In Warringah, the affluent Sydney electorate that became an early “teal” seat when independent Zali Steggall ousted ex-prime minister Tony Abbott in 2019, voters have received some confusing campaign material in their mailboxes.
One pamphlet — on letterhead more blue than teal coloured — was sent by Steggall herself (she describes the colour as “aqua”). The ad claims she has an even-handed voting record compared with the three biggest political parties.
A table showing what Steggall says is her “real voting record” indicates she voted with Liberals 51% of the time, Labor 52% of the time, and the Greens 54% of the time.
But another pamphlet, distinctly teal-coloured, claims she voted with the Greens 71% of the time, Labor 40%, and the Liberals just 34%. Some voters may have had to put on their reading glasses to spot the sender: Chris Stone, the newly reappointed state director of the NSW Liberal Party.
Steggall’s Liberal rival in Warringah, former sports journalist Jaimee Rogers, has been running a campaign focused on easing the cost of living and advocating for mental health. Meanwhile, the Coalition has spent considerable advertising resources on equating teal independents in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia with the “radical extremist Greens Political Party”, as the Liberals put it in a press release last September.
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In that press release, which showed a slightly different voting figure of 76% when comparing Steggall to the Greens, the Liberals said the calculation was based on “substantive votes on bills” data obtained from the Parliamentary Library.
Steggall based her claim on Parliamentary Library data as well. The full advice from the library, which her campaign shared with Crikey, says the Liberal calculation was likely based on second reading motions only.
“Second reading motions do not by themselves lead to the passage of a bill and are by no means all of the substantive votes on bills,” the advice said.
When looking at the votes in support of legislative motions brought by the Greens instead, the library said Steggall’s result was 42%.
The website They Vote For You has data which further complicates the picture: it shows that since 2019, Steggall voted the same way as Greens leader Adam Bandt 71% of the time, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese 68% of the time, and with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton 34% of the time.
The Australian Financial Review recently went over the teals voting records as well, and found the teals, on average, aligned with legislation introduced by the Greens about 55% of the time.
“Overall, the results show the teals have carved out a new political space to the right of the Greens,” the outlet reported. “On economic issues, they are between the Liberals and Labor, but are closer to the Greens on environmental measures. And some teals are greener than others.” Or is that aqua?
Does the greenness of teal candidates matter?
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