I hope my fellow Labor voters are reading this thread.
Because right up the front of it is evidence understanding need not be linked to comment.
Remember I dislike the Greens.
Last nights debate, Abbott vs Rudd, will never see either side spend the time taking on the greens, unless a wish to destroy them exists.
Not because of the rage words used here.
A truth exists the greens will come to understand, but it will be too late to save them.
They are their own opposition.
Every word uttered every policy put forward is just that, an opponent to the greens.
More stand against them than drift toward them.
Greens increasingly are becoming a flimsy shelter in the midst of a cyclone.
Mathematics get ignored in politics, but only by those afraid to confront the truth.
Who could ever see Australia voting in numbers big enough to increase the greens numbers.
An easier question is who thinks current greens leadership and policy,s will not see them shrinking.
In the end all minor party,s are straws some clutch in protest and in doing so see their votes do not count.

Well what am I on about?
Every one understands my views are as heated as any ones about the greens.
But in truth I wanted greens to see, maybe understand from what is written about them here a fact.
Our rage against them may, probably is wasted.
See any one could have written this thread/my posts.
The odd angry shot fired but still truth does it for us.
Policy,s such as the greens, now and forever will be marginalized, we just do not share their views.
And in fact more are made angry by them than any party we ever had in my view.
If my ALP comes to its end in government , and it is close, that election night will be very interesting.
How will the greens go bank on it badly, will Katter win Senate seats, will Palmer, Hansen will not her time has past.
What if along with other small party,s greens hold sway in the senate?
If and they may well, a forced double dissolution is called it ends forever the greens as a party, they would hold no more than two seats maybe not that.
The greens are their own worst enemy and have damaged this country,s political debate trying to force feed us their views.
We suffer by letting our preferential voting be used against us all, hardly democratic.

"About 5 years ago, Bob Brown and his party seemed to reach for the stars"
True but that was when Brown (the gay abomination) was leading his merry band of fellow gays up the proverbial garden path with stories about saving the ecology etc. Really all he was doing was setting the gay movement on a pedestal with people like "Penny" to rally the troops.

Does anyone ever really know the policies of minor parties?
All most people comprehend is a symbolic "essence".

The Greens were the hippies/tree huggers, an "essence" that could never appeal to most people.
They were doomed to the fringes from the start.
Now it's oblivion time.

After terrorism, the GFC, and no-gone zones in Western cities, there's not much hope for cute fluffy bunny parties anymore.
Especially once their longtime leader goes.

What we really need is a Realist Party. No false hopes or utopian dreams.
It's time. To get real.

Belly,
It will be interesting if the Greens vote does fall dramatically.

From memory, I think their height was about 12%.

I ask, where do you think those votes will go? Hardly LNP or any of the current minor parties. so maybe you are hopeful that the votes will go to Labor. Then many will not be happy with the major parties policies on illegals, so do they vote informal.

Also from memory, I think it was the ALP that gave the Greens the leg up by giving them preferences in the Senate. How will ALP preferences be allocated this election? Will Labor put the Greens last?

Any Party that holds to One World view cannot survive in a democratic society. Our society is diverse so a representative Party must reflect that diversity. An exclusive environmental, religious or secular party only has limited followers, and while they can create fear they have a voice, but their message cannot accommodate all.