Max Chandler-Mather says Greens can use ‘progressive populism’ to win voters deserting major parties for One Nation
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/07/australian-greens-max-chandler-mather-voters-major-parties-one-nation
Max Chandler-Mather says Greens can use ‘progressive populism’ to win voters deserting major parties for One Nation
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/07/australian-greens-max-chandler-mather-voters-major-parties-one-nation
29 Comments
Lost his seat on a 10 point margin btw
The same idiot that lost a city seat for the left
Australia’s civics education has been so bad for so long that populism seems to be one of the only avenues to reach voters.
is there really a valuable overlap of major party voters that are tossing up between voting Greens or ON next election? really?
Zohran Mamdani and the UK Greens show the power of mass doorknocking and left wing populism that is very viable to be replicated here.
Who cares what this clown has to say? He squandered his 15 minutes.
So why did they fail the last election? Not populist enough? lol..
Just what the greens need – more populism. And if that fails I know just the solution – more populism. Want to know the solution to your primary vote being stuck on 11%? You better believe it’s more populism
It’s kind of impossible to do any type of progressive populism in Australia without first completely gutting and recreating the media landscape. The general Australian voting public never votes on policy it just votes based on how much they collectively hate the current PM.
Just what the greens need, more advice from Max Chandler-Mather.
If anyone right winger that is peddling in ‘populism’ but are talking to billionaires or corpos ARENT YOUR FRIEND!
My frustration with Max Chandler-Mather’s populism was the reason I stopped voting Greens.
Do they have anyone with the charisma to do so though?
Shoebridge perhaps, but for some reason I find him a little smug (entirely unfairly I acknowledge).
I’d be curious how greens could win over one nation when rightly or wrongly one nations voters biggest issue is immigration. I feel like this such a big policy that’s hard to ignore.
Greens need to be outwardly patriotic to significantly increase their vote share.
Progressive populism is what the Greens are doing now isn’t it?
In theory I think he’s right about left wing populism having a good chance.
But I don’t think the Greens are the right one to lead the charge. I think David Pocock is.
I’m a left voter but if you’re impressed by this over promoted student politician, raise your standards.
Two problems:
– to be populist, you need popular policies. The Greens constantly delude themselves that they are doing popular things when what they repeatedly do is take ideas that have vague general support and turn them into unworkable purist versions of the idea that only a tiny minority will get behind.
– populism only ever works when there is a popular, charismatic leader selling it.
Reach voters, yes, but not deliver anything. They’ve learned that as long as you are never in a position to have to deliver, you can promise anything.
People formed their opinion about him for holding up the HAFF negotiations, but I think time is proving him right?
Labor won, and yet their plan seems to be doing sweet FA for affordability.
MCM is right, and I say that as a Greens voter. The Greens are totally irrelevant to most people and unable to penetrate through Australia’s media landscape. Their policies are sound, reasonable and objectively the best path forward to a more prosperous and sovereign nation – but they constantly get bogged down in the weeds and no one in the party has the leadership or charisma to arrest the inertia of irrelevance.
This sub (me included) has such a bias against the importance of aesthetics on politics. It’s bleak but that’s the key and the greens image repels most ppl.
I was hoping after he lost his seat I would never have to hear from this idiot again.
While his point is valid, his leadership of Greens being a NIMBY development/infrastructure arty is not at all populist or progressive.
Doesn’t populism require popular policies?
the Greens consistently poll 12%, that’s just what they do
the problem for the Greens is that political populism needs villains, and for progressive populism those villains are things people quite like, such as their investment-property owning parents, or the company that puts videos on their phone, or the company that employs them, or the concept of a house on a quarter-acre block with free street parking
all of these things put a hard cap on how many people are interested in the Greens, because people realise that supporting the Greens is going to mean giving up something they actually would rather not go without
and progressive populism is too easy to portray or perceive as mad fringe lefties
He’s completely right. Greens are seen as inner city elites by many rural working class voters and they need to work to change that. These are the same people that Labor and Libs have largely abandoned.
If the Greens refuse to pivot their strategy and campaign harder in rural areas they’re letting a huge political opportunity slip through their fingers.
Getting advice from Max Chandler-Mather on how to win votes is like asking the Pope how to get laid.
Cute, but hard to see Liberals going over to the Greens. Good luck to them, a strong Greens party would change our politics.