The Greens' Campaign: Google It, Mate

More than a year before the 2022 election, the Australian Greens made their basic electoral strategy clear. In a press release, leader Adam Bandt outlined the party’s targets: to win nine House of Representatives seats and expand its Senate representation to 12 through gains in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia (Zhou and Remeikis 2021). Beyond re-electing Bandt in Melbourne, the Greens’ targets in the lower house spanned Liberal and Labor seats in east coast capitals and the ‘rural’ NSW seat of Richmond. Changes in 2016 to the Senate electoral system that removed group voting tickets, as well as a consolidating voter base, made gains in the Senate contest more likely. For the House, there were hopes that (and active campaigns for) several of the Greens’ target divisions could be in play. While the Greens’ vote had certainly risen in opinion polling over the two years before the election, winning these seats was no easy feat. Most had well-known major-party incumbents, including frontbenchers like Labor’s Terri Butler in Griffith (Qld).

The Greens sought to meet their electoral goals with a model of campaigning and style of policy platform both long in development. The party placed greatest emphasis on grassroots organising, waging ‘ground’ campaigns in several key seats that were of unprecedented scale and duration for a minor party—and, indeed, campaigns that either major party would likely struggle to match...