Little wonder the government is so keen to attack the Greens for “throwing their lot in with thuggery” and criminality after the Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather spoke at a CFMEU rally in Brisbane on Tuesday.

It’s not just that the Greens housing spokesman has proved irritatingly effective in leveraging the frustration of a younger generation feeling locked out of the housing market. Nor that the Greens have been steadily gaining ground in progressive inner city seats that used to be a lock for Labor.