The big bombshell of this year’s Victorian election campaign was dropped yesterday, with the Liberals’ shock announcement that it will direct preferences to the ALP ahead of the Greens.
Victorian Liberal party president David Kemp and state director Tony Nutt said the party had resolved to “put the Greens last” in every lower house seat. This effectively means the Greens’ hopes of becoming the deal-makers in Victorian politics have been quashed and they are unlikely to win any seats in the lower house.
The battleground has fundamentally changed. The ALP now don’t need to relentlessly attack the Greens to protect its chances of securing at-risk inner-city seats and can now focus on their traditional nemesis, the Liberals.
What to make of it? Here’s what the pundits are saying:
The Age
Paul Austin: Green light for Ballieu to reveal his full vision
The Liberals’ bombshell decision on preferences changes everything.
First, the Greens, instead of storming the lower house as they had hoped, now face the prospect of winning no seats in the house of power.
Paul Austin and David Rood: Libs’ preference bombshell
The de facto Coalition-Labor alliance to shut out the Greens will come as a devastating blow to the minor party, which had hoped to win up to four lower house seats and become the kingmakers of Victorian politics.
Liberal heavyweights including Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu, party president David Kemp and state director Tony Nutt last night resolved to ”put the Greens last” in all 88 lower house seats.
Editorial: Baillieu makes a pitch for commuter votes to unseat Labor
If Labor does lose its majority it may be because of the increasing number of voters who are turning to the Greens, but yesterday’s decision by the Coalition to preference the Greens last in Lower House seats makes the smaller party’s task harder.
The Herald Sun
Stephen McMahon: Liberals to preference Labor ahead of Greens at November 27 election
The Liberal Party last night also announced it would preference the Greens last in all Lower House seats, dashing the party’s hopes of a bigger presence in Victorian politics and giving Labor breathing space in key inner-city seats.
With two weeks of campaigning left, the Coalition’s spendathon is already equal with its commitments for the entire 2006 campaign – and almost double what Labor has promised this time round.
774 ABC Melbourne
Preference deals deliver blow to Greens
Victoria’s major political parties have launched scathing attacks on each other following the release of preference deals for the state election on November 27.
Labor and the Coalition have engaged in a war of words during the last fortnight, over which party would preference the Greens.
The Australian
Milanda Rout: Liberal decision will hurt Greens
The Liberal Party had also feared a backlash among voters, party members and financial backers after the disquiet over the election of federal Greens MP Adam Bandt on the back of Coalition preferences.
Well i’m off the fence now, I’m voting Greens. Although i, and i think others, had been warming to Ballieu, this is a Ballsup. A vote for the Libs is a vote against democracy. The number one criticism of Brumby is his lack of ears. Like with Ballieu’s backflip on the NthSth Pipeline, poor advice has disarmed his ability and credibility to attack Brumby. Merry Xmas, Mr Brumby. Watch the polls next week to confirm Brumby you as staying on as Premier.
Does this mean the Greens are actually now the alternate party of government? An interesting conundrum, with historically interesting ramifications for NSW…
Will this plan backfire? I wonder how many people will now put Green first (rather than second…) How many dyed in the wool Lab voters will make sure Greens are preferenced, rather than give their vote to the Libs? How many Green voters will preference Libs last? And how many Lib voters will ignore the preference deal?
I don’t have the answers to any of these – it will be interesting to see what happens.
Ben: kind of crossposted (took me a while to do the comment with other distractions…). I wonder how common your attitude will be: I suspect rather common…
Which means, Look Out NSW Labor and Liberal…
A vote for the Liberals is a vote for Labor
I have never voted Liberal in my long life, but I do agree with the decision they have made here. While I support some of the green policies, I don’t want them “running the show”, which is what is happening at the Federal level. After all, at best the Greens represent less than 20% of the electors, and allowing them to hold the so- called balance of power in any parliament means they can blackmail the major party in government to do their bidding, otherwise they will support the opposition. That is not democracy, where it is generally accepted that the majority vote rules.
The only hope for some kind of stability is that the major parties support each other as far as possible. Tony Abbott hasn’t learned this yet, but he should remember that from July next year he would be in exactly the same position as the Labor party now is, if he was in government. And that is a recipe for disaster.