Helen Burnet Quits The Greens!

Witnesses to political history

Tasmanian politics has seldom seemed sober for long since the day in 2023 when two Liberal backbenchers announced they were quitting the government over the Macquarie Point stadium and other things.  2025 was especially deranged but things did seem to have largely settled down once it became obvious that the Rockliff Government would continue in office as nobody could be bothered removing it.  Would 2026 be a sane and normal year in Tasmanian politics?  Nope, we were only on day two before the familiar cries of "go home #politas you're drunk" again rang out among politics tragics as the scene reeled from another shock announcement.  In this case, it's that Clark MHA Helen Burnet, a continuously elected Green at council or state level for a state record of over 20 years had fronted the media in the North Hobart wombat sculpture park to declare that she had quit the party.  There are now six independents in the parliament, the most since the 1909 adoption of statewide Hare-Clark.  

At local council level, it's a common career path for candidates to be elected as Greens then become independents (usually as the end of their first term approaches) but Burnet is the first of 18 state-level Tasmanian Greens MPs to leave the party while in state parliament.  Around the country such defections have not been all that rare and I count six others at state level and two in the Senate (one of these, Dorinda Cox, to Labor).  About half of those defections were triggered by personal controversies.  This also makes this the fourth term of state parliament in a row to witness a defection of some kind.  

What is this one now all about?  Don't ask me, I was as much caught by surprise here as the party says they were!  On New Year's Eve Burnet's Facebook page featured party graphics of "Greens Wins" with no hint of anything amiss, following a video statement two days earlier.  In her statements so far Burnet has said she believes she could do more as an independent for her constituents, for issues "important for the environment and for social justice and equity".  Constituent issues cited included cost of living, public transport, the stadium, a clean and secure water system and waste issues, many of these things the party talks about a fair bit.  A Greens defector saying they believe they can do better for the environment especially sounds like some sort of criticism of the party's direction or effectiveness.  

Burnet has also said she has a "clear intention of being more effective, accountable and heard" and that "I've found it frustrating when I can't get those issues out ... which need to be aired, for us to get some good traction for people in Clark, for the environment, for water quality".   

The above is what I've found so far of what has been said from a press conference I have not yet seen in full, but there remains a high degree of mystery about all this and I suspect we will find out more in months to come.

Speculation on social media has also linked Burnet's departure to everything from forestry policy (the Bob Brown Foundation praising Burnet following her announcement being not lost on those claiming this), to the recent arrival of Hobart Councillor (and ex-Labor-candidate) Zelinda Sherlock in the party, to (directly or indirectly) a potential 2028 race to replace Andrew Wilkie in the federal seat.  Some at least of these are bound to be red herrings.  To add to the mix it is probably worth mentioning that there were differences between Burnet when on Council and the then state Greens over the UTAS move in the leadup to the 2024 election.  Although that recently resurfaced with a bill to enable sale of some of the university's land, I'm not aware of this being a likely factor.

How bad is this?

This is a serious setback for the Tasmanian Greens.  It is not the first time there have been internal tensions over their approach; during the 2010-4 Labor/Greens government, Kim Booth was frequently the purist outside the tent and at times differed sharply from his colleagues.  The difference is Booth never quit the party.  

The Greens polled quite well at the 2025 election, all things considered.  But the bigger winners on the crossbench in swing terms were left indies Peter George, Kristie Johnston and Craig Garland, and George especially has been depriving the party of a lot of oxygen, though it has still been polling well.  It's been impressive that Greens have finally won two seats in Clark in 2024 and 2025 but a lot of that is down to Burnet's personal appeal, her having generally been a star vote-getter for them at various levels for a long, long time.  

The Greens' second seat in Clark is quite marginal; a swing just over 1.8% from them to the Liberals would have seen the Liberals win the seat, although this is partly because the Liberals had three candidates with very similar votes.  Even if Burnet doesn't recontest, having a lower profile number 2 candidate will hurt the Greens on leakage and simply on having a lower overall vote share, and the risk of dropping the seat to Liberals, Labor or independents rises.  The Greens could look at running Sherlock (who succeeded Burnet as Deputy Mayor, albeit elected round the table) as the second Green, though I think her profile is not yet as high as Burnet's was.  Janet Shelley also has a history of polling pretty well for them.   If Burnet does recontest, that makes it very hard for the Greens to hold two, even if perhaps Johnston is no longer there.  I'd expect a substantial part of Burnet's current support base would vote for her as an independent, but she would also need to attract a new audience.  

The defection is big ammunition for critics seeking to claim things are not well within the party following its decision to vote against Labor's post-election no confidence motion in the government.  Labor will always criticise the Greens more for propping up the government than they will criticise the government itself for existing or themselves for making such a transparently nonserious attempt to succeed it after last year's election.  Unsurprisingly they were out yesterday collecting in the media. 

Not much changes in the makeup of the parliament - the government and Greens still have a combined majority on anything where that actually matters.