Who are the heroes of Moreton? Mel, Kel, Nat, Claire, Lamisse, Remah, and her husband, Tareq. At least, in my mind and where I stood in my booth in Annerley on election day, they were.
Graham Perret was elected in 2007 with the incoming Rudd Labor government. He was a member of the Labor left faction and claimed to be a supporter of Palestine. Perret was dumped by the party in favor of the Secretary of the Queensland branch of the ALP, Julie-Anne Campbell, who was President of the University of Queensland student Union in 2007 and graduated with a law agree.
The ABCs description of the federal seat of Moreton states: “Existing since Federation, Moreton has had only six members since 1922. Best known amongst these was Jim Killen (1955-83), who served as a senior minister in the Fraser government. It was Killen’s narrow re-election in 1961 that delivered Menzies a narrow parliamentary majority, though the victory was not, as is commonly repeated, achieved on Communist Party preferences.”
Thanks to Greens preferences Moreton has become a safe seat for the Labor Party, even though the ALP score only a little over a third of the total vote. It was a disappointing night for the Greens. However, the Justice for Palestine Magan-djin candidate, Remah Naji, scored an impressive 23% at her first attempt. Moorooka, Annerley, The Rock, Tarragindi, and Coorparoo booths all had signs and flyers for Remah Naji speaking about Labor and Liberal failure on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. No doubt there were others at booths throughout Moreton. Remah led a march in support of Palestine through Sunnybank in the week prior to the election. Remah backed up by leading the Palestine is union busiess contingent in the annual May Day march in Brisbane.
Remah outpolled Labor at a number of booths and won big swings towards the Greens in the outer metropolitan areas on the Southside, including these swings: Kuraby 22% Runcorn 8%, 8 Mile Plains 15%, Logan 7% Moorooka 6%. Looking at these swings, we can say that where there is greater diversity, there was a positive result for Remah and the Greens. I put this down to the energy of the candidate and of the volunteers who, in many booths, outnumbered all other parties. For example, in my polling station in Annerley, there were 11 Green volunteers and only two LNP volunteers sticking it out for the full day. Remah fell just short of coming second behind Labor.
In the nearby seat of Griffith, Max Chandler- Mather scored an impressive 33% of the overall vote. That was just short of the Labor Party who got in because the LNP preferences Labor over the Greens. Max Chandler-Mather lost his seat because Dutton and Albanese targetted him for his support of Palestine. Max, the Greens spokesperson on Housing, provided material support for Remah as a Palestinian candidate.
Needless to say, there was a very strong anti-Dutton sentiment in all of the booths on the south side. Labor and the Greens swapped preferences in order to keep Dutton out. Given the possibility that the Greens will not hold a seat in the House of Representatives (they may retain Ryan), the ALP is likely to be quite insufferable because of its dominance over the Liberal National parties. They may adopt Greens policies like dental into Medicare towards the end of their term. They even do a little about the shortage of public housing.
The Labor Party managed to win without addressing any of the systemic issues namely our continued alliance with the United States, a possible war with China, a turning away from the genocide of the Palestinian people during a time of their greatest need, and a refusal to address the inequality crisis in this country and across the globe.
So much for parliamentary democracy.
Workers of all countries unite!
Ian Curr
3 May 2025
In response to “Palestinian”. None of the Greens election material in Moreton or Remah’s website mentioned the war in Gaza. That’s what I mean by branding.
FACT CHECK
Max Chandler-Mather outside his office in Stones Corner 2021.
Max supported the follow up petition End Restrictions on Palestinian travel to Australia
Max’s office also printed Boycott Caltex – no fuel for genocide posters for the Boycott Caltex / Chevron campaign that is being run nationally after requests by Palestine’s BDS campaign.
Max and all the other candidates except Remah said nothing of Palestine this year, even Remah stopped talking as a Green about Palestine a couple of months ago.
According to Jonathan Sriranganathan –“The Greens leadership made a strategic choice not to focus on Palestine as a top-tier issue during the campaign.” https://www.jonathansri.com/2025fedelectionresults/
FACT CHECK. Now you are being ridiculous. Your comments about Remah not speaking out on Palestine are a litany of lies. You are trying my patience I do not have time to respond to every lie that you post on WBT. I’m in the middle of a very important court case surely you would understand the difficulties of defending oneself in the circumstances without having to respond to every single little factual error that you make.
As a former elected Greens councillor and Greens Comms officer during the 2025 Federal Election, Jonathan Sriranganathan, wanted a greater emphasis on Palestine not a lesser one as you make out.
Jonno encouraged me to wear this Green T-Shirt at the polling booths.
No, I am not making out that Jonathan wanted less emphasis on Palestine, I was pointing out that he said that the leadership decided to downplay Palestine. Jonathan confirms my assertion.
Liar, liar, pants on fire … you stereotyped all the Greens as running from public mention of Palestine – Remah, Max, Bandt, Jonathan … they never ran away from that or their commitment to decolonise, in Palestine or in Australia. You are a trumpet of sectarians. Plus, you hide behind Blinky Bill as some kind of pure symbol of aboriginality when no such purity exists.
Aboriginal people fought in two world wars, they joined unions, led unions, laboured on railways, and went on strike … Did I ever tell you the story about Phil O’Brien’s mate. He fought in the desert in North Africa against Rommel. When Phil’s platoon got captured, the Germans wouldn’t take Phil’s mate as a POW because he was a black fella! They left him alone in the desert to find his own back to his lines.Yes, and later after the war when Phil and his mate went into the Cairns RSL with the other wharfies, the RSL wouldn’t serve their black mate. So they all walked out in disgust.
You project a weird distortion of mateship stereotyping people as all being racist. It’s more complex than that.
Most people didn’t really want to come here. My friend Khalil came against the wishes of his father to earn money for the family in Nablus. It was not that he didn’t want Khalil to work abroad. He just said, don’t come here. He probably preferred that Khalil remain in Germany and work as a boilermaker there.
This campaign was everything!
The style of decentralised, grassroots and anti-colonial campaign that we ran unapologetically here on the southside is something all of us should be incredibly proud of. We now have an incredible force that will build on our efforts to keep organising and growing in the area.
I will never forget the stories and chats I had with each and every volunteer, local resident and business owner. This community is incredibly rich and deserves our absolute dedication. Over the past 9 months, hundreds of people from all backgrounds, most of whom had never been involved in any political campaigning in the past, joined our team and worked tirelessly to build what we have now: a powerful collective force for change.
The style of street politics that gives power to the people, as opposed to the ruling-class politics that reassert the authority of a select few, has been the defining feature of this campaign. The fact that we refused to compromise on our core principles has not been an easy thing to do, but an absolute badge of honour and a testament to the purity and authenticity of everyone on this campaign.
We received varied results across the electorate. Notably, we achieved huge positive swings in the southern suburbs of the electorate, while we saw a swing against us in the northwestern suburbs.
There is a lot to unpack and reflect on. For me, the most important thing is that we uplifted voices in the community that wouldn’t have been heard otherwise. That was the promise of this campaign. We empowered ordinary people, especially the marginalised and disfranchised, to take part in this radical, unconventional political engagement. We built something that did not exist in the past and it will keep growing.
We served food to thousands of locals, organised kids and family activities, supported hundreds of locals during Alfred, advocated for justice for all. We rejected racism in all its forms and did not allow the government’s failures to be pinned on the most vulnerable in our society.
We advocated fiercely for housing justice, climate justice, disability, First Nations and refugee justice. We stood firmly – and loudly – with a free, liberated Palestine. I wouldn’t have done any of this differently. I’m immensely proud of everyone on this campaign.
In our final fundraiser, I did say that real power never sat in a chamber, it lives in the streets and inside people. I don’t know about you, but I’m kinda ready for a new adventure. This is a chapter in history we opened collectively and so far we’ve only written its first page.
The kids who approached me with anticipation at the booths because of the videos they watched of me, the letters they received in their mailboxes and the watermelon earrings they so adorably admired are relying on us to keep organising and building a better future for them. I won’t fail them, and I know you won’t.
Yesterday, I had a bit of a rest and spent time with my family. Today, I was out in the streets… literally! I joined the NTEU at the May Day rally, then marched with the Justice for Palestine Magandjin contingent to remind everyone that we must stand by what we witness – Palestine is union business.
I am so looking forward to building organising capacity on the ground. I worked with many people who are keen on learning such skills, as well as others, like public speaking and media skills.
Stay tuned! I’m back to my work at uni on Wednesday. I received so many heartfelt messages from hundreds of people, and I will try to respond before going back to work.
With work, family and activism, my capacity with responding to emails and messages will be very limited without the fantastic team I had during this campaign. It might take a few days before I can write a response, so I appreciate your patience everyone!
Before I go, keep your head up high. We have so much to be proud of.
P.S. May is a big month for the Palestine solidarity movement. Here are a few things happening this month:
17th May, 2-7pm: Palestinian Cultural Day at BTPC in Eight Mile Plains
18th May, 1pm: Nakba Rally, King George Square
30th May – 1st June: Magan-djin Weekend Palestine Conference at Elements Collective
See you out in the streets!
In solidarity,
Remah
I challenge Remah’s claim that her campaign was “decentralised, grassroots and anti-colonial”.
Most of the electorate including many of the booths that had a big swing to the Greens were only aware of the Greens party branding in the media and letterbox drops. Remah’s Greens material distributed locally and her website did not mention the Gaza war at all. At the Coopers Plains booth, and I assume in some others, there was no signage or branding mentioning Palestine, but that booth got a 6% swing to the Greens. Remah got a good vote in all the eastern side of the electorate because she was a Green, and a better vote in areas where JFP campaigned more intensively. The centralised party branding and the party’s organisational resources were Remah’s greatest assets. Just like all the parties, Remah and the Greens intervened into the grass roots communities to proselytise, with many of the door-knockers from outside the electorate. This is not grass roots politics. What the Greens do in the electorate between elections is grass roots politics – nothing.
Remah ran as a Green. In the last term the Greens squeezed out Lidia Thorpe and voted for Albo’s white-washed Voice. The Greens first nations policy does not include land rights, it used to but they decided to remove it. Australia’s Voice W.A. senate candidate was Aboriginal activist Megan Krakouer who recently left the Greens because of internal racism. The Queensland Greens have buried the history of the first Green elected in Queensland – Palm Island Mayor Erykah Kyle who was mayor when Cameron Doomadgee was murdered by Chris Hurley – and the Queensland Greens abandoned her with some sympathising with Hurley. During the campaign Remah promoted a “no borders” immigration policy. “No borders” is terra nullius. Remah was standing for a colonial party and her campaign never addressed issues of colonisation and decolonisation – in Palestine or Australia or in the Green party itself.
FACT CHECK: Moorooka, Annerley, The Rock, Tarragindi, and Coorparoo booths all had signs and flyers for Remah Naji speaking about Labor and Liberal failure on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. No doubt there were others at booths throughout Moreton. Remah led a march in support of Palestine through Sunnybank in the week prior to the election.
Remah ran in Moreton because the Greens support Palestine. Max Chandler-Mather lost his seat because Dutton and Albanese targetted him for his support of Palestine. Max, the Greens spokesperson on Housing, provided material support for Remah as a Palestinian candidate.
Justice for Palestine Magandjin campaigned throughout the seat emphasizing the landback struggle in Australia and Palestine. Remah’s campaign was anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist.
Remah gave her preference to the Indigenous People’s Party in the Senate.
Remah became known throughout the electorate as the only voice against the genocide in Gaza. More than 10,000 people voted against the genocide, that is a real, tangible achievement when you consider the difficulty faced by Palestinians, outlawed in every country in the West for speaking out against the genocide.
Remah did not preference the Indigenous party. https://www.remahformoreton.com/howtovote
FACT CHECK: Remah preferenced the Indigenous Party.
JFP handed out thousands of these:
Vote 1 to 6 above the line in order of who you want to see elected
Indigenous Aboriginal Party
of Australia
Wayne Wharton
Indigenous Aboriginal Party
of Australia
Marnie Laree Davis
That is a JFP HTV card, not a Greens HTV card. Remah is a Green.
“Real power never sat in a chamber, it lives in the streets and inside people. I don’t know about you, but I’m kinda ready for a new adventure. This is a chapter in history we opened collectively and so far we’ve only written its first page.” – Remah Naji, Palestinian from Jaffa.
Were there any other booths with Palestine messaging?
Swings in the booths you mention –
Moorooka, +1.64 (Moorooka East +3.27)
Annerley Junction – .56
The Rock, +3.92
Tarragindi, +3.18
Coorparoo – 7.98
There was almost no Palestine messaging in Coopers Plains during the campaign, there was one JFP leaflet in the letterbox that had no Green branding. There were three separate Greens leaflets and Remah’s website that did not mention Palestine. I missed the door knockers (lucky them) so I don’t know what was on their script but they left a Greens leaflet that did not mention Palestine. There was no Palestine signage or tee shirts at the Coopers Plains polling booth, but lots of Green branding. The swing to the Greens was +6%.
Eight Mile Plains +15.46. Woodridge +9.59. Runcorn +8.57.
As I said before the election, how do you tell the difference between those who voted for Palestine and those who voted for the vanilla Max/Larissa/first homebuyers/community barbeque branding?
Remah Naji is Palestinian … there is no better ‘branding’ as you, crudely, call it.
النيابه عن الجالية الفلسطينية في كوينزلاند، تود منظمة “فلسطين إنك” أن تتقدم بالشكر والتهنئة الى رماح ناجي على جهودها الرائعة كمرشحة لحزب الخضر عن مقعد مورتون.
“As a representative of our Palestinian Community in QLD, Falesteen Inc would like to thank and congratulate Remah Naji on her amazing efforts as a Greens candidate for the seat of Moreton.
Remah has acted in courage, grace and humility to amplify our voices in a time when we have felt disempowered while enduring and watching our people experience a horrific genocide.” – Falasteen.
As a representative of our Palestinian Community in QLD, Falesteen Inc would like to thank and congratulate Remah Naji on her amazing efforts as a Greens candidate for the seat of Moreton.
Remah has acted in courage, grace and humility to amplify our voices in a time when we have felt disempowered while enduring and watching our people experience a horrific genocide.
It was an uphill battle for the Labor stronghold seat of Moreton, and literally fighting against the two major parties, a war of disinformation and propaganda.
Thank you Remah, for being a voice for the voiceless and for empowering not just the Palestinian community but all minority communities.
Thank you for not only daring to represent us in Australian politics against all the odds, but for representing us already, and paving the way for younger people in our community to own their voices.
We will stand by you and already we are looking forward to supporting you at the next election.
Falesteen Inc and the Palestinian Community of Queensland.
النيابه عن الجالية الفلسطينية في كوينزلاند، تود منظمة “فلسطين إنك” أن تتقدم بالشكر والتهنئة الى رماح ناجي على جهودها الرائعة كمرشحة لحزب الخضر عن مقعد مورتون.
لقد تصرفت رماح بشجاعة و تواضع لتضخيم أصواتنا في وقت شعرنا فيه بالعجز، بينما نتحمل ونشاهد شعبنا يمر بإبادة جماعية مروعة. كانت معركة صعبة للغاية في مواجهة معقل حزب العمال في مورتون، وفي مواجهة الحزبين الرئيسيين، وسط حرب من المعلومات المغلوطة والدعاية.
شكرًا لكِ،رماح! لكونكِ صوتًا لمن لا صوت لهم، ولتمكينكِ ليس فقط الجالية الفلسطينية، بل جميع الجاليات الأقلية.
شكرًا لكِ لأنكِ لم تجرؤي فقط على تمثيلنا في السياسة الأسترالية رغم كل التحديات، بل لأنكِ بالفعل مثلتينا، ومهدتِ الطريق للشباب في مجتمعنا ليمتلكوا أصواتهم.
سنقف إلى جانبكِ، ونحن بالفعل نتطلع لدعمكِ في الانتخابات القادمة.
منظمة “فلسطين إنك” والجالية الفلسطينية في كوينزلاند.
Remah did amazingly well, even cynical me was impressed. For a start, Ryan, Brisbane and Griffith all had primary swings against the Greens and Remah increased the Green vote by 2%, so she did better than the others. But as you said the most significant thing is the swings at the booths, she had very big swings in many more booths than the ones you indicated. Here in Coopers Plains she got a 6% swing. However in other booths there were big swings against her too, up to 9%. Interestingly, in the booths that Remah got a big swing to her, it came from the LNP as much as from the ALP. The most astounding booth was Kuraby – a 23% swing to Remah that came from the LNP (- 14%) and from the ALP (- 11%).
There are many overlapping factors that could have caused these big positive and negative swings, obviously JFP’s campaign would be a factor but across the board the Greens vote is collapsing in its inner urban heartland and growing in outer suburbia which I suspect is a big factor in Moreton which has both.