Photo: mugley/ Flickr
WHAT is it about the Greens that Labor so dislikes? Prior to the Tasmanian elections Labor premier David Bartlett assured voters he would not be doing a deal with them under any circumstances. In the event, Labor formed a minority government with two Green cabinet ministers. Had it not been for the Greens and the movements they represent, it’s likely that in Tasmania alone Lake Pedder would have disappeared, the Gordon below Franklin would have been dammed and the Gunns pulp mill development would have gone unchallenged. That aside, on so many issues – climate change, industrial relations, welfare, foreign relations and economic matters, for example – the Greens are closer to Labor than Labor is to the Coalition.
Federally, Green preferences boost federal Labor’s two-party preferred vote at every election. In 2007 Labor’s primary vote, at 43.3 per cent, was only 1.3 per cent higher than the Coalition’s. But with Green preferences the two-party-preferred outcome – 52.7 per cent for Labor and 47.3 per cent for the Coalition – put Labor into office. Despite this, the Rudd government goes first to the Coalition to negotiate Senate deals.
Bob Brown is not everyone’s cup of tea. But no one can doubt his achievement in boosting the Greens to the third political force in Australian politics. Mr Rudd is not impressed; despite a number of polite requests since last July, he won’t even meet with Senator Brown.
