One thing Anthony Albanese could do to rule out a deal with the Greens

If Prime minister Anthony Albanese really wanted to convince us he’s serious about refusing to deal with the Greens there’s something he could do, argues James Campbell.

When the Prime Minister says “I don’t negotiate with the Greens” as he did on Monday we need to understand he is not speaking literally.

Because as anyone who has lived through the past three years knows if he needs Green votes to get his legislation through the Senate he’ll do deals with them.

What he really means when he says this is “don’t worry Labor voters, I won’t be doing any deals with the Greens to stay in office even if I need their votes”.

You can believe that if you want to, it’s a free country after all.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the campaign trail in South Australia. Picture: Jason Edwards

But it’s hard not to suspect that when the chips are down after the election a blanket refusal to deal with the left wing insurgents is more than likely to morph into a promise not to allow the Greens to dictate the terms under which they will permit him to keep living in The Lodge.

Larissa Waters, Adam Bandt, Max Chandler-Mather, Elizabeth Watson-Brown and Stephen Bates. Greens rally to keep Dutton out in South Brisbane.. Picture: John Gass.

If he really wanted to convince us he’s serious about refusing to deal with the Greens there’s something he could do: order the ALP’s National Executive, a body he controls, to direct state Labor branches to put the Liberals ahead of them on its how-to-vote cards.

We’re entitled to draw our own conclusions from the fact he isn’t doing this but is instead hiding behind the fiction that it is these state branches who decide these things.

Which incidentally is an excuse no Labor leader has ever accepted from any conservative leader who was trying to duck and weave over preferencing Pauline Hanson.

Originally published as One thing Anthony Albanese could do to rule out a deal with the Greens