Brisbane is now "Greens heartland", but at the local government level, Greens councillor Jonathan Sri is still alone in City Hall.
But he is confident that will not be the case after the 2024 Brisbane City Council election.
Mr Sri was elected on Labor preferences with 31.7 per cent of the primary vote in 2016.
He was the only Queensland Green politician at a state or local level — only Senator Larissa Waters represented the party federally.
Greens state MPs Michael Berkman and Amy McMahon have since joined Mr Sri and Ms Waters.
Senator-elect Penny Allman-Payne, and federal MP-elects Elizabeth Watson-Brown in the western Brisbane seat of Ryan, Max Chandler-Mather in the formerly Labor-held seat of Griffith, and Stephen Bates in the LNP's former seat of Brisbane, have now taken Greens representation to a new level.
Mr Sri said his party would have significantly bolstered its council presence were it not for the shadow of the first COVID-19 lockdown at the March 2020 council election.
"Voter turnout was under 80 per cent, so that meant one in five Brisbanites didn't vote in that election," Mr Sri said.
LNP stronghold
None of the city's 26 wards changed its political colours in 2020.
The LNP, led by newly-minted lord mayor Adrian Schrinner, comfortably retained its 19-ward dominance, while the minority Labor opposition secured its own five wards.
The LNP has held City Hall since Campbell Newman defeated Labor's Tim Quinn in 2004.
The party will have ruled City Hall for 20 years by the time the 2024 council election arrives, a point Mr Schrinner has referred to as evidence the people of Brisbane trust his administration to deliver effective, careful leadership.
With a population of 1.2 million and a $3.6 billion budget, Brisbane City Council is the only council in Australia structured like a state parliament.
The dominant LNP operates against the opposition Labor party, with Mr Sri and independent Nicole Johnston rounding out the wards.
Labor's recent focus has primarily been on state and federal elections — a priority Mr Sri thinks has allowed voters to turn to the Greens in more LNP-held wards in 2024.
Labor ran television journalist Pat Condren as an out-of-the-box lord mayoral candidate two years ago to secure a 3.2 per cent mayoral vote swing.
But it failed to secure any additional wards.
Greens candidate for lord mayor Kath Angus, a midwife and early childhood educator, secured a 5 per cent swing for her party, taking a total of 15.4 per cent of the lord mayoral vote.
Shades of Green
But the LNP's strong overall result in 2020 hid the fact that in some wards, the Greens were within a few percentage points of winning.
Paddington, held by LNP councillor Peter Matic, recorded a 5.1 per cent swing to the Greens, while Walter Taylor, held by LNP councillor James Mackay, experienced an 11.8 per cent swing.
The western ward of Pullenvale also recorded an 8.2 per cent Greens swing, away from new LNP councillor Greg Adermann.
The majority of suburbs in those wards now fall under Greens leadership at either state or federal level — or both.
Analysis by the ABC's Antony Green after the 2020 council election showed that since 2004, Labor's party vote across the wards had slipped from 42 per cent to 32.9 per cent.
Over the same period, the Greens' party vote rose from 10.2 per cent to 17.8 per cent.
Mr Sri expects that trend to pay dividends in 2024.
Those same LNP wards that nearly fell to the Greens last time will be key targets.
Outer suburban wards such as The Gap, Northgate and Enoggera, and even LNP deputy mayor Krista Adams' ward of Holland Park, are now also in the Greens' vision.
No 'career politician'
Mr Sri said he wasn't sure what the future held for him after years of being the sole Greens voice in council.
"By [2024] I will have been the councillor for The Gabba ward for eight years, and when I put my hand up to do this role, I really was doing it out of a sense of frustration with the political status quo and a sense that we needed to build up the Greens in Queensland," he said.
Mr Sri said it would be important for people like him to stick around and provide a bit of leadership and mentorship for other Greens councillors.
