The current tensions within the Greens offer broader insights into modern politics because the ingredients are not restricted just to that party.
Whenever a party plateaus in the polls and experiences a flat election result the leader comes under pressure. Malcolm Turnbull has borne the brunt of such pressure post-election but Greens leader Richard di Natale is now getting his share. Such pressure also often results from deeper unrest within the party and that is the case with both these leaders. Opponents within the party take the opportunity to press their alternative point of view of what the party should be about. Factions and leadership become intertwined.
![Senator Lee Rhiannon has lobbed criticism at Greens Leader Richard Di Natale.](/web/20170201020012im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/y/0/2/f/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2rib.png/1485911499282.jpg)
The public dispute between di Natale, backed by former leader and party icon Bob Brown, and the young activists from the Left Renewal splinter group, associated with NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, is a manifestation of a long-standing tension between left and right within the Greens worldwide. It is also part of the tension between the Greens as an environment party with an alternative political style and a traditional left-wing anti-capitalist party.
The latter strand has always found its strength within the NSW Greens rather than elsewhere in Australia so it is no surprise that the dissension has fomented in that state. It is also a reaction by some Greens members to di Natale's respectable image and "softly softly"Â style and to his pragmatic manner of dealing with the Coalition government. To some Greens he is selling out.
Every Australian political party shares some of these elements. Each of our parties is a broad church and it is a mistake to suggest the Greens are a broader church than the others. Each of them has factions built around ideological shades of meaning. Each of them contains hard-line fundamentalists passionate about enforcing the extreme letter of party policy and moderate "flexibles"Â concerned more with achieving action through consensus. Each state and territory party branch has a somewhat different character because of history, demography and personalities. Each of them contains some members who are angry with the direction the party is taking and often some of these are elected MPs.
One important source of tension within the Greens and other parties is about the relationship between working within the party system in Parliament and trying to disrupt it from outside. Party politics rubs up against movement politics. Brown personified a political leader with a foot in each camp. Hall Greenland, a founder of the Australian Greens, wrote this week that the greatest achievements of the Greens have been as a campaigning movement rather than a parliamentary party.
But Bill Shorten's life story as a unionist-cum-parliamentarian is another example, like that of many other Labor leaders. This tension was once a staple of the interaction between the labour movement and the Labor Party. It is institutionalised in trade union ties to the party. But there have always been worker and socialist movements to the left of Labor who have not been inside the party fold.
It is a sign of the times that left-wing anti-capitalists are disrupting the Greens and not Labor. It shows how the Greens now occupy that space on the political continuum in Australian politics. Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn represent this movement in the US Democratic Party and the British Labour Party respectively.
On the conservative side of politics there is a long history of such division within the Country-Nationals. It survives outside the party itself in Independent Bob Katter with his connections to dissident rural activists and vulnerable industries like sugar. And it is inherent in the anti-politics of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party that reckons the Coalition has sold out.
Within the Liberals, the strand is harder to discern, but the predecessors of the Liberal Party were far more a movement-based party before Robert Menzies emphasised the independence of the parliamentary party. Senator Cory Bernardi personifies a tension between his parliamentary role and his encouragement of a broad-based Conservative movement, challenging the Liberals from the right. US President Donald Trump's takeover of the official Republican Party is the prime international example on the conservative side.
There are ways in which mainstream parties cope with these various tensions within their broad churches though the risks remain. Success is the most important one because it consolidates the power of the leader and shuts up many of their critics. After the last Australian elections only one Australian leader, Barnaby Joyce, could boast such success. Shorten did enough but lost, while Turnbull and di Natale stalled.
Leadership style is another important element by which a governing party can satisfy its own firebrands and dissidents. Once again, Joyce is the only strident major national Australian leader. His angry style is central to his success and appeals to his target audience even though it antagonises most Australians. His public brawls, outlandish comments and rough exterior, not to mention his tough dealing with the Liberals, camouflage the fact that he leads a junior Coalition party with only limited independence. Di Natale, against his better judgment and natural disposition, could learn a few lessons from Joyce's style in managing his own broad church.
To speak with multiple leadership voices is another option. The federal Liberals try to do this through Turnbull and Peter Dutton. The ACT Greens are beginning to exemplify this approach with greater success. Its leader Shane Rattenbury is a senior minister in the Barr Labor-Green government while Caroline Le Couteur, its other Assembly member, is launching herself as a more independent, community-style critic of the major parties, straddling the party and broader citizen movements.
John Warhurst is an emeritus professor of political science at the Australian National University.