Greens’ house of cards in a free-fall

THE NSW Greens are in such disarray candidates are threatening to not support their own party on how-to-vote cards unless upper house MP Jeremy Buckingham is removed over old sexual assault allegations.

THE NSW Greens are in such disarray candidates are threatening to not support their own party on how-to-vote cards unless upper house MP Jeremy Buckingham is removed over old sexual assault allegations.

The chaos could facilitate the election of One Nation into the prized Legislative ­Council spots — where the Greens are already at risk — in a tight preference contest.

Greens candidate for the lower house seat of Summer Hill Tom Raue — who has previously joked bestiality should be legal — has revealed his how-to-vote cards will not encourage voters to vote above the line for the Greens if Mr Buckingham is on the ticket.

The Greens are split over the allegations against Mr Buckingham, which were raised in NSW parliament under privilege by lower house MP Jenny Leong. It was not clear last night how many Greens would follow Mr Raue’s lead, but the outcome could be chaotic for the party’s survival in the upper house.

Mr Raue posted to Facebook: “I won’t vote for Jeremy Buckingham nor recommend anyone else vote for him. My HTVs (how-to-vote cards) won’t encourage people to vote above the line if he is on the ticket”.

The Daily Telegraph put the comments to Greens HQ, with a spokesman saying “I’ve got nothing to add”.

Greens’ upper house MP Jeremy Buckingham.

Federal Greens leader Richard Di Natale has backed Ms Leong’s call for Mr Buckingham to stand down.

Her allegations relate to a 2011 incident involving former staffer Ella Buckland, who says Mr Buckingham touched her inappropriately. Mr Buckingham denies the allegations and has received support from other colleagues including upper house Greens MP Justin Field.

Mr Raue was outed earlier this year for advocating laws to allow humans to have “consensual sex with animals”, before later saying he was just joking. “Consensual sex with an animal should not be illegal, no matter how distasteful it may seem,” Mr Raue wrote in a student newspaper in 2012.

In August he said: “the article is clearly a joke”. The Greens said they were proud to have Mr Raue as a candidate.