Michael Brull on turmoil within the NSW Greens

Perth Indymedia

Independent journalist and commentator Michael Brull recently wrote a three-part special report for New Matilda on conflict within the NSW Greens. The piece focuses on a dispute, which eventually made its way to the NSW Supreme Court, over the validity of Cate Faehrmann standing for preselection in the upper house of state parliament. Faehrmann, who won the court case and is now expected to take up the Legislative Council seat vacated by Mehreen Faruqi, is a person of some standing within the party structure, having served as Richard Di Natale’s chief-of-staff from 2015 until March of this year. It’s fair to say the prospect of her nomination was not welcomed by all party members. Indeed, some media commentators, as well as people inside the Greens, have characterised this dispute as one shaped by an ongoing, increasingly bitter civil war between the hard left and so-called moderate factions of the state party branch. Alex Whisson caught up with Michael Brull and began by asking him to outline what the dispute was about and what, in his view, its political significance was.