This election year it will be worth watching the rise or otherwise of the Australian Greens and the group known as the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) led by South Australian Senator Xenophon.
Australian politics has been without a centre, or left of centre style of minor party since the demise of the Australian Democrats.
"It is up to the voters to decide, but there is a real vacuum for the political centre of Australian politics," Senator Xenophon told SBS.
In their different ways in 2016 Senators Di Natale and Xenophon are hoping to capitalise on voter dissatisfaction with the major parties.
Recent suggest the Green vote is up to 10 per cent from 8.6 per cent at the last election. Xenophon’s support base is untested.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale is already out campaigning for inner city votes, especially Labor votes.
"If the Australian community wants a more decent society, want more courage and vision in politics they will continue to vote green in bigger numbers as they are doing in Liberal and Labor held seats," he told SBS.
“There are a number of seats in this election where we will be running very hard election contests. Our priority this election is to see that our sitting senators in each state are returned as well as Adam Bandt in the lower house. That is a key objective for us.”
The Greens have one lower house seat, Bandt’s seat of Melbourne, and want more.
They see opportunities in the Melbourne Labor seats that surround the seat of Melbourne such as Wills, Batman, and Melbourne Ports and the Liberal seat of Higgins held by Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer. Although when I caught up with Kelly O’Dwyer this week she wasn’t overly concerned about the Greens vote in Higgins and said she hadn’t even seen green campaigners there.
Labor politicians are not in that position. The Greens are a problem for Labor by attracting their disaffected inner city voters and in some areas eroding the Labor base. In New South Wales they continue to make inroads in the seats of Sydney and Grayndler, as they have for the last few elections. On announcing his decision to recontest Grayndler, despite an unfavourable redistribution, Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese attacked the Greens candidate Jim Casey.
"The Greens political party candidate who has been chosen in this electorate has spent more time in the International Socialist Organisation than he has in the Greens political party," Mr Albanese said.
"And if he was fair dinkum he would run as an international socialist and see how many votes he got there."
The Greens are also campaigning in the northern New South Wales seat of Richmond.
“If it is not at this election it will be at the next we will see Greens in lower house seats take seats from Liberal and Labor and National MPs” predicts Senator Di Natale.
Senator Di Natale took over as Greens leader from Christine Milne last year and has built and broadened the party’s support base. As a middle class doctor from an Italian migrant family he represents the changing face of Australian politics. He’s from a multicultural background, he is a professional and family man and his politics are socially progressive. He is offering more than a hard ‘green’ political view. He campaigns on economic fairness, taxation policy as the Greens have for a long time, but he delivers his message in a way that so far more voters like. Suddenly the Greens are proving attractive to more Labor voters and inner city professionals. No wonder Anthony Albanese is frustrated by their presence in Grayndler.
The Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) is fielding candidates in the Senate and House of Representatives across the country. Adelaide is Senator Xenophon’s base and he hopes to capitalise on Liberal government backlash over auto closures and submarines and ship building job losses and uncertainty.
Senator Xenophon says all politicians should be on their toes.
“When you consider youth unemployment rates around the country are 20 per cent in some regions, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria under employment rates are up to 50 per cent then this is a major issues we need to grapple with as a nation." Senator Xenophon said.
