The Greens Preferences

Ms LEE RHIANNON [6.49 p.m.]: There are a few members of the Labor Party, some of them quite senior, who spend more time trying to undermine the Greens than working to defeat the Howard Government, which surely is the main game in town. I am not talking about policy differences—there are obviously many of those, and I have no trouble with tough and harsh criticism of our policies. That is politics. In Victoria, Labor is going to great lengths to mislead the public with misinformation about the Greens working with the Liberals. In the recent New South Wales and Victorian State elections the Labor leadership in those States grossly misrepresented the preference recommendations made by the Greens. Prior to the November 2006 Victorian State election Labor alleged that there was a Greens-Liberal arrangement to damage the Labor Government. There was no deal and the Greens voting recommendations to the public underline this.

The Greens did not preference the Liberal Party ahead of the Australian Labor Party in any upper or lower House seat in the 2006 State election. In 60 lower House seats the Greens how-to-vote cards directed preferences to Labor. In the other 28 seats the Greens suggested that the voters decide how to direct their preferences. In all upper House seats in the 2006 Victorian State election all Greens preferences were directed to the Australian Labor Party ahead of the Liberal Party. The election outcome showed that Labor did not lose one seat as a result of any Greens votes flowing to the Liberal Party.

In the New South Wales 2007 State election Premier Morris Iemma stated that the Greens preference decision could result in the Coalition winning government. His statement in The Sunday Telegraph gave the impression that the Greens were supporting the Coalition when in fact the New South Wales Greens had decided to recommend voters preference Labor in 24 State marginal seats and, in the other 69 seats, the Greens either recommended a preference to Labor or that no preferences be allocated to either Labor or Coalition candidates.

So why did the New South Wales Premier, like his Victorian colleagues, make allegations about Greens preferences? Labor people know that most Greens voters dislike the Coalition more than Labor and, unfortunately, some are working to drive Greens voters away by spreading lies that the Greens work with the Coalition. The Labor misrepresentation has now been extended from preferences to the voting patterns of Greens members of Parliament. Some members of Victorian and New South Wales Labor are trying to make out that Greens and Liberal members of Parliament work together against Labor.

I sometimes speak at forums with members from other parties. On two occasions now a Labor member of Parliament has publicly stated that the Greens and Coalition vote together most of the time, referring to the New South Wales Parliament. I was able to answer this lie with the solid information that more than 90 per cent of the legislation in the New South Wales Parliament is passed on the combined vote of Labor and the Coalition. In Victoria the baseless allegation of Greens and Liberal members of Parliament working together is more elaborate with a website set up in an attempt to give more substance to Labor's dirty tricks.

The website, run by Stephen Newnham, Labor's Victorian secretary, alleges that the Greens and Liberal members of Parliament have voted together 68 per cent of the time. For the record, upper House voting data shows that Victorian Greens have voted with Labor about 32 times out of 37 divisions, that is, 86 per cent of the time; Labor has voted with the Liberals 27 times out of 37 divisions, that is, 73 per cent; and all three parties have voted in unison 27 times out of 37 divisions, that is, 73 per cent. On most occasions when the Greens and the Liberals voted together the Labor Party voted with the Liberals too. The Greens voting behaviour fails to support allegations that there is a deal between the Greens and the Liberals.

While Victorian Labor is obsessed with making out that the Greens are helping out the conservatives, in New South Wales some Labor members of Parliament favour the cold war tactics of whipping up a red smear. We all remember the comments in this place of the former Treasurer Mr Egan about some of the Greens members. Former Premier Bob Carr was known to dredge up the "Trotskyite" label when describing the Greens. Current upper House member and chair of committees, the Hon. Amanda Fazio, in a recent speech described the Greens as "the offshoot of the Communist Party of Australia". This is just another attempt to misrepresent and discredit the Greens.

The Labor Party would have more former members in the Greens than any left-wing party could muster. The reason Labor attacks the Greens using dirty tactics is because it is worried by their vote and fears that the Greens will continue to erode its vote and, in time, win one of its seats. The ill-thought-out tactics coming from parts of the Labor Party are not helping with the main game in town, and that is the defeat of the Howard Government. For the Greens, this means electing a Rudd-led government with Labor and Greens together holding the Senate majority. Unfortunately, much of Labor's spoiler tactics against the Greens is detracting from this vital objective.