Roiling emotions.

Relief and devastation.

A pinch of hope, a shake of anger, a dash of despair.

A generous sprinkling of equanimity – this too shall pass, and elections are one small part of the arc of history.

And a powerful flavour of gratitude.

I want to start this email by paying tribute to Adam Bandt, whose magnificently dignified and powerful concession on Thursday crowns this chapter of his political career, but surely not his incredible contribution to our party and movement. His brilliant advocacy for people and planet will be sorely missed in parliament. I certainly hope we can tempt him to keep contributing his deep political analysis through the Green Institute and Green Agenda. After he gets a solid rest.

Speaking of analysis…

Despite the predictable tsunami of hot takes, it’s important to bear in mind that there are no straight-forward explanations for anything, in politics as in life. As an ecological thinker, I always argue for appreciating complexity, and revelling in the fact that, as each of us acts on the basis of numerous tugs and twists and prompts, millions of voters act driven by exponentially more reasons and feelings.

I do have one hot take, though. Of course. And, like any hot take, it’s analysis that explains this result through the lens of my long-term thinking.

The world is on fire. We’re living in the midst of global crises, with political, economic and ecological systems crumbling. In that context, our electoral system is struggling to hold together, and the splintering of the vote is throwing up extraordinary and unexpected results.

One of those, at this particular election, is a sizable Labor majority off the back of a historically low primary vote. One of them is that a remarkable number of MPs who actually stand for something, who dare to be bold, whether we agree with them or not, have been ousted. Adam, Max and Stephen; Peter Dutton; quite possibly Jacqui Lambie.

Both of these outcomes are related to the fact that, at this moment of crumbling, the dominant forces of the status quo are clinging ever more tenaciously to their power. And they see the Greens (and to a lesser extent Independents), with our life-affirming vision of a more equal, more just, more ecological world, as the greatest threat to their power.

And they also relate to the splintered information ecosystem, with political mythologies (many of them carefully cultivated to misrepresent Greens as extremists and blockers) trumping reality perhaps more than ever.

In this context, the fact that the Greens vote mostly held up, and the combined major party vote didn’t increase but only realigned, is a clear sign that the crumbling of the system continues, despite the desperate attempts by the powerful to buttress it. This election, the walls held up. Next time, they may not.

The fact that global crises are playing out in extraordinary and unexpected local results is emphasised by the astonishing symmetry between the recent Canadian election results and ours. In both cases, ascendant right wing parties that were expected to win got tripped up by Trumpism. And the stumbling, fossil-fuel-loving centrist governments that were headed for a smashing somehow got their mojo back, trouncing both right and left. The fact that the leaders of both the right and left parties in both countries lost their seats, in utterly different electoral systems, is a bizarre coincidence.

So, look, yes, devastating though it is, this electoral result is not the disaster it’s being spun as by those who’ve always wished our movement ill because we challenge their power. And it’s similarly self-serving simplistic nonsense to say that the loss of seats is because the party stood firm for housing affordability, or stood up for just peace in Palestine, or “isn’t the party of Bob Brown anymore”.

And yet, we still need to ask serious questions.

I don’t mean we should indulge in recriminations and blame. But, with the world (as we can’t forget) literally on fire, with systems crumbling around us, we have to ask, what are we to do?

Right now, at this moment, and in the coming years, what are we to do differently?

How can we, in a system designed to protect the status quo, act to transform it?

How can we, in a system designed around compartmentalising and separation, act and advocate for climate justice and social and economic justice effectively and intersectionally?

How can we, in a system designed to divide and conquer, learn how to act and advocate for certain people’s interests without alienating others?

We will need, as a party and a movement, to do some deep thinking. And the Green Institute is here to create space for that thinking, to host the conversations and facilitate the discussions we need to have.

Shortly, you will see a special edition of Green Agenda, featuring observations from people across the party, showcasing their diverse experiences and reflections.

From mid-year, we will be launching our already-planned and now even more timely series of conversations, workshops and symposiums on Greens Politics At The End Of The World As We Know It.

In the meantime, however, I am signing off for a long service leave break before I fall over. I’ll be back at the end of June to continue to work with you all on this vital project.

Take care of yourselves and each other – because we need to and want to, because it makes life better, and because that is how we change the world for the better.

Tim