The Dead Roo

After the Green scare campaign - that Labor was planning to put Family First above the Greens - it appears a rank betrayal of Greens supporters to then lodge split tickets and recommend a vote for the Liberal Party - the Party of the sale of Telstra, refusal to sign Kyoto, WorkChoices, Voluntary Student Unionism and the strongest proponent of nuclear power stations.

For a party of idealists, this move indicates that the Greens will do anything to reach their Holy Grail: a Lower House seat.

Robert Merkel JP at Larvatus Prodeo is quick to criticize the Greens for failing to unequivocally support the Labor party when it comes to preference deals. He and other Labor party supporters are under the strange illusion that the Greens are somehow obliged to preference Labor.

This point of view appears to arise out of one or more of the following assumptions about the Greens:

1. That the Greens somehow form a bloc with Labor, and anything that the Greens do that disadvantages Labor is thus a betrayal of some kind of unwritten coalition agreement.

2. That the Greens as a left wing party are obliged to preference Labor, because they are the “less evil” of the two major parties, and any other course of action would be an endorsement of Liberal policies (the assumption that Merkel JP appears to be operating on).

On the first count, the Greens are fundamentally opposed to both major parties. The Greens do not see themselves as somehow ancillary to another political force. Instead they aim to revolutionize Australian politics, eventually taking power, in order to pursue an agenda that they believe is radically different to the offerings of either major party.

I recommend reading issue 18 of the Green’s internal magazine, entitled “Are the Greens Ready for Government? YES!”, it discusses these very ideas.

The second issue also arises from non-Greens failure to see how the Greens view their role in Australian politics.

Ultimately the Greens reject both major parties, this is their rationale for existing. If they did not reject Labor as well as the Liberal party, surely they would just be another faction?

What the Greens have done in Victoria is split their preferences between both major parties, in effect not referencing either of them. This is not a part endorsement of the Liberals over Labor, but rather a rejection of both major parties.

The Greens do not see themselves as in some kind of alliance with one major party or another, nor do they view one as less evil. I believe The Greens completely reject the current state of the two party system. Both major parties are “the enemy”.

Update: The Victorian Greens have released the following statement in responce to rubbish about a supposed preference deal with the Liberals.

Any suggestion that the Greens are preferencing the Liberals or
Nationals in this state election is entirely false.
The Greens are not recommending to voters to preference the Liberals (or
Nationals) in any seats. The Greens recommend preferencing the ALP in
the vast majority of the marginal seats - and in most other seats. In
some seats, we will leave it to the voters’ choice, by providing a
split ticket that allows them to Vote Green and then preference
whichever major party they choose.

In the Upper House the Greens are preferencing like-minded parties
first, then Labor, then the Conservatives, then the candidates with the
most extremely opposed position to The Greens. By contrast, the ALP has
preferenced the so-called Country Alliance ahead of the Greens. This
Party is essentially a Shooters-and-Loggers Party.

Disclaimer: Kieran is a member of the Australian Greens: ACT, he does not however speak for any part of the Greens party in any way shape or form.

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