Last week was a big week of anniversaries for Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
November 24 marked 17 years since her election as a South Australian senator — the youngest woman ever elected to federal Parliament. She is also now the longest-serving Greens member, recently overtaking Rachel Siewert.
“I’ve seen some stuff…” she tells me.
November 25, meanwhile, marked five since she won a defamation case against former senator David Leyonhjelm, who famously told her to “stop shagging men” during a debate on women’s safety.
That would be among the stuff.
Last week’s milestones were overshadowed, however, by the PM’s intervention to “scupper” a deal Hanson-Young been negotiating with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek on Labor’s nature positive reforms, including its promise to establish an environmental watchdog.
Hanson-Young, who is the Greens’ environment spokesperson as well as manager of Senate business, walked into Parliament last week “hopeful” that a deal was close. The Greens had dropped demands for a climate trigger, focusing instead on native forest logging, while arguing the bill was far from what an independent review had recommended back in 2020.
Alas, it was not to be, with Anthony Albanese informing the Greens on Tuesday the nature deal would not be proceeding, as he negotiated directly with leader Adam Bandt and Hanson-Young on a tranche of other bills. Journalists have been keen to establish just how formal the agreement was when canned, and just how much of a slight this was against Plibersek, who reportedly wasn’t told until after the fact.
Hanson-Young has been guarded on what exactly occurred, hoping the bill can still be salvaged. But she’s been clear on a few things.
First, she reckons Albanese bowed to mining interests in WA on this one — something seemingly confirmed by the industry “cheering” his decision (WA Labor Premier Roger Cook quickly claimed credit).
Second, that Plibersek was a good negotiator, who was actually willing to talk and seek compromise. Hanson-Young points to bills they’ve successfully worked on, including the Murray Darling Basin plan and nature repair scheme.
“Negotiating from different positions is not always friendly, but the way I engage and the way Tanya has always engaged is respectful and honest,” she says. “I think what happened last week would have been pretty devastating to her, because she had her heart set on getting this piece of legislation through.”
It’s a far cry from the acrimony of which Labor and the Greens have both been accused. Are women simply better at negotiating?
“I think women are better at it,” says Hanson-Young, noting conversations with Senate counterpart Katy Gallagher are similarly productive, with each able to put their ego aside. “That’s a generalisation, but frankly there’s a lot of blokes in that place who spend a lot of time talking tough … a little more time listening, a little more time considering what the other side is looking for, wouldn’t go astray.”
“Just because you shout it loudest doesn’t actually mean your idea is the best,” she adds, noting Parliament still has a way to go in this area.
Our chat comes amid reports the Greens have adopted a “new spirit of cooperation”, with many linking recent election results to the minor party being too obstructive. Bandt has been out defending this year’s approach, while indicating he’s up for more collaboration in the next, saying the Greens would seek a deal with Labor in a hung parliament.
Hanson-Young is of a similar mind, arguing that it was important for the Greens to push for better outcomes.
“I know people don’t like hearing about how the sausage is made,” she says. “But I think what we’ve seen at the end here, in this last week of Parliament, you know, over 40 bills passed — the majority of which were negotiated with the Greens and the government constructively. We got a good outcome; we didn’t get everything we wanted, but we got a lot.”
Should they have pushed harder for the nature reforms, insisting — as independent David Pocock initially did — that the bill be included in any package deal?
Hanson-Young says there was no point, with Albanese making “very clear” he wasn’t going to countenance it.
“At some point you do have to make a call about getting what you can,” she adds, arguing it was “fantasy land” to think the PM was going to suddenly stand up to the mining industry. “That’s the art of negotiation and it’s the art of compromise.”
Like Bandt, Hanson-Young has begun speaking out even more forcefully against Peter Dutton since Donald Trump’s election victory, arguing the Greens’ job is simultaneously to “push Labor to be better, but keep Dutton out”.
“Women in particular are terrified of the licence that Peter Dutton is giving his front and backbench to spruik and follow the ultra-right rhetoric in America,” she tells me.
One of her priorities next year will be helping the Greens win Liberal-held Sturt in South Australia, in which the minor party has an outside chance. But she also wants to ensure the party has a strong Senate bloc, ensuring that “nature, climate and the community have a strong voice, whoever ends up being prime minister”.
And like Bandt, she’s adamant that it’s time for progressives in Parliament to start working together.
“Otherwise we end up handing the keys of the Lodge to a Trump fanatic like Peter Dutton, and frankly as a Green, as a progressive, as a woman, I’m not prepared to see that happen.”
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