Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is a Squiz Podcast. We're your shortcut to being informed. You might have heard that several independent politicians in Australia known as the Teals are looking to formalise the movement by creating a new political party.
It's early days, but experts say it's a move to lure voters who are looking for alternatives to the major parties and a counter to the swell of support continuing to build for One Nation. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we'll get you across who the Teals are, what they stand for and what might come next. Squiz Shortcuts is the backstory to the big news stories. I'm Alice Dempster.
And I'm Andrew Williams.
Andrew, there's been a lot of talk in the news this week about several Teal independents coming together to form a new political party in Australia. So in light of that, we thought it was a good time to take a closer look at the Teals and what they're all about.
So one big point to note, and we'll come back to this theme, is that they're not a formal group. They're often spoken about as a collective. We're speaking about them as a collective now, but they don't all agree on everything.
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Chapter 2: What are the Teals and their significance in Australian politics?
So they don't have a united... policy front as such. The main thing to know about them is that they are all independent. So they say that they campaign for issues that are specific to their own electoral patch, the people that they represent in parliament.
That said, they do have an overarching concern about climate change and a few other things that we'll get to. But one thing is certain about them. In the past couple of federal elections, they've become one of the biggest disruptors of the traditional Labor versus the Liberal National Coalition setup that's been in place for decades.
Certainly have. As for why they're called teals, in case you're wondering, the name itself is a bit of a colour clue to what they stand for. It's a mix of the blue that's traditionally associated with the Liberals and the green that is, spoiler alert, traditionally associated with the Greens.
So to explain that a bit more, a lot of them stand for the more conservative, sort of fiscally responsible economic policies of the Liberals. That's the blue part. But on climate change and social issues, they're more progressive and closer to the Greens, thus the green part.
And we know that independents in Parliament aren't anything new, but this particular movement really did start to gain attention in 2019. That's when former Olympic skier Zali Stegall won the Northern Beaches seat of Warringah in Sydney from former PM Tony Abbott.
It was a big upset at the time because Abbott had held that seat for 25 years. He was big on traditional conservative values. He would sit on the more conservative end of the Liberal Party and Stegall campaigned heavily on progressive policies, including stronger climate action and more integrity in politics.
And she also promised a more community-minded style of representation down in Canberra, which had real cut through, clearly, because she won the seat.
Yeah, her campaign became the kind of blueprint for the Teals and then came the 2022 election, which was the moment when the Teal wave, as it was called, really hit.
Yeah, that was when six independent candidates, all of them women with professional backgrounds, beat out high-profile sitting Liberal MPs in what were traditionally blue ribbon or Liberal-dominated seats, the kind of seats that the Liberals would expect to win.
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Chapter 3: How did the Teals disrupt the traditional political landscape?
It's certainly not happening just yet. At this stage, even though some might be considering it, Liberal moderates are very clearly publicly saying that they're staying where they are. But there's another big factor behind this, behind this idea that they might need to be a political party, and that's money.
So electoral funding rules were changed last year, and that means that new caps were placed on donations and campaign spending. Some independents argue those rules favour established political parties because they can spend money nationally in ways that independents can't.
So becoming more formalised could give the Teals access to resources and campaign structures that are harder to build as separate independents. And it could also open up new opportunities like gaining more influence in the Senate. Allegra Spender says you can't run Senate candidates without a party.
So you might be wondering, why not? Why can't you run Senate candidates without a party?
Chapter 4: What is the meaning behind the name 'Teals'?
And it's because of our voting system. So if you've ever used the really big Senate paper, which hopefully you have because you have to vote, it's a really big one. It's a really long one. But to get a prominent, easy to vote for box at the top of the page, something that people are likely to see, candidates must be part of a registered party or group.
And that also helps them pull the millions of dollars needed to campaign across an entire state. So there are a range of benefits that might improve their chances, not only in the lower house, but in the upper house as well.
But there's another side to all of this. There's a big risk for the Teals in becoming a party because their independence is a big part of their appeal. A lot of voters backed Teal candidates specifically because they weren't tied to the big parties.
Yeah, if you want a community independent that's not part of a party and then all of a sudden they become part of a party, that becomes an issue for you as a voter potentially, and it might mean that you believe that they're losing their sense of integrity. So to try and counter that, the MPs who are involved in this discussion are talking about doing things differently.
That's how they're framing it. The idea is less about creating another traditional party structure like Labor or the Liberals and instead finding ways to collaborate while still giving each individual MP the freedom to represent their local communities.
Some are saying that that could be tricky to pull off, but MPs like Stegall reckon her constituents are all for it. But regardless of whether a formal party comes out of this, experts say the biggest story here is what it says about Australian politics more broadly.
And that is this ongoing trend of voters moving away from the major parties, which are both registering super low primary votes, the lowest they've had in their history. And for the Liberal Party, that is a really high stakes problem. Labor and government, they've got a bunch of seats. They don't need to worry about it too much at this point.
But for the Liberals, they're seeing voters drifting away to One Nation on their right flank. And if there's some kind of formal teal party on their left flank, it could mean they lose those voters as well and end up in a sort of weird middle ground where they're not appealing to anybody.
Yeah, recent election results and the polls are showing there is an appetite among voters for alternatives, whether it's One Nation, the Greens, independents or a new centrist movement made up of Teals. But as for what form that might take, we'll have to wait and see. And that's our shortcut to the Teals.
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Chapter 5: How did the 2019 election impact the Teal movement?
And I've got a story from SBS that goes into the electoral funding issues we talked about and how it links into Climate 200.
Good one. I'll put links to both of those in the episode notes. Thanks for listening and remember to share this episode with your mates who want to hear the backstory to the big news stories. And don't forget, if you have an idea for a future Squeeze shortcut, we love to hear them and we'd love to hear from you. Just flick it through to hello at thesquiz.com.au. Until next time.
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