Have the Greens done a secret deal with the Liberals to be placed higher than Labor on the Libs’ how-to-vote card in exchange for support for the Coalition’s Senate voting reform bill? Labor says a dirty deal has been done, but the Greens say it ain’t so.
At the last election, one of Tony Abbott’s “captain’s calls” was to preference Labor ahead of the Greens across the country. It was a reaction to the minority government in the House of Representatives, which Abbott regarded as a “failed experiment”.
But with a change of leader brings a potential change in policy, with reports of deals between Liberals and the Greens in key seats.
Transposing state election results with the change in federal boundaries suggests that both Anthony Albanese’s seat of Grayndler and Tanya Plibersek’s Sydney could be taken by the Greens at this year’s election. Labor powerbroker David Feeney’s seat of Batman and Kelvin Thomson’s seat of Wills could also be under threat from the Greens at the upcoming federal election if the Liberals back down on the Greens preference ban.
It has been suggested that in seats the Coalition was seeking to win against Labor, the Greens would run open tickets, without directly advising voters to preference Labor above the Liberals.
Albanese yesterday suggested that Greens and Liberal voters would be unhappy with the negotiations: “A progressive party exchanging preferences with a conservative party, with Malcolm Turnbull as the spokesperson but all of Tony Abbott’s policies, is quite extraordinary.”
In Grayndler, Albanese is under threat from Greens candidate and NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union boss Jim Casey. A redistribution of the electoral map has moved parts of Marrickville, Tempe, Dulwich Hill, Hurlstone Park, Camperdown and Newtown out of Grayndler and replaced them with parts of Balmain and Annandale.
There was speculation Albanese would switch to the seat of Barton to contest the election, but he has decided to fight on in Grayndler.
At the one joint committee hearing into the changes to Senate voting, Labor’s Kim Carr attempted to prise out of Liberal Party director Tony Nutt as to whether these negotiations had taken place. Nutt refused to bite:
“I have said that people have discussions. That is part of the democratic process. But, just to assist you: I am the national campaign director of the Liberal Party. In the Liberal Party … there are all sorts of discussions with all sorts of people at state and federal levels, including parliamentarians, leadership figures, organisational figures, and, at the end of the day, decisions are made on preferencing. I have made no such decision.”
The Greens in New South Wales, at least, have denied making any deals. Greens NSW campaign co-ordinator James Ryan yesterday issued a statement saying it was a “dirty Labor trick” to win back Greens voters, and no preference deals had been done:
“Greens preferences across NSW will be determined by our grassroots membership once nominations are closed and all candidates announced. Our track record reflects our approach to preference allocation. We have consistently preferenced Labor ahead of the Liberals, Nationals.”
Since the Greens dog long ago mastered the skill of shaking its Labor tail, why wouldn’t they expand their self-seeking skills further afield.
The Greens can deny a deal all they like, but the temptation of Libs to knock off both Albo and Plibersek will be impossible for them to ignore (and there are 3 or 4 more seats in Melbourne which are similar). They could pretty well decimate the Labor front bench, if they chose to do so.
I live in Balmain (Grayndler, previously Sydney), and Albo is right to be concerned. The Libs could “run dead” as they have done before to ensure 3rd place, direct preferences to the Greens (via a complicated HTV card which confuses all but the most observant) and anoint the lame-duck “socialist” fireman to keep Adam Bandt company. Bye bye Albo…
The Libs gave Melbourne to Adam Bandt by preferencing him in 2010 for similar reasons – to target Lindsay Tanner, who wisely decided to chuck it in rather than get the boot. And they’re likely to do the same again to Albo.
I’d be incredibly surprised if If Di Natale didn’t demand this when doing that Senate voting deal.
I can’t tell the difference between Greens voters and Lib voters in Balmain and Annandale anyway. Both are rich (Balmian has the highest median individual income in the State), both have two cars per household, one a large luxury SUV. What really is the difference between these two party’s interests and intent anyway? Even the hard-line left in the NSW Greens call their federal leadership “Liberals with bicycles.” An alliance of convenience makes absolute perfect sense.
Albo is running scared and will say anything at this point. I don’t understand his trade conspiracy theory, Greens passed Green policy in Senate reform. I expect Greens to pass Green policy. That’s why we put them there. If it really was a trade then it is a masterstroke for Di Natale because the Liberals would be effectively rewarding him twice.
Albo is seeing shadows. I suppose you would after so long trying to survive the inside of the Labor political party.
Maybe one day he’ll stand side by side with the Greens in their fight against the tories. But for now the Labor party would rather turn their guns on the left.
I take it a ‘stich up’ is a conspiracy where everything is really a bit of a romp so what’s the harm eh?
I’ve suspected for some time that Di Natale is a closet Lib and he now appears to be “coming out” as they say. Once they get a sniff of power the corruption starts, all previously strong held principles are now negotiable.