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An under-rated part of the JSJ story is how he ended up in parliament. He didn't win a contested party preselection for a winnable seat - he was the #3 on the WA Greens Senate ticket in 2016 behind Ludlam and Siewert. No Green has ever come close to being elected from #3 (or #2 in a half-Senate)

But because Ludlam was disqualified due to citizenship, the seat was filled by a recount, and JSJ was automatically elected. Steele-John could have chosen to resign and let the party conduct a full preselection, but didn't. Since then, he has been preselected and elected, but always from incumbency.

The only comparable example is Andrew Bartlett who replaced Larissa Waters for the same reason. But Bartlett was a former senator, former Democrats leader and had contested the #2 seat which was winnable in many states (perhaps not Queensland). He also had run for Brisbane, one of their best seats.

So Bartlett was considered a credible potential MP, even if there wasn't much expectation he would win in 2016. And then he served a brief term and stepped down to run for Brisbane and make room for Waters to return.