*dance*
The Greens won the Fremantle by-election! This is one of the greatest victories of any Green party in Australia. To put it in perspective:
* This was the highest primary vote the Greens have ever achieved in a single-member electorate at state or federal level: 44% compared to the ALP's 38%. The winning margin was 54% - 46%, which is quite comfortable all things considered. We won booths which historically have been solid Labor for generations. In fact, Labor held Fremantle for over 80 years until last weekend.
* With the exception of Tasmania and the ACT, where they have multi-member electorates, the Greens have never
won a seat in the lower house of a state or territory. (We did have two defections: Kris Hanna in SA and Ronan Lee from QLD - both were sitting Labor MPs.)
* The Greens now have 5 MPs in the WA parliament, giving them party status. This means they will have more resources, and influence. With 7 MPs across state and federal levels, WA now has more Greens in parliament than any other state or territory. Tasmania is second with 6 (4 state, 2 federal).
And now ... the future. Four state elections and one federal election will take place over the next two years.
* SA and Tasmania go to the polls in March 2010. At the moment we have on MP in SA's upper house, and we would hope to increase this to two. Tasmania has 4 MPs - the aim will be to add another one or two.
* A federal election will most likely take place in July or August 2010. Here the Greens have a chance to pick up some more Senate seats (up to 5 new ones, dependent on a number of factors), and have another tilt at capturing inner-city seats like Melbourne and Sydney.
* Then we have Victoria in November 2010. Here is the next big chance for Greens to take lower house seats from the ALP: the inner-city electorates of Melbourne, Brunswick and Richmond only require small swings to go Green. There are also plenty of opportunities to increase the numbers in the upper house from the current 3 MPs in both city and country areas.
* Lastly, there's NSW in March 2011. Anyone who has been following NSW politics lately will know that neither the ALP or the Liberals are particularly favoured at the moment. This is a chance not only for the Greens to increase their MPs in the upper house from 4 to 5, but also to target the inner-city seats of Balmain and Marrickville.
Of course there will be disappointments ahead; times when our vote drops and we lose MPs. But just now, it is damn good to be Green.