Jonno's political musings

Jonathan Sriranganathan
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I'm a 36-year-old writer, musician and community worker who served as Brisbane's first ever Greens city councillor from 2016 until 2023, after which I ran for Mayor of Brisbane in the March 2024 local government elections. I write regularly at www.jonathansri.com about Queensland politics, green municipalism, anti-colonial anarchism and whatever else takes my fancy. Occasionally I record audio versions of some of those articles, or discussions with interesting people, which I'll share on this platform.

Episodes

  1. Radical Suburbs Online Forum: Reflections on growing Greens support in culturally diverse outer-metropolitan areas

    05/22/2025

    Radical Suburbs Online Forum: Reflections on growing Greens support in culturally diverse outer-metropolitan areas

    On Tuesday, 20 May, in the wake of the 2025 federal election, I facilitated an open discussion with recent federal Greens candidates Huong Truong and Remah Naji, and Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi. While the 3 May federal election was generally quite disappointing for the Greens, several outer-suburban areas of Australia's major cities saw significant swings towards the Greens. These positive swings appear to correlate with neighbourhoods that have higher degrees of cultural diversity, but there could be other explanatory factors at play too. In Remah Naji's southern Brisbane electorate of Moreton, more affluent neighbourhoods appear to have swung against the Greens, while we saw dramatic swings towards the Greens in the southernmost polling booths such as Kuraby (+23% swing), Runcorn Heights (+10.2%), Eight Mile Plains (+15.3%) and Woodridge prepoll (+9.6%). In Huong Truong's western Melbourne electorate of Fraser, the Greens experienced negative swings in multiple booths closer to the city around Yarraville. But the party secured huge swings further west in neighbourhoods where 60% to 70% of households speak languages other than English at home, such as Sunshine (+18.3%), Sunshine East (+9.4%), and St Albans (+9.4%). Across many outer-suburban polling booths, the Liberal vote still fell significantly, but the net swing was to the Greens, not Labor. So what's going on here? Was this about Palestine? Or a more general pushback against the scapegoating of immigrants? Or support for the Greens' stronger position on housing and cost of living issues? Or just the fact that the Greens had bigger field campaigns and ground games in these areas than we did previously? In this session, we unpack the importance of deeper community organising and relationship-building, the different issues and concerns that motivated voters in these electorates, and the lessons that we hope the Australian Greens might reflect on after this election.

    1h 23m

  2. 01/15/2025

    Towards a new political orientation for the Greens

    This is an audio narration of my December 2024 opinion piece evaluating the effectiveness of the Australian Greens' current strategic approach, and exploring the case for a deeper transformation of how the party operates and orients politically, including its messaging, its broad vision and its parliamentary strategy. With the 2025 federal election on the horizon, where the Greens may well win balance of power in both houses of parliament, and mixed results in recent state and territory elections, this is an important time to reflect on how the Greens have been going lately, and what changes will be necessary for the party to grow without being co-opted by the establishment. From the perspective of someone who has been heavily involved in organising and campaigning for the Queensland Greens, I explore how the Greens in Australia have failed to tap into rising anti-establishment sentiment, whether the party should be focusing more closely on critiques of racism and colonialism, and what aspects of the party's platform and style aren't resonating as well beyond the party's existing supporter base. #auspol #radicalpolitics #AustralianGreens #ecosocialism #antipol #socialdemocracy #colonialism

    47 min
  3. Interview with Remah Naji, Greens candidate for Moreton and the first Palestinian-Australian woman to run for parliament

    11/14/2024

    Interview with Remah Naji, Greens candidate for Moreton and the first Palestinian-Australian woman to run for parliament

    Recently I sat down for a casual chat with Remah Naji. Remah is a Palestinian-Australian mum of two, an educator, a community organiser, and the Greens candidate for the electorate of Moreton (on Brisbane's south side) for the 2025 federal election. You can read a transcript of this interview on my blog at jonathansri.com/remahinterview

    28 min

  4. 11/02/2024

    Labor lost the Queensland election a year ago: Unpacking strategic missteps on youth crime

    This is an audio narration of one of the opinion pieces I wrote after Queensland's October 2024 state election campaign. It explores the role of the police and the media in spreading narratives about 'youth crime' being 'out of control' in the lead-up to the election, as well as mistakes made by both the Greens and the Labor party in how they responded to the Liberal National Party's fear campaign. You can read the article at jonathansri.com/youthcrimenarratives and you can also find several other recent articles about Queensland politics at www.jonathansri.com

    23 min
  5. Huge gains on our most ‘radical’ platform yet - a post-election debrief with Sam

    04/09/2024

    Huge gains on our most ‘radical’ platform yet - a post-election debrief with Sam

    The results have now been finalised for the 2024 Brisbane City Council election. After running on our boldest campaign platform yet - with plans to freeze rents, crack down on land-banking, make public transport free and frequent, ban council-owned pokies, replace houseracing tracks with public housing and more - The Greens have gained huge swings in both the mayoralty and citywide vote. While The Greens vote is clearly still on the rise, the conservatives have maintained their stronghold on this city for yet another term.In this episode, Jonno sits down with social media volunteer, Sam, to debrief our campaign. We check in on how Jonno is feeling (01:54), unpack the election results (3:45), address some criticisms (10:01) and key challenges (16:11), discuss the shameless smear and misinformation campaigns (21:37), racially coded attacks (28:29), need for truth in advertising (31:37) and ask Jonno where he’s headed next (34:50).While this council campaign is over, the fight to dismantle colonial systems of injustice continues.To keep in touch with Jonno, sign up to his mailing list (https://jsriranganathan.substack.com) or follow along on social media at https://linktr.ee/jonathansri. More on this election, reimagining role of local government, and also the full campaign platform we ran this election, can be found at https://www.jonathansri.com

    40 min
  6. Mehreen Faruqi : Imperialism, colonialism and the struggle for a better world with Jonathan Sriranganathan

    01/28/2024

    Mehreen Faruqi : Imperialism, colonialism and the struggle for a better world with Jonathan Sriranganathan

    On the day after the invasion day march, Sat 27 January, Jonathan hosted a Q&A session with the Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, who’s was up from NSW for the weekend. They discussed a range of issues, with a particular focus on what’s happening in the Middle East and how this connects to colonialism here in Australia and in other parts of the world. It was a great chance for folks around Brissie to come listen, and ask questions in a relaxed (shady!) outdoor environment. Sign up to volunteer, donate to Jonno's Mayoral Campaign, and find all Jonnos social links here: https://linktr.ee/jonathansri

    1h 7m
  7. Youngest Candidate in Council Election, River Kearns

    01/28/2024

    Youngest Candidate in Council Election, River Kearns

    River Kearns is the Greens candidate for Tennyson. They are the youngest candidate (21 years old) contesting in the Brisbane City Council election! Jonno and River talk the justice system, sustainable infrastructure, the nitty-gritty of Brisbane's housing crisis and green community spaces. Sign up to volunteer, donate to Jonno's Mayoral Campaign, and find all Jonnos social links here: https://linktr.ee/jonathansri

    21 min
  8. Electoralism is not enough with Anna Carlson

    10/09/2023

    Electoralism is not enough with Anna Carlson

    Anna is a community organiser, co-founder and organiser the Brisbane Free University, Executive Producer for 4ZZZs Radio reversal and a freelance radio producer, illustrator, and writer. She is based in Brisbane, and is too scared of the cold to move to Melbourne. Anna and Jonno question problematic institutions and our involvement with them, the challenges of electoral politics and also cover why electoralism is not enough. Sign up to volunteer, donate to Jonno's Mayoral Campaign, and find all Jonnos social links here: https://linktr.ee/jonathansri

    28 min
  9. Mayoral Campaign Briefing with Jonno + Aleesha

    09/04/2023

    Mayoral Campaign Briefing with Jonno + Aleesha

    Jonno sits down with Aleesha, a volunteer on the Mayoral Campaign team for some introductory questions to kick things off. Support the campaign at https://www.jonathansri.com/ Some initial questions are answered here : Why did you want to run for mayor ? Why do you think now is the time that local people are getting involved in local council politics? What's the role of local government? What's the difference between local, state and federal government? (particularly in the context of the Greens) What are the things that you wish people understood about you? What excites you about the future? Can you paint me the picture on the future of Brisbane? How do you feel the campaign has been going so far? Find Jonnos socials, website and signups here: https://linktr.ee/jonathansri

    27 min
  • 9 Episodes

About

I'm a 36-year-old writer, musician and community worker who served as Brisbane's first ever Greens city councillor from 2016 until 2023, after which I ran for Mayor of Brisbane in the March 2024 local government elections. I write regularly at www.jonathansri.com about Queensland politics, green municipalism, anti-colonial anarchism and whatever else takes my fancy. Occasionally I record audio versions of some of those articles, or discussions with interesting people, which I'll share on this platform.

Information

  • Creator
    Jonathan Sriranganathan
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    9
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jonathan Sriranganathan
  • Show Website
    Jonno's political musings