Today I resigned from the Greens, not because I don't care about the environment and climate change, I care more than ever.
The standard you walk by is the standard you accept, and I'm not prepared to walk by and accept any more of the culture, behaviours and practice I see in the Greens.
My apologies to regular readers, this post is way longer than any facebook post should be.
When it was official that I'd lost Eastern Metro I said in a parting post "It is time for the Victorian Greens to do some soul searching to determine what sort of party they want to be in the future. If we ignore our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them. It is time for the party to address its shortcomings, the way it preselects candidates, the way accountability is measured and managed, its deep seated aversion to managing conflict appropriately. I say this with the hope that the Greens do find their way, the planet needs the Greens more than ever."
What has become apparent to me is that the Greens lack the ability to critically self reflect on any shortcomings. Listening to the continued braying by on the success of the recent Victorian state election is a case in point. The numbers tell quite a different story. The Greens vote dropped in every upper house seat, the vote dropped across the state in the lower house, the Greens vote dropped in Melbourne both before and after the distribution of preferences, in the Greens safest upper house seat, Northern Metro, the vote dropped, the Greens lost 5 MPs (and gained one). If this is what success looks like then the benchmark is very low.
I joined the Greens in 2004, I was inspired to after hearing of the ejection of Senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle for heckling US President George W Bush in his address to a joint sitting of the federal parliament. It was a grim time in politics, John Howard was the Prime Minister, I thought the Greens needed to know there were people who supported what they were doing. The Greens released an Anti Iraq War postcard of Kerry and Bob and their heckling, it's still on the wall of my home office and will remain there. I was so very fortunate to have the privilege of being an elected Greens representative for thirteen years to put into action my passion to do something about climate change. I will always be proud of my achievements as the first Green elected at Yarra Ranges Shire Council and in the Eastern Metropolitan Region.
I've always been passionate about the environment, stopping logging and action on climate change, long before the Greens were a thing. For me these things are innate. The Greens were a pretty good fit in terms of policy and values. The Greens still are a pretty good fit in terms of policy and values, but there's a problem. Concerningly many Greens in leadership, governance and representative positions don't act in a way consistent with those values, the standard they walk by and accept is at complete odds with those values. It's incumbent on our leaders, office bearers and party representatives to set the tone, model the best of behaviour and embody those behaviours. They should not only talk the talk, they need to walk the walk. Actions speak louder than words and they need to take action to show commitment and dedication to eradicating damaging, destructive and vicious behaviours.
Instead the Greens are distracted by populism, self interest, power, ego, narcissism, megalomania, appealing to narrowcast demographics and virtue signalling while exercising that old war strategy of divide and conquer.
I can no longer stand by and witness continued institutionalised victim blaming. I have seen people broken by this outdated and brutal organisational response, it is inhumane, driven by political expedience, and it will be at the long term peril of the Greens.
At a recent Greens meeting I saw people being vilified, experienced unsafe behaviours and had to endure the typical dose of toxic behaviours that are all too prevalent in the Greens. All of this by people in leading positions. It is a snapshot of what is wrong. There is an inability of the party to reinforce positive culture, to address conflict or to even be polite to each other.
The bastion of natural justice has been abandoned by the Greens, their decision making around managing risk creates greater risks rather than mitigate it. The decision making applied in the recent state election, a tangible demonstration of this.
The Greens aversion to conflict resolution means that tensions fester, no one is ever pulled up for poor behaviours, the behaviours escalate and become legitimised because no one ever says no or stop it or that's inappropriate. The paralysis embedded in the culture of the Greens in terms of dealing with poor behaviours has created a toxic mire. These poor behaviours are further legitimised with the preselection of badly behaved candidates. The Greens need to learn how to say no and be okay about it. The probity processes continue to lack rigour and the political toughness required when preselecting candidates for such an important public role.
The tribalism that's emerged in the Greens is caustic and does not serve the people or our planet well. In a grasp for real or perceived power and limited resources, party bodies have become self interested and seem to have forgotten that we're here for the planet.
All the while, this beautiful planet of ours and us with it, spiral head first into natural disaster after natural disaster caused by anthropogenic climate change.
I apologise to those who feel let down by my decision, it wasn't taken lightly. But until the Greens can embed positive culture, manage conflict of interest properly, stop victim blaming, embed accountability into their practices, restore natural justice, address conflict resolution and dilute concentration of power they will never truly thrive.
There are so many good people in the Greens, the rank and file, who work tirelessly for the betterment of people and planet. They rarely intersect with the machinations of the party but they are always there flying the flag for the Greens in community, at early voting and on election day. To them I say a heartfelt thank you. You are salt of the earth and many of you have supported me over many years across Victoria.
I say thank you to Greens Local Government Councillors, you work very hard for very little. You achieve amazing things at a local level that often has a far greater ripple effect. I give special mention to those councillors who are the only Green councillor on their council, that's the hardest road to travel, yet you do it because of commitment to people and planet.
I won't be going away any time soon, I'll be still out there fighting for environment, stopping logging and action on climate change. If there's one thing I know for sure, once an environmental activist, always an environmental activist!
Samantha Dunn
Former Dandenong Ranges Branch Member 2004 - 2019
Campaign Assistant Eastern Victoria – State Election 2006
Former Yarra Ranges Shire Councillor – 2005 to 2014 (Deputy Mayor 2006)
Outer East Regional Council Treasurer – 2006 to 2009
State Councillor Local Government representative – 2006 to 2011, 2013 to 2014
Former Member for Eastern Metropolitan Region - 2014 to 2018
State Councillor State Party Room representative - 2014 to 2018
State Party Room VCC representative - 2018
State Councillor Yarra Ranges branch - 2019
