Remember Jonathan Davis, the Greens member who rivals described as “too camp” to win a seat in the ACT parliament?
Well he’s having the last laugh after winning a spot in the parliament. The final votes for were counted on Friday and Davis was awarded the fifth spot in Brindabella with a lead of just 82 votes.
He’ll be one of six Greens members in the parliament , previously the party only held two of the 25 seats in the ACT parliament, the recent election has seen them triple their number of representatives.
Davis hit national headlines during the election campaign when Liberal MP Mark Parton described Davis as being “too camp” for the region he hoped to represent. Parton subsequently apologised for the comments.
Speaking to the Canberra Times Davis said the increase in the number of Greens in the parliament would allow the party to have a much bigger influence on important policies.
“One of the difficulties for Greens past has been getting traction in the community on policies that we know to be popular. The Labor and Liberal parties have a much bigger and more organised marketing machine and marketing and sales has never been a strong suit of the Greens. We’re policy nerds, we’re detail-oriented. We get the plans right,” he said.
“In a party room of six, I’m hopeful I can utilise some of my skills to really get out there in the community and talk about what we’ve done and what we are doing to the people that it most affects.”
Davis has been persistent in his battle to enter politics he previously ran unsuccessfully in the 2012 and 2016 territory elections.
OIP Staff
Love OUTinPerth Campaign
Help support the publication of OUTinPerth by contributing to our
GoFundMe campaign.
