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‘I think the LNP are nervous’: Greens claim they could snatch 10 seats in Brisbane
Jonathan Sriranganathan’s announcement he is the Greens candidate for Brisbane mayor in 2024 has prompted a fiery response from City Hall.
Despite the local government elections being 213 days away, it felt as if the starter’s gun had been fired on the Ekka public holiday.
Jonathan Sriranganathan officially announcing he will be the Greens candidate for mayor.Credit: Felicity Caldwell
An email arrived from LNP lord mayor Adrian Schrinner’s media team at 8am, declaring Brisbane residents had a choice between “stability or a destructive Green/ Labor coalition of chaos at the next election”.
“The destructive Greens, led by a self-declared anarchist, want to defund the police, eradicate road funding and support shoplifting and breaking-and-entering,” a spokeswoman said.
A missive from Labor, in an email from leader of the opposition Jared Cassidy, did not mention Sriranganathan, or respond to the mooted “coalition of chaos”.
“It’s telling that all Schrinner and the LNP have got left is political attacks,” he said, going on to complain about the LNP’s record on congestion, the housing crisis and rates.
At noon in Hanlon Park at Stones Corner, federal Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather said he believed the party had a “genuine, albeit underdog, shot” to seize the mayoralty.
“It is possible because almost all of metropolitan Brisbane now is represented by federal Greens MPs,” Chandler-Mather said.
“This is shaping up as a race between the Greens and the LNP in Brisbane ... I think the LNP are going to face the most fierce, oppositional campaign they have faced since they were elected.”
Sriranganathan said he believed the Greens could win at least 10 wards.
Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather says Jonathan Sriranganathan is the underdog, but could win.Credit: Felicity Caldwell
The LNP holds 19 wards and the mayoralty, Labor has five, the Greens one and there is one independent.
Despite arguing he was “not here to tinker around the edges”, Sriranganathan also made a pitch to voters in the middle.
“It doesn’t matter where you fall on the political spectrum,” he said.
“I don’t think anyone would agree 100 per cent with every single Greens policy and statement, but the point is that we believe in grassroots participatory democracy.
LNP campaign spokeswoman and councillor Fiona Cunningham has warned of a “coalition of chaos”.Credit: Felicity Caldwell
“So, if you as residents want to have a say over the future of your community, we are the party for you.”
Sriranganathan said he was disappointed the LNP was attacking him personally, claiming it showed how “scared they are”.
“I think the LNP are very nervous about the rising Greens threat because they just lost two federal seats [Brisbane and Ryan] that they did not see coming,” he said.
An hour later, in a Coorparoo park, LNP councillor Fiona Cunningham was asked if the party’s response showed they were worried.
Her response repeated the phrase “coalition of chaos” six times in a five-minute press conference.
“Jonathan Sriranganathan is the most disruptive and dangerous candidate Brisbane has seen for lord mayor,” she said.
Cunningham did not provide evidence Labor and the Greens would do a deal to form a coalition.
The LNP will have held the mayoralty for 20 years by the 2024 election, and although Greens candidate Kath Angus achieved a 5 per cent swing in 2020, Schrinner – the most senior Liberal leader of a government on mainland Australia – won 56 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.
At the election residents will be given two ballot papers – one to elect a mayor and one for their local councillor, so it is possible for different political parties to control the mayoralty and a majority of wards, as happened under Campbell Newman.
University of Queensland political historian Dr Chris Salisbury said he could not see the Greens gaining many more wards, even in what he thought was the unlikely event of Sriranganathan becoming mayor.
“So he’d lead council in a minority, and I’d imagine not a particularly workable or friendly one,” he said.
“Despite his huge personal vote in the Gabba ward, and not discounting the rise in Greens support in a handful of wards, it’s difficult to see Jonathan Sriranganathan bridging a sizeable gap on Schrinner’s lead in the two-party preferred vote last time.”