Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has been a very good year for people in Melbourne. People in Melbourne want a clean economy and a caring society. They do not want Australia to become the kind of country where the gap between the haves and the have-nots grows, and where Australian education and health is turned into a US style system, where the first thing they do when you get sick is check your wallet. People in Melbourne also know that global warming is real and that, unless we get it under control, as we head towards every summer we are going to be worried about where the next bushfire is going to hit or how many people will die from the next heatwave.

People have had some setbacks this year. We have had a brutal government at the federal level that has gone out of its way to grow the gap between rich and poor. Instead of standing up to the wealthy and the powerful, it has tried to balance the budget by taking the axe to the young, the old, the sick and the poor. We have seen a federal government that, sadly, has wound back some of the action on global warming that the people of Melbourne secured in the last parliament, when the Greens held the balance of power.

But there is some good news. In Victoria, we have turfed out an uncaring Liberal government after one term—hopefully a sign of things to come for 'One-Term Tony' in 2016. We are on the verge of stopping the east-west tollway, which would divide communities of inner-city Melbourne and turn them into a rat's nest of on- and off-ramps; and we are on the verge, hopefully, of getting the investment in public transport that we so need.

As is becoming apparent to the rest of the country, Melbourne is going green. It is wonderful to end the year with Ellen Sandell in the seat of Melbourne in the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian parliament. I want to give a special thanks to Ellen and especially to her campaign team: Nina O'Connor, Claire Harman, India Prior, Jess Beames and all of the other doorknockers and volunteers who went out and knocked on 25,680 doors; made 12,000 calls; spent 2,300 hours entering data; hosted 284 events; and gave the people of Melbourne, for the first time ever, a voice in the lower house of the Victorian parliament, where Ellen is now able to push for action on global warming, the creation of a new national park and the investment in the public transport that we need.

In Richmond, Kathleen Maltzahn, running again for the Greens, achieved a record Greens vote. She and her team of Naomi Blackburn, Olivia Hartigan and Peter Ferguson, as well as everyone else who turned up, knocked on over 11,000 doors in Richmond and got a massive swing towards the Greens—it is now a marginal seat.

In Brunswick, just to the north, Tim Read put in a sterling effort. Without the seat even being a priority seat for the Greens—the same as Richmond—at this election we got a nine per cent swing. Tim Read, Alex Kline and the whole team there have turned Brunswick into a seat that at the next election is going to become part of 'Greenland', with the rest of us south of that Park Street border.

Similarly, Trent McCarthy and Kim Le Cerf over in Northcote put in an amazing effort. They got the Greens a 3.6 per cent swing in preferences, and it may end up being more when the final vote is in. Of course, south of the river in Prahran, where votes are still being counted, Sam Hibbins and all his team are still in the hunt for a seat there that might see a Liberal member in Prahran deposed and the Greens taking the first seat south of the river as well. We will see what happens, but, whatever the result is in Prahran, Sam Hibbins and his team have put in a sterling effort.

Statewide, thanks has to go to Larissa Brown, Jess McColl, Clare Quinn, Karen Gardham, Sean Vagg and the rest of the team. They have put in an incredible effort that may see the Greens now holding the balance of power in the upper house of the Victorian parliament—increasing our representation there. That is something we may not know for another couple of weeks, but it was a sterling achievement.

Lastly, as we head towards the end of the year, I want to thank everyone on my staff and our team. You are doing things that people never thought were possible. Only a little while ago, people were saying, 'The Greens can't survive in the inner city without preferences from the other parties.' We have proved them wrong. People are now thinking it is normal and usual to have Greens in both houses of parliament. The tide has turned, and to my staff and my team I say: thank you, you are doing wonderful things.