Queensland Senator Larissa Waters to lead the Greens

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Newly appointed Greens leader Larissa Waters has taken a swipe at the Labor party urging it to work with the Greens and stop blaming others for failing to pass legislation. Senator waters takes over from Adam Bandt who lost his seat of Melbourne in the election.

Transcript

00:00Well, she says she's really humbled to have been elected unopposed or by consensus.

00:08The Greens have a slightly different way of picking a new leader and so it was sort of

00:12agreed by the parliamentary party who met in Melbourne this afternoon that Larissa Waters

00:17was the best person to take on that job.

00:20The deputy role was opposed, so there was a vote there.

00:23It's gone to Maureen Faruqi, but it was contested also by Senator Dorinda Cox.

00:29So nine votes to Maureen Faruqi, three votes to Senator Cox.

00:34Larissa Waters is the fifth leader of the Greens.

00:37She's the first Queenslander to do the role and she spoke earlier about some of her priorities.

00:44She talked about climate and nature, particularly on top of her list of things to address in

00:51this term of parliament.

00:52But she also said that the Greens wouldn't shy away from some of the issues that she has,

00:57that the party has previously talked a lot about.

00:59Also issues of housing and issues of their stance on the war in the Middle East.

01:04She also talked about the fact that Labor will need to work with the Greens in the Senate,

01:09given that the Greens have the sole majority there, sorry, the sole balance of power there,

01:16and that she would need to work with Labor to get those bills through.

01:20There's a chance now for real reform that helps people and that's what the Greens want to

01:25encourage and work with the Labor government to do.

01:28They can't blame anyone else now because we're saying here, we will give you the numbers in

01:33the Senate to pass good reforms that helps people and helps the planet.

01:36Okay?

01:37People elected us to get shit done and that's what we intend to do in the service of people

01:42and the planet.

01:43And Isabel, yeah, how does it look like, Larissa, she's using pretty blunt language there,

01:51how does it look like she's going to manage that relationship with the government?

01:54Yeah, she said she's a very plain speaking person.

01:57So that was an example of that.

01:58Queenslander.

01:59Exactly.

02:00We can't help ourselves.

02:01Look, she talked about being firm and constructive with Labor.

02:06So I guess an interesting term there, the Greens were criticised in the previous parliament

02:11for blocking some legislation that Labor put forward, for example, on housing, working

02:16with the coalition instead to knock back legislation which the Greens said wasn't good enough.

02:22Whether or not that relationship between Larissa Waters and Anthony Albanese is any different

02:27from the one that he had with Adam Bant remains to be seen.

02:31I do know that there are a few Labor people who view Larissa Waters as a pretty reasonable

02:37leader.

02:38So it will be interesting to see how they manage that relationship given the Greens do have

02:43so much power in the Senate going forward.

02:46What was at the source of that tension in the relationship between the Prime Minister and

02:51Adam Bant?

02:54Labor and the Greens have a chequered history.

02:56Labor doesn't want to be associated with the Greens in many ways.

03:02It wants to hold the power and put forward legislation on its own right.

03:07It doesn't like the fact that it has to sometimes rely on the Greens to get legislation passed

03:13and make concessions to the Greens.

03:16On the other hand, the Greens need or I guess more aligned with Labor obviously on the progressive

03:22side of politics than they are with the coalition.

03:24But because in the last term of parliament, the Greens would often vote with the coalition

03:29to block pieces of legislation, that infuriated Labor.

03:35And so that relationship has been sort of quite tense.

03:38Because I've started to think it's the role of the Greens are the role of the Greens are, who will

03:43probably see.

03:43So what is the term of the Greens?

03:44They're the role of the Greens are.

03:44That's the root of the Greens.

03:45I don't know.

03:46But in this term of the Greens are not necessarily supposed to be a whole whatsoever.

03:47So I think they're not about this idea of the Greens.

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