Greens optimistic heading into South Australian state election
- Penny Hoffmann
- 6 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Melanie Selwood, the Greens' lead candidate for the Legislative Council, has told 6 News she's optimistic about the party's chances leading up to Saturday's state election.
Melanie Selwood, the Greens' lead candidate for the South Australian Legislative Council, has told 6 News she's optimistic about the party's chances leading up to Saturday's state election.
6 News chief anchor Leo Puglisi spoke to Selwood in early March to find out her key Greens issues this election.
“People are really looking to us to push for more action on the cost of living, but also our environment,” Selwood said.
“To make sure it’s something we can live in into the future.
“We’ve been knocking on thousands of doors. What we’ve heard from people is that they’re really struggling to pay the rent, cover their energy bills, and they’re really feeling the pinch.
“At the same time, here in South Australia, we’ve got an algal bloom on our shores, which is causing devastation along our coastlines.”
Two weeks ago, the Greens announced their proposal to have the trainline from Adelaide Hills to Mount Barker service its residents. Currently, this train line only runs for the purpose of transporting freight. Selwood believes that this proposal will ease congestion and help prevent road accidents.
“Back in the 1970’s, we still had trains going up there that were passenger trains to Adelaide,” Selwood said.
“We’d really like to see them brought back… we think this will get a lot of cars off the road and help people get to the city easier.
“We’ve had a huge population increase in Mount Barker. It [will] continue to increase due to the land release that’s happened up there.
“[This proposal] will also ease the congestion on the South-East freeway—a road that wasn’t built for purpose. With the increase of population in Mount Barker, it’s just not working anymore.”
If Selwood was elected alongside the current Greens Member of the South Australian Legislative Council, Robert Simms, Selwood says that their role would be to hold the Labor Party “to account”.
“Labor is on track to win a landslide, and we know that,” Selwood said.
“The Liberals are in a mess, so they’re not going to be any real opposition. There’s a real chance that we could end up with a one-party state here in South Australia. We don’t think that’s good for democracy.
“So we’re going to be pushing really hard to try and get the balance of power in the Upper House and really hold Labor to account to do a lot better.
“[Labor] have been adopting some of our policies recently. We’ve been campaigning for years on free school fees, and they’ve taken that on board. So we do know that Greens pressure works, and we will keep putting pressure on Labor to do better on the things that matter to people’s lives.”
While the Liberal Party is facing disunity, One Nation have been surging in political polls in numbers anywhere from the high twenties, to approximately nineteen percent. The Liberal Party and One Nation have either been neck and neck, or One Nation have achieved results higher than the Liberal Party.
Selwood told Puglisi that it would be “really concerning” if One Nation gained popularity in the Lower House, or two to three seats in the Upper House.
“We know that One Nation, federally, doesn't vote for housing affordability,” she said.
“They don’t vote for the working people.”
“We know that Pauline Hanson hops on Gina Reinhart’s plane, then tells everyone she’s ‘for the people’. But, really, they don’t vote in accordance with the need to reduce the cost of living.”
Selwood also mentioned the Greens' concern for some of One Nation’s views on women’s rights.
“We saw in the last term of parliament, abortion come back on the agenda here in South Australia,” she said.
“Abortion is decriminalised here in South Australia, and we want to keep it that way.”
The chance of a Labor Party landslide is likely, and the chance of Labor getting elected into the majority of Upper House seats is low, but not impossible. If Selwood were elected, that would bring the number of Greens members up to two.
If elected, Selwood told Puglisi that the algal bloom and the rent crisis would be the issues she would immediately work on, as well as a third issue concerning what Nine News describes as Australia’s “biggest military pact”.
“We’re [still] seeing dead fish wash up daily, and it’s been about a year since it first became apparent,” she said.
“We know that it was caused by climate change, and we’re only going to see more events like this if we don’t attack that really quickly.
“We [also] want to see rent capped in line with CPI.
“We don’t think it needs to raise above inflation, so we really want to put those protections for renters in.
“We [also] have a potential nuclear site being built here in Osbourne, under the AUKUS deal, and we just think it needs to be scrapped.
“It’s not going to produce the jobs that they say it is, it’s not going to happen in time, and it’s a big waste of money that we should be spending to make a difference in people’s lives.”
One South Australian electorate is currently providing a viable opportunity for the Greens to win a Lower House seat: the seat of Heysen. If Greens Candidate Genevieve Dawson-Scott wins this main Adelaide Hills electorate, she would be the first Greens Member to be elected in South Australia’s Lower House.
“[Genevieve is] a local resident, a mother of a young child, and an early childhood educator,” Selwood said.
“She’s embedded in the community in so many areas. We’ve seen a huge groundswell of support for her and her campaign.
“We’re really excited that it could be the first time that we’ve won a Lower House seat here in the South Australian parliament.”
Selwood was announced as the candidate for the South Australian Legislative Council several months ago. Since being announced, she says she has heard two main issues from voters.
“People are struggling,” she said.
“The other is that people have lost faith in our political systems to deliver the results that they want to see.
“We need to work really hard to build up the trust in institutions. If that’s not going to work, then we need to change the institutions.
“I think the Greens are a good alternative to show that we’re doing things differently: we’re trying to build community on the ground, long-term.”
Watch South Australian live election night coverage from 6pm AEDT this Saturday.