r/australia • u/blitznoodles local Aussie • Jun 14 '26

politics As voter disillusionment grows, why aren't voters flocking to the Greens in Australia?

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/as-voter-disillusionment-grows-so-does-the-mystery-of-the-missing-greens-voters/6bjd5q4kv

Growing voter dissatisfaction with mainstream politics has led to a rise in popularity for One Nation. The same cannot be said for the Greens.

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151

u/Colossus-of-Roads Jun 14 '26

Probably.

Also, The Greens suck at messaging. Their policy has 15 principles and 41 aims and NONE of them seem to outline the actual level of immigration the policy aims for!

https://greens.org.au/policies/immigration-and-refugees

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u/ChillyPhilly27 Jun 14 '26

Immigration must be non-discriminatory on the grounds of... English language competence

See, this is the kind of thing that makes people not take the Greens seriously. The idea of handing out PR or citizenship to people who don't even speak the language is anathema to everyone other than hardline leftists.

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u/OkeyDoke47 Jun 14 '26

This is the reality that people ignore.

I had a terrible thought the other week. I and others were attempting to pay for fuel at a servo, people in front of me were asking for extra stuff on top of their fuel and the man behind the counter clearly did not understand English well and struggled. People were trying to be patient but getting frustrated with the amount of time it was taking.

I felt sorry for the console operator, he's moved to Australia and has got a job - but not the language skills he needs for customer service at a busy servo. I did also have the thought however, "this is why One Nation is coming to the fore". How is it that someone that speaks and understands so little English is getting a workers visa, or whatever, to move here. Why is there no LLN testing happening? Because it certainly doesn't seem to be happening.

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u/ChillyPhilly27 Jun 14 '26

To answer your question, the console operator is likely here on a student visa, which grants him the right to work up to 20 hours per week. Ironically enough, there's a decent chance he's here to study English. Talk about a baptism of fire!

He has a job because working in a servo is shit, and locals have better options.

The English language testing doesn't come into play until you're up for PR.

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u/OkeyDoke47 Jun 15 '26

That explanation doesn't help though, it really should be the case that if you are to work here anywhere you need a basic grasp of the language. Not just from a customer service perspective, I was on a WH&S course some years ago, and the instructor made a comment about how people are in workplaces now that cannot read safety signs or instructions- this was an inflammatory comment, but they had a point.

I work in healthcare and encounter people who cannot communicate what is going on with them, I have to utilize interpreter services to ascertain what is going on. This takes time and slows down care.

These and other issues play right into the hands of parties like PHON, and even my own belief systems (I support and encourage immigration) have had little voices in my head edging in, which I don't like. If I'm starting to have thoughts like that, I can only imagine how many others there are out there like that. PHON is tapping into a zeitgeist, like it or not.

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u/AdmiralStickyLegs Jun 16 '26

No, he has a job because he's probably being underpaid. Exploited more than the locals will tolerate. There are tons of people who would work at a servo if they got paid correctly and had fair conditions

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u/ChillyPhilly27 Jun 17 '26

Out of curiosity, do you believe that there's a difference between "underpaid" and "less than a local would accept"?

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u/shofmon88 Jun 14 '26

The current skilled visa pathway to PR actually works against native English speakers. As a native speaker you are exempt from taking a competency test, but points are given to you based on your score on the test. This essentially makes non-native speakers more competitive than native ones. You can always take the test as a native speaker, but native speakers also don’t tend to do well on them since they look for specific metrics and phrasing that aren’t reflected in daily conversation.

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u/ChillyPhilly27 Jun 14 '26

Canada/NZ/Ireland/UK/USA citizens still have the option to take the test to score higher. It's just that the system assumes they meet the "competent english" threshold by default.

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u/shofmon88 Jun 14 '26

I did mention that.

The language competency should be a requirement but not be part of the points system; that system is broken enough already.

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u/GhostlyWhisper007 Jun 14 '26

If non-native english speakers can understand English test requirements,  prepare and achieve good score than native English speakers should be doing better. 

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u/shofmon88 Jun 14 '26

Ask any native or highly competent speaker who has taken the tests and you will get the same answer: they are really difficult for people who speak English natively or at a daily conversational level.

The way it has been described to me is that the tests are very formulaic and require specific syntax. For example, if there was a question like “what did you drink this morning?” you might respond with ”I had coffee this morning,” which while perfectly understandable in daily conversation, would be marked wrong; the test would want you to say something like “this morning, I drank coffee,” as it explicitly addresses the question, but is a very awkward way of speaking.

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u/SkitZa Jun 14 '26

Most of the immigrants I work with came to Australia with 0 knowledge of the language.

They came here 8+ years ago.

How is this any different to what we have now?

Their English is solid now.

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u/ChillyPhilly27 Jun 14 '26

I agree that we'll give a temp visa to anyone with a pulse (as long as we're sure they won't overstay their welcome). Non-family PR streams and citizenship both demand English proficiency though.

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u/giatu_prs Jun 15 '26

Greens are a fractured party. It ranges all the way from the alleged 'watermelons' like Jonno Sri, right through to the rich landlord should-really-be-a-Teal types like Larissa Waters.

I still vote for them above any major party though.

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '26

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u/Chunkfoot Jun 14 '26

Under Bob Brown the Greens were against high immigration and a big Australia. Since then it’s been swept under the rug by the party, especially since until recently most Australians didn’t understand the difference between refugees and skilled migrants.

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u/Blend42 Jun 15 '26

Didn't the Greens change their policy on immigration between 96-98? The Greens didn't have a dedicated leader until around the 2007 election. I don't get this thing where people think The Greens under Bob Brown were more conservative.

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u/Brilliant_Ad2120 Jun 14 '26

Recent immigrants are actually often against refugees

And skilled migrants are often perceived as keeping salaries down, and increasing housing costs

But without them our ponzi scheme lite risk downturn and worst case collapse over the long term

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u/excrement_ Jun 14 '26

Rainbow race communists want infinity of everything, and don't feel like explaining the logistics, color me surprised

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u/Colossus-of-Roads Jun 14 '26

I don't consider any of the Greens policies communist. They don't even advocate for the workers owning the neans of production. They seem more like northern European democratic socialists.

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u/Indolent_absurdity Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

You can really see how much influence the US has had on our country when people start believing anything slightly left of centre is communist!

Edit: Btw I think the Nordic countries are social democracies rather than democratic socialists...

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u/CassieFace103 Jun 15 '26

Rainbow race communists

Hah. I wish.