BBJoey posted:

I still have yet to see literally any evidence that this is true

quote:

Election 2016: Greens' dummy spit over preferences as unedifying as it is hypocritical


Greens leader Richard Di Natale's dummy spit over Liberal preferences flowing to Labor was as unedifying as it was hypocritical.

And it proved that when you scratch the surface, the Greens can be just like the major political parties.

Yes, Senator Di Natale was right to say that the Liberals putting Labor ahead of his party was always the most likely outcome.

And yes, it's understandable the Greens leader – who has taken a few knocks this campaign as personal scrutiny has rightly increased – is disappointed with the decision because it will set his party back.

For example, the Greens' only lower house MP, Adam Bandt, picked up the seat of Melbourne at the 2010 federal election because he received Liberal preferences.

In 2013, the Greens would have picked up the seat of Batman if that arrangement had held and it will now be much tougher for the Greens to dislodge the accident prone Labor MP David Feeney.

In Wills, Grayndler and Sydney, Greens hopes are just about dashed.

But that's about as far as it goes.

The Liberal Party's decision to back Labor in the inner city has three dividends for Malcolm Turnbull; it allows the Prime Minster to take a "principled" stand against the "extreme" Greens; it allows him to wedge Labor, who cannot and will not put the Liberals ahead of the Greens in every electorate; and, it will please the Coalition's conservative base.

For Labor, it likely means it will hold its shaky inner city seats – at least for another term – and that the ALP can switch focus to Labor-Liberal contests.

Labor has already said it will back Liberals ahead of the Nationals in three three-cornered contests as a quid pro quo, and it may go further and back the Liberals ahead of Nick Xenophon candidates in South Australia, too – saving Jamie Briggs and even perhaps Christopher Pyne.

Deal making is alive and well in politics

Deal making is alive and well in politics. For Senator Di Natale to pretend otherwise – he claimed he had had "no discussions with the Liberal Party" and "no discussion with the Labor Party about preferences" – defies credibility.

Mr Bandt claimed, incredibly, that "this is the day that Labor sold their soul".

Sadly, he did not clarify whether he had sold his soul in 2010 when elected by the Liberal preferences he railed against on Sunday.

Senator Di Natale's claim is the political equivalent of a bait-and-switch; of course he hasn't been in those preference discussions.

That's what the party machine men and women who negotiate these complex preference deals do. And yes, the Greens get down and dirty like everyone else.

In fact, the Greens believed they had a good chance of winning Liberal preferences in their target inner-city seats – in exchange for damaging the ALP by running open preference tickets in the outer suburbs to boost the Liberals – as recently as last Wednesday.

In reality, Senator Di Natale's sad Sunday jeremiad was an exercise in hypocrisy; the Greens leader condemned a deal that just days earlier his party had hoped to break their way, not Labor's.

Oh, and it's still very likely that Labor and the Greens will, in the end, preference each other in the Senate in the hope of boosting the number of progressive voices.

Will Senator Di Natale condemn his own party for doing that deal with Labor, if that's how the cards fall in the Senate?

Don't hold you breath.

ewe2 posted:

Dun dun dunnnn




And just to underline that, Labor is preferencing Libs over Nats which is a quid pro quo for the Greens preferencing. So much for the Coalition when Libs are threatened, hey.

ewe2 posted:

I'm wondering when we'll start getting those mailbox stuffers from the ALP and the Libs, maybe this week if the Greens have already started.

Cleretic posted:

I already got a flyer from Danby. As well as an earlier one vilifying Turnbull, I guess back before Danby decided that the left was his real enemy.

Anidav posted:

FRESH from being dumped by the Australian Defence Force, Canning MP Andrew Hastie has been exposed breaching parliamentary rules by failing to declare an $870,000 house he bought in March.

DancingShade posted:

Also gently caress preferencing and all that bullshit. I number every single relevant box because gently caress your backroom deals.

Anidav posted:

Chicken Parmigiana posted:

Quantum Mechanic posted:

lol at James Massola's latest screed, dude has legit been trying so hard to try and find something to stick to the Greens this election cycle

Starshark posted:

Van Badham on fb took a swing at them too. Then I saw a post where she gave a speech about Australia's horrible refugee policy.

Starshark posted:

Van Badham on fb took a swing at them too. Then I saw a post where she gave a speech about Australia's horrible refugee policy.

Chicken Parmigiana posted:

MysticalMachineGun posted:

CP you better put these on imgur or something so they can be shared far and wide. I don't want to hotlink it and have your domain get hammered.

AgentF posted:

What's the theory here? If your vote is exhausted before it reaches the right-wingers then doesn't it mean that the non-right wingers have lost anyway and been eliminated? In that case, wouldn't you want your vote to go to the least horrible right-winger?

Lid posted:

Ummmm... change places?

EXCLUSIVE

Labor will preference the Greens ahead of the Liberals across the country and is considering a deal with Nick Xenophon, which could see the Independent Senator pick up three Liberal seats in South Australia and possibly even Cabinet Minister Christopher Pyne's seat of Sturt.

drunkill posted:

And just like that the NBN is dead.

Good job Murdoch, you won.
E: labor to continue HFC rollout, rip fiber (except for a few extra places but not many)

drunkill posted:

And just like that the NBN is dead.

Good job Murdoch, you won.
E: labor to continue HFC rollout, rip fiber (except for a few extra places but not many)

ScreamingLlama posted:

I found a leaflet issued by the MUA and AIMEU ragging on Barnaby. They drew him as a donkey and added the slogan "Give Him The Arse - Put Barnaby Last".

Nice to see some unions still care.