Thanks for another insightful piece, Graham. The decline of the Greens is clearly a deeper and more important story than its shallow treatment in the political media has generally given it this year. And even saying that is overlooking all the reporting that has overlooked it.

I would caution about bringing together long-term judgments with short-term variations. By long-term, I mean the comparisons with the position of the Democrats in 1999. The Greens may be about to blow up. Their loss of support since Brown's retirement may drive them and their supporters to desperate and terminal acts. But I think their organisation can take a lot more self-immolation than the Democrats could. Their grass roots support is stronger, their position in state parliaments and especially in municipal councils is much better established. If they dip significantly for two or three federal election cycles (which is still a big if), they are still odds-on to keep rebuilding twenty years from now.

I'm not particularly worried about the ALP except in so far as lack of an opposition can never be a good thing for the pitiful example of democracy we have in this country. The Greens however is are a sad case, if only the party had focussed on remotely 'green' issues, it might have had a chance of surviving and even possibly of thriving. Despite the frenzied howling from the rooftops of educated idiot do-gooders, feminazis & exponents of sharia law, the decreasing number of green supporters is a pretty good indicator that Australians as a whole don't go along with queers getting married, vindictive man-haters & islamification. On the other hand, a growing number of citizens are concerned with the amount of prime farmland being concreted over for the purpose of financial gain by a few atillas, the prospect of logging in national parks and the utterly hairbrained suggestion that trailbikes & horses should be allowed access to national parks. Unfortunately those issues that really should have always been core values have been forgotten in the headlong rush to get on the moronic 'politically correct' bandwagon.

There is another common thread going through this Graham, that you have not mentioned, or perhaps have not been game to mention.

It is pretty obvious that putting a woman in leadership is pretty disastrous. It doesn't matter where, the result is almost universally the same.

Democrats, Greens, Labor in a number of Oz states, & now federally, all catastrophe for those who elected them, & the group they lead.

It is easy to go further. Education is failing since the feminists took control, health under equal opportunity in Queensland is a dramatic failure, as are many other areas of our bureaucracy. In every instance the costs go up, & the results go down.

You only have to look to Germany to see a great success story slowly grinding to a halt with feminine leadership guiding policy. Their mistakes have not been little ones, but major policy directions.

Yes, plenty of men are just as bad, just look at Rudd, Whitlam or McMahon, but there most have been OK.

I'm too far away now from business to have looked to see if it is the same there, what have others seen I wonder?

I admit this is a bit simplistic, but in Oz it is impossible to refute the result so far. It would be interesting to see a serious analysis undertaken on the subject.

There has only been one success story, & Maggie is hated by many for the very actions that saved the UK when needed. I suppose Howard & Keating are similarly hated, so perhaps success where some have to be losers brings it on, but it does appear to be strongest with Thatcher. Could that be the problem?

Yes Graham, and the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of the electoral express, thundering toward then at roaring record speed!
And the "man" and his support group, who spearheaded/created/engineered this result, with consummately timed leaks, is now saying, don't raise the white flag!
Or put another way, don't blame me for the virtual destruction of a once mighty party!?
Labour deserve to lose, because they have behaved like a disunited rabble, fighting over the spoils of defeat.
Even as Julia, was hauling their coals out of the electoral fire, with her quite magnificent negotiating skills.
They also need to spend some time in the political wilderness, to finally democratise the party, and clean up its badly tarnished brand!
Rhrosty.

what is truely amazing that their are still 8-10 per cent of people brainwashed enough to still vote for the Greens.

runner - what is truely amazing that their are still 8-10 per cent of people brainwashed enough to still vote for the Greens.

Sad, if they were even remotely 'green' and not frantically chasing the queer & the pro-islamic vote this could potentially be a good election for them

My mind turns the polls in the US and how very sure the right was their man would win.

Let's not forget that the last Coalition PM failed to even win his own seat at the 2007 election bloodbath - and there wasn't even a GFC then.

To make a massive understatement, the fortunes of political parties wax and wane. What most political observers prefer not to mention (because their jobs would then become meaningless) is that electorates just get bored.

It's easy to be triumphalist over the Coalition's recently undeserved good fortune. However, since the GFC and collapse of the world financial sector, every government throughout the Western world has either lost power or a substantial part of its voter support. This is typical voter panic, made worse by the Western media's commitment to framing the GFC as a crisis of national economies, instead of what it really is - the inevitable meltdown of an irresponsibly, indeed criminally, deregulated world financial sector.

The Greens are a brilliant protest party with their finger still on the pulse of the values that both the majors discarded decades ago in their pursuit of neoliberalism, which has in turn created the financial disaster the world is living with today and will for decades to come. As the people become poorer and the rich get disgustingly richer, we'll need the values of the Greens more than ever.