And that’s where we’ll end our live coverage of the Greens’ leadership change. Thanks for reading and commenting throughout the day.
Political editor Lenore Taylor has filed a news wrap on today’s developments:
New Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, has made an immediate appeal to the electoral mainstream, saying his party was “the natural home of progressive mainstream voters” and he was a non-ideological bloke who entered politics simply to “get stuff done”.
Di Natale was elected unanimously in a snap ballot after the shock resignation of Christine Milne. But Greens sources suggested Di Natale, and his fellow senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters, who were elected co-deputy leaders, might have had prior knowledge of the ballot in a bid to sideline other potential candidates, including former deputy leader Adam Bandt.
You can read the full piece here and see a video of Di Natale’s pitch to voters below:
Over at Comment is free, electoral analyst Ben Raue argues that Richard Di Natale is the Greens’ “establishment choice”.
He writes:
The election of Richard Di Natale as Greens leader, and of Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters as co-deputies, is a generational change in the party. It also reflects the Greens’ changing national focus.
The two previous leaders Christine Milne – who announced her retirement today after three years as leader – and Bob Brown, were both former state leaders of the Tasmanian Greens. They held much safer Tasmanian Senate seats and rose in the party at a time when the Greens lacked federal representation in a number of states – prior to the 2010 election, the Greens held no federal seats in Victoria or Queensland.
The new leadership team are all aged between 38 and 45, and include senators from three mainland states.
You can read the full piece here.
I asked readers for their views on what Di Natale’s election means for the Labor-Greens electoral battle for progressive votes.
Here is a sample of views:
@danielhurstbne ALP lost me over refugees. And I vote in @tanya_plibersek's Sydney, held at state level by @jennyleong & @AlexGreenwich
— Ian Whitney (@iancwhitney) May 6, 2015
@danielhurstbne interesting in his speech he spoke directly to 'small-l' liberal voters. I think in Vic particularly it'll a broad push...
— Matt (@matt_bez) May 6, 2015
@danielhurstbne Labor is Center-Right. Any progressive voting for Labor has a bad case of nostalgia.
— Daniel Weichman (@LightheartedDan) May 6, 2015
And another reader’s observation on Labor’s criticism of the Greens’ leadership election process:
ALP, in their rush to criticise the Greens, conveniently overlook the fact that the Greens changes of Leadership are voluntary - not as a result of any "spill". This is due to the fact that Geens politicians are conviction politicians who are not just there for their own advancement and ego.
Continuing the theme raised by Chris Bowen earlier this afternoon, Labor leader Bill Shorten has joined the compare-and-contrast exercise on leadership election processes.
Only one political party in Australian gives its members a say in choosing their leader. Labor https://t.co/0XYIyOhnCF
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) May 6, 2015
Shorten’s tweet contains a link to a curious video on “how Australian political parties elect their leaders”. It contains excerpts of news reports on the Greens’ process today, the Coalition’s attempted leadership spill in February, and the Labor ballot after the 2013 election.
There was no footage of the early Rudd-Gillard showdowns between 2010 and 2013. The overarching message was that “major reforms” adopted in 2013 allowed grassroots members of the Labor party input into the leadership (equally weighted with caucus).
A touching moment between the outgoing leader and her successor.
Battlelines in the fight for progressive votes
A bit of context. The leadership change comes at a time when Labor and the Greens are locked in an electoral battle for progressive votes in Australia.
In his first press conference as leader, Richard Di Natale, portrayed the Greens as “the natural home of progressive, mainstream Australian voters” and said the party would serve as an opposition to Tony Abbott.
The Greens have previously targeted the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, for not fulfilling his role as opposition leader when it comes to issues like offshore processing of asylum seekers and mandatory data retention. This will no doubt continue. Labor’s left faction will be agitating for a stronger stance on some progressive issues when the party holds its national conference in July.
On the other hand, the Coalition under Abbott ran a relentless campaign against the Gillard Labor government, partly on the basis that the ALP was too heavily influenced by the Greens. And the issue of Greens preference recommendations pops up periodically around election time.
Labor’s treasury spokesman, Chris Bowen, took the opportunity to give the Greens a serve at a press conference a short time ago.
After offering his best wishes to Christine Milne and Di Natale, Bowen said:
The Greens’ leadership election process is about as secret as the process to elect the Pope. What we see from the Greens is behind-closed-doors, back-room deals. The Greens, if they were truly democratic, could adopt Labor’s policy of having every single party member elect a leader, together with the caucus.
The Labor Party is the only party in Australia which is confident enough and mature enough to have our leader elected for a proper process, consulting party members right across the country, giving every party member a vote. It is about time the Greens and the Liberal Party take those actions.
No love lost there.
I’m keen to hear readers’ views on the Labor-Greens electoral battleground. Leave a comment below or send a tweet at @danielhurstbne
Updated
It’s time now for a taste of reaction to the changing of the guard in the Greens:
The Australian Medical Association president, Brian Owler, noted that Richard Di Natale was a GP and was likely to put health policy at the front and centre for the party:
He has worked in the front line of health service delivery, including in Aboriginal health, and he is a strong voice about the harms to individuals and the community from alcohol and drug abuse.
As health spokesman, he regularly sought advice and discussion about health policy. He listens, and is not afraid to actively prosecute his views.
Di Natale also received some congratulations from across the ditch. The New Zealand Greens party co-leader Russel Norman said Di Natale would “be able to lead the Australian Green party to even greater success”.
We look forward to continuing, and building on, the constructive Trans-Tasman relationship between our respective Green parties with Richard now at the helm.
We wish Christine Milne all the best for her future. Senator Milne has been a tireless advocate for the Australian environment and people over her 26 years of public service. Christine has made a huge impact in Australian politics, in particular the leading role she played in negotiating with the Labor Government to set Australia’s climate change policies.
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s chief executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, praised Milne’s “significant contribution to public life, action on climate change and the protection of nature in Australia”.
ACF also congratulates Senator Richard Di Natale and the new deputy leaders of the Greens party, senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam ... We urge the new Greens leadership team to take seriously the job of representing the large number of Australians who are deeply concerned about nature and climate.
Shalailah has also prepared an overview of the outgoing Greens leader’s activism and political career:
Christine Milne was a secondary school teacher in the early 1980s when the proposal to dam the Franklin River in Tasmania spurred her to change tack and become an environmental activist.
A born and bred Tasmanian, and self-confessed “farm girl”, Milne was instrumental in the ultimately successful blockade of the dam, though the protest saw her jailed for three days.
“I thought, if that’s the worst they can do to you in Tasmania, then I’m up for it. From that time on there was no looking back for me as an activist,” Milne told the Monthly in 2008.
You can read the piece here.
Who is Richard Di Natale? My colleague, Shalailah Medhora, has prepared a short-and-sharp profile on the new leader of the Greens, which you can read here.
Right at the end of the press conference, Di Natale revealed that he had spoken to his wife, Lucy, about the possibility of becoming leader as early as six months ago.
I had a long chat with my partner, Lucy, and the impact it’s going to have on my life.
Q: Does that mean you knew beforehand, before Senator Milne announced the resignation?
Here’s a news flash. We’re 1.5 years away from an election and there’s a chance that the leader might step down. I was talking to Lucy about this six months ago because I might not be from a political background but I’m smart enough to know when something could happen.
So we had a chat. I would not be doing this if I didn’t have her full support and not just her support, she’s encouraged me to do it because she cares about the same things I do.
The Coalition is already pitching to the new leader for a change of approach on the budget:
New Greens Leader Di Natale should come out in support of our fuel excise indexation measure, designed to protect its real value over time.
— Mathias Cormann (@MathiasCormann) May 6, 2015
Meanwhile, in the Senate courtyard:
Q: Senator Di Natale, will you be offering Mr Abbott a bit of an olive branch? Will you be prepared to negotiate more on pieces of legislation rather than let Clive Palmer and some of the other extreme senators to do deals?
It’s nice to refer to other senators as extreme for a change. I’m going to talk to him and see if there’s areas where there’s common ground. Sadly I don’t think there are many. I think what you’re seeing is a deeply ideological government and you’ve got the previous budget that we’re apparently in this dire crisis, we needed to slash and burn all the things that make Australia a decent country and now we’re being told we’re in for a dull budget, there’s something going on there.
I’ll sit down and have a conversation with him and if there are things we can agree on then absolutely. As I said before, I want to get things done, I’m not in here just to sort of stand up and look at my team here and think we missed some opportunities, I want to get things done. We’ve got to get this place working better where there is agreement across party lines, we’ve got to make sure that we utilise that and we get things through the parliament.
There’s been a bit of focus on the decision to name two co-deputy leaders. Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam will share that duty.
The new leader, Richard Di Natale, says this arrangement “will work really well”.
Larissa and Scott came up with the proposition. They put it to the party room and we all thought it was a good idea.
Now I know it doesn’t fit what normally happens in this place but God knows this place needs some modernising and I think it is a terrific proposal. We’re going to work well as a team. We are a good team.
Outgoing leader Christine Milne says it is part of modernising the party. She mentions the intense workload on politicians in the 24-hour media cycle while people juggle family responsibilities:
If you want a new generation of people to come into parliament from across all political parties, not just the Greens, you have to offer them a way of life that is actually reasonable.
Milne expresses some regrets about the deal she did with the Coalition to remove the debt ceiling, because she says an associated promise to properly consider climate change in the intergenerational report was broken:
I still think it’s absolutely the right idea to get rid of that [debt ceiling] and stop the country ending up at a crisis every time you hit or you need to go near the debt ceiling. I think that’s right. But what I regret in that case is that I actually believed Joe Hockey when he said he would deliver on a serious climate analysis in the intergenerational report and he didn’t do that. He actually reneged on that and well, you can only take people as you find them.
Christine Milne also declines to directly answer a question as to whether she expressed her intention to stand down to Richard Di Natale and the new co-deputy leaders Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam before she told the rest of the party?
I’m not going to go into the discussions that go on in political parties. The main thing is that we came to the partyroom today all of us. We have a process that the Australian Greens have looked at.
Q: Did any candidates know in advance? Did any candidates have an inside running in today’s leadership contest?
Look, I’m not going to go into any discussions that have been had because that’s not how the Greens work.
Di Natale 'grateful for support', won't say if he knew Milne was quitting
Di Natale refuses to answer a direct question as to whether he knew Milne was going to stand aside today. (This goes to the issue of whether the leadership handover was pre-planned.)
I’m not going to go over who said what to whom, who voted in what way, what discussions were had, I’m not going to talk about the internal discussions. I’m not going to tell you what went on internally. I’m not going to tell you about the internal discussions.
What I’m going to say is there was a unanimous vote of the partyroom. You only need to look at what goes on in other parties to see we handled the transition in exactly the same way as last time and what we showed is this is how you do things maturely. You have the transition from one leader to another. You ensure that all members of the party room are given a vote and they’ve expressed unanimous support for me as leader.
I’m grateful for that support and I’m going to do my best to make sure the faith they put in me is repaid.
(Just for a bit of context: Some Greens insiders are miffed about the way in which the leadership handover was handled. One source tells me they are convinced the outcome was planned prior to Milne announcing her resignation to the rest of the party room.)
Di Natale won’t comment on the party’s approach to the budget. He says he doesn’t believe in Tony Abbott-style “captain’s picks”.
When specifically pressed on whether the Greens might reverse its position on opposing increases to fuel excise, Di Natale leaves the door open to a shift in consultation with his colleagues:
We’ll have a discussion. I backed Senator Milne’s judgement at the time.
The new leader, Richard Di Natale, has thanked his colleagues for electing him:
It’s an enormous responsibility, it’s an honour, it’s a privilege and I’m going to do my best to pay back the faith they’ve put in me.
Di Natale says Christine Milne had a “tough gig” taking over as leader from Bob Brown, who was a colossus in the history of the Green movement, but she had “more than filled those shoes”.
I think if I was to reflect on Christine’s biggest achievement, it was doing what the Australian parliament needs to do again in terms of taking tough action on climate change. She knows more about climate change policy, energy policy than any member of parliament in this place.
Di Natale says Milne was the “chief architect” of the clean energy laws that passed the parliament during the Gillard minority government. Tony Abbott ran a relentless campaign against the “carbon tax”. Di Natale says:
Now I know that some of that’s now gone and I want to let Christine know that there are 11 members of our party room, with me as leader of that party, who will be doing everything we can to ensure that this country once again starts to do what is our moral responsibility, what is our social responsibility, what is our economic duty and that is to start taking tough action on climate change.
Christine Milne is now speaking to reporters in Canberra.
I feel it’s absolutely the right time for this to be happening. The momentum for the Greens around the country is growing.
Milne praises her colleagues...
I feel like they are ready to fly, all of them, and to take the Greens into a wonderful election next year.
...and specifically backs Richard Di Natale, who is the new leader:
He will be an outstanding leader for the party. He’s been a stalwart in the last few years and built a real profile, especially for his concern around health in particular, and I know that Richard brings a lot of experience and will be a wonderful asset to the Greens.
Former Greens leader Bob Brown is speaking to Sky News. He says Milne leaves a “very great legacy” including the $10bn renewable energy fund. Brown says it was one thing from the Greens’ negotiations with Julia Gillard that Tony Abbott had not been able to get rid of.
Brown also credits Milne for the “smooth transition” in the leadership. He says the new leader, Richard Di Natale, will put his own stamp on the leadership and is a “loveable” kind of person:
He’s going to bring a lot of maturity and common sense to the role.
Updated
Adam Bandt has just tweeted to say he is happy to move on from the deputy leadership position:
Congrats Richard & new team! V happy to hand over Deputy to focus on new baby (due in few wks!) & winning further Reps seats in Vic & NSW.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) May 6, 2015
So just to recap developments ahead of the press conference:
- Richard Di Natale, a former GP, has been elected unopposed as leader of the Greens after the sudden resignation of Christine Milne, who has been leader since 2012. Both are due to speak shortly.
- Adam Bandt - until today the deputy leader - no longer has any leadership position in the Greens’ parliamentary team. He is the only Greens member of the House of Representatives, whereas the party has 10 members in the Senate. The member for Melbourne is expected to speak later today.
- The Greens have unveiled two new “co-deputy leaders”: Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam. Ludlam will also have the job of chair of the party room. Returning officer Rachel Siewert said the deputy positions were elected unopposed.
- The prime minister, Tony Abbott, and opposition leader, Bill Shorten, acknowledged Milne’s commitment to public service - even if they disagreed with her positions. But the defence minister, Kevin Andrews, caused a stir with his tweet questioning whether it really mattered “who will lead the freedom-hating Greens”.
Here’s Richard Di Natale (the new leader of the Greens) as he arrived for this morning’s vote with Adam Bandt (who was deputy leader, but now holds no leadership post).
Richard Di Natale has served stints as acting leader of the Greens in the past, but will obviously have to build his public profile in the new role.
Di Natale was elected as a Victorian senator in 2010. He is a former GP and until now has served as the party’s health spokesman. Di Natale was part of the fiery debate about the Medicare co-payment policy that the government has now abandoned.
His other portfolios were multiculturalism, youth, gambling and sport. He has also served as Chair of the Senate Select Committee into the Abbott Government’s Budget Cuts and Deputy Chair of the Senate Select Committee into Health
Here is an extract from the profile on the Greens’ website:
Prior to entering parliament, Richard was a general practitioner and public health specialist. He worked in Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory, on HIV prevention in India and in the drug and alcohol sector. His key health priorities include preventative health, public dental care and responding to the health impacts of climate change ... He believes in public health policies that put science and evidence above politics.
Di Natale is the co-convenor of the Parliamentary Friends for Drug Policy and Law Reform, the Parliamentary Friends of West Papua and the Parliamentary Friends of Medicine.
Some more from the official profile:
Richard, his wife Lucy and two young sons live on a working farm in the foothills of Victoria’s Otway Range. The son of Italian migrants, Richard grew up in Melbourne. He played VFA football for six years and is a long-suffering Richmond Tigers fan.
The outgoing leader, Christine Milne, and her replacement, Richard Di Natale, are due to hold a press conference in Canberra at 1pm local time.
The decision to elect Richard Di Natale as the new leader was announced by Greens senator and returning officer Rachel Siewert.
Adam Bandt - who was earlier said to be one of the contenders - is no longer even the deputy leader. The new co-deputy leaders are Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam. Ludlam will also have the job of chair of the party room.
Siewert, who will also continue as party whip, would not give any insight into Di Natale’s pitch to the party room.
He will articulate his comments to us at the media conference, it’s not up to me to pre-empt the media conference other than to announce as returning officer that he has been elected unopposed as our new leader.
Siewert said the deputy leaders were also elected unopposed, but would not comment on Bandt’s reasons for not contesting the posts.
She said people within the party were “very emotional” about Christine Milne’s departure.
Di Natale elected new leader
Breaking: Richard Di Natale elected unopposed as leader. Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam are co-deputy leaders.
We’re expecting a result within the next five minutes...
Should grassroots members be involved in the leadership vote?
Lee Rhiannon - one of the 11 Greens parliamentarians who are currently in the meeting deciding on the vote - certainly thinks so:
I have always been, and remain, a strong advocate for membership involvement in party leadership. Members should have a vote.
— Senator Lee Rhiannon (@leerhiannon) May 6, 2015
Labor MP Terri Butler thinks so:
Come on @Greens - have a rank and file vote like we do #greenspill
— Terri Butler MP (@terrimbutler) May 6, 2015
The 10 Greens senators and one MP are currently deciding on the future leadership of the party.
Most of them were taken by surpise by Christine Milne’s sudden announcement. Ahead of the meeting Greens senators offered some general comments on Twitter:
An extraordinary leader. I am privileged to have worked with @senatormilne - integrity, courage, vision, heart. Thank you, Christine
— Senator Penny Wright (@PennyWrites) May 6, 2015
Christine has been a fearless and courageous activist, politician and leader. Party has grown under her leadership. Sad to see her leave.
— Senator Lee Rhiannon (@leerhiannon) May 6, 2015
And this from one of the contenders for the leadership, Richard Di Natale:
Christine Milne has left an enormous legacy after 25 years in political life. It’s been an honour to work with you Christine.
— Richard Di Natale (@RichardDiNatale) May 6, 2015
(The other names that have been mentioned as potential leadership options are Adam Bandt and possibly Scott Ludlam.)
The Senate - which includes the Greens - have caused the Abbott government considerable headaches with its legislative agenda. The key numbers are that the government needs support from six out of eight crossbenchers to pass any bill opposed by Labor and the Greens.
Coalition’s leader in the Senate, Eric Abetz, who has been at the centre of those negotiations, has issued a statement acknowledging Milne’s “significant contribution to Australian public life”:
She was the first woman to lead a political party in Tasmania, and remains the only woman to lead a party at both a State and national level.
In spite of seldom agreeing with Senator Milne on many policy matters, I acknowledge that she has been a steadying influence on radical elements in the Greens, especially on social issues. I particularly note her cooperation with the Howard and Rundle governments after the Port Arthur tragedy in 1996, at a time when it was vital that political leaders spoke with one voice.
Abetz took the opportunity to issue a plea to the next leader of the Greens to be a little bit nicer to the government:
Having said that, as Leader of the Government in the Senate, I hope that the Greens will take this opportunity with a new leader to reassess their continual opposition in the Senate to government legislation and economic reform.
(One of the issues that the government was particularly angered about was the decision to oppose reindexation of fuel excise. Milne based her opposition on the fact the money would fund new roads rather than public transport.)
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, has just offered some comments about a leadership vote (but this time he is not involved).
He said:
I’ve just heard about the resignation of Christine Milne. I would like to place on record that she has been a distinguished public advocate in public life for 25 years. I haven’t always agreed with every policy she’s had or every position she’s taken but I can certainly respect the conviction and the passion with which she has advanced her issues and I congratulate her on two and a half decades of distinguished public life.
Just a note about the speculation surrounding deputy leader Adam Bandt. It’s worth remembering that Bandt is the Greens’ only member of the House of Representatives, whereas there are 10 people in the party’s ranks in the Senate.
If the Greens elect him as the leader, he would have no colleagues in the same chamber. The rest of the party would be in the Senate, where a lot of the wheeling and dealing on contentious legislation occurs. This does not necessarily rule him out of getting the top job (the other major party leaders are in the Reps, after all) but it would be an interesting development.
We are hearing that the ballot is about to begin. The talk is that it is coming down to a contest between Richard Di Natale and Adam Bandt.
Kevin Andrews may have taken the opportunity to sledge the Greens for being “freedom hating”, but the prime minister, Tony Abbott, has offered a much more diplomatic formulation about the news of Christine Milne’s departure:
Christine Milne has a distinguished record as a senior member of the Australian parliament and as the leader of a political party which has considerable influence on the parliament. Obviously, we come from very different political traditions but I respect Christine Milne, as I respect all senior members of the parliament. It takes a great deal of commitment and patriotism to offer to serve in the parliament, to serve in senior levels as Christine Milne has done. It is a testament to her commitment to Australia. Even though we have far more often than not been on opposite sides of most political arguments, I respect her commitment. We’ve always had good and cordial relations. I understand that she’s soon to be a grandmother and that’s a marvellous time for any individual and I wish her well for the future.
The former leader of the Greens, Bob Brown, has spoken to ABC Radio about the news. Brown, who was leader before Milne, said:
It’s a great surprise to me and Christine’s been a great friend, certainly a fantastic member of parliament and representative in both state and federal parliaments for Tasmania. She’s a big loss for the Greens, there’s no doubt about that. But, that said, the Greens have a talent pool now that we’ve built up over the last 10 or 15 years and a very good leader will emerge out of that pack.
Brown was careful not to endorse a particular candidate, although he said deputy leader Adam Bandt (the Greens’ only member of the lower house) would be “one of the people that everybody will be watching in the next little while”
But he said there were also a number of senators who were “great performers”.
The Greens are currently meeting to elect their next leader. At the same time, the prime minister, Tony Abbott, is speaking to reporters in Perth to announce an extra $500m in road project funding for WA after the GST dispute of last month.
As always, rolling TV news producers are trying to juggle multiple stories:
Great TV producer dilemmas. Keep camera on Abbott or switch to an empty corridor. #auspol pic.twitter.com/D8JzRKxugj
— Paul Osborne (@osbornep) May 6, 2015
The defence minister, Kevin “Freedom” Andrews, says changing the leader will make no difference:
Does it really matter who will lead the freedom hating @Greens? Their anti-family & community destroying policies remain #greenspill #auspol
— Kevin Andrews (@kevinandrewsmp) May 6, 2015
The treasurer, Joe Hockey, was taken by surprise by the announcement when a journalist mentioned it to him mid-way through a press conference about small business tax incentives.
Hockey said he “just hoped the Greens see common sense”. Hockey said he did not understand why the Greens had opposed the government’s proposal to increase fuel excise.
I don’t know the circumstances under which Christine Milne has resigned. I hope it is a retirement for all the right reasons rather than anything else but I just say to whoever is the new leader of the Greens: Please, please offer us some bipartisan work, bipartisan support in the Senate that helps us to strengthen the Australian economy.
So who might replace Christine Milne as leader of the Greens?
The Victorian senator and health spokesman Richard Di Natale has announced his candidacy on Twitter:
I will be putting myself forward as a candidate to lead the Australian Greens
— Richard Di Natale (@RichardDiNatale) May 6, 2015
Another likely candidate is the current deputy leader Adam Bandt. Scott Ludlam is also a possible contender.
Updated
In a statement, Milne said she had decided not to contest the 2016 election for another six-year Senate term and consequently would resign as leader of the Greens immediately.
She said:
It is with a mix of optimism, pride, excitement and sadness that I am resigning the leadership and leaving the Senate.
I have achieved what I set out to achieve when I took over the leadership. The Greens have gone from strength to strength with solid election results and a growing, engaged party membership.
I promised a more cabinet-style, collaborative approach to leadership. I am so proud of the way my colleagues have responded. We are a strong, capable, visionary Greens team.
Milne said she had made her decision after discussing it with family.
After 25 years in politics, I am looking forward to spending more time in my beautiful home state of Tasmania, with friends and family, and especially as I am soon to be a grandmother.
Life after parliament is not however, life after politics. The fight for action on global warming will continue and I will take my passion, and all that I’ve learnt, to that fight standing shoulder to shoulder with the community here, and all over the world, for climate justice.
Milne thanked her family, staff, colleagues, friends, party members, supporters and voters for their cherished input, passion and support.
Parliamentarians from the Greens were due to hold a full-day planning meeting today to discuss pre-budget strategy. It is understood Milne shocked the gathering by announcing at the outset that she would be resigning. There is disquiet in some quarters of the party about the short timeframe to discuss options before the ballot.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the search for a new leader of the Australian Greens. Christine Milne, who has led the party since 2012, announced her sudden resignation shortly about 10.30am AEST. The party will meet at 11.30am to hold a ballot on her replacement.
My colleague, Shalailah Medhora, has filed a first take on the news, which you can read here.
Greens and labour could form a coalition if both parties can get their act together... this would be a formidable and progressive alliance but extremely unlikely to happen. So as aresult we will be saddled with 19th century conservatism fron the lnp