five lower house MPs in this newly elected parliament.

This is a historic move away from the dominant two-party system that has been the foundation of the Australian politics for decades. The majority of Australians have voted loud and clear that climate action needs to be at the forefront of political policy.?