Labor faces turning Green

IF you want to send Australia broke, vote Green. This will be the sad but likely result of changing your vote to the Greens.

Bill Shorten with wife Chloe campaigning in Adelaide. Picture: Kym Smith

IF you want to send Australia broke, vote Green. This will be the sad but likely result of changing your vote to the Greens as a protest against the Turnbull Government, or voting for them because you think they are the same warm, fuzzy, tree-hugging party that once threatened no one.

The reality is that the Greens have good reason to see themselves as a major force in Australian politics, able to influence the decisions and policies of a Labor government in the event of a hung parliament and a formal alliance with Labor.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten denies this will happen, even if it means rejecting power and the prime ministership by refusing to do so. Who would believe he would perform such an act of self-sacrifice if the situation presented itself?

The Greens found themselves taken into an alliance with Labor when Julia Gillard found she needed their support to form minority government.

It proved to be one of the worst governments in modern Australian political history.

Mr Shorten’s answer when the possibility of an alliance with the Greens under the leadership of Senator Richard Di Natale was put to him was: “He’s dreaming.’’

It would be a nightmare for Australians following the release of the Greens’ spending policies showing that a raft of new taxes under a Greens government would cost more than $123 billion over the next four years.

The Greens would tax sugar and carbon emissions and whatever else might strike them as well as putting a levy on the big banks to fund their profligate spending.

Their support would come at a price, just as it did for Julia Gillard.

Ms Gillard declared there would be no carbon tax under a government she would lead. But she was forced to break her word when she entered into a coalition with the Greens with the support of rural independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, who are standing again.

Mr Shorten in minority government would be forced to make similar concessions. The people smugglers’ boats would almost certainly return.

A significant number of Labor MPs are openly critical of the policy pushed through the ALP national conference to turn back the boats.

The Greens would make their demands to break the policy non-negotiable. The people smugglers are already testing Australian waters as their agents in Australia encourage asylum seekers to attempt the voyage.

They are telling prospective asylum seekers that a change of government in Australia is likely and now is the time to beat the rush.

The Greens’ non-policy of allowing all asylum seekers to be processed in Australia would simply open the floodgates.

Adam Bandt, the party’s economics spokesman, which is a term that should be used advisedly, confirms the Greens are eager for a coalition with Labor.

He says it’s time to stop treating debt as a four-letter word, that it’s not whether the Budget is in deficit or surplus that matters, it’s the sustainability and justification for the Budget position.

This remarkable piece of economic advice comes as Australia pays interest of more than a billion dollars a month on mounting debt. Taxing and spending and the return of the people smugglers’ boats are likely to be coalition policy if Labor and the Greens find themselves likely bedfellows.

CULTURE OF VIOLENCE

A DISTURBING culture is emerging in Victoria. It is violent, random and cowardly. Its most alarming aspect is a complete disregard for people’s lives.

Gang violence, when hundreds of youths ran riot through Melbourne streets at the Moomba weekend, caught police unprepared. Social media drew teenagers to join the violence. Many have since appeared in the Children’s Court.

Some have been recruited by the now notorious Apex gang, which has become known for extreme violence and home invasions.

People have woken up to find gang members in their homes, wielding baseball bats and machetes and demanding car keys.

Gang members call it “missioning’’. Missioning now involves carjacking where youths cruise up behind a car of their choice; usually a Mercedes, a BMW or an Audi. The driver bumps the target car and the unsuspecting driver gets out, usually to be assaulted and the car driven off.

State Opposition police spokesman Edward O’Donohue is concerned gang crime is increasing, with carjackings, drive-by shootings and home invasions taking place on an almost daily basis.

He has called for tough new laws to make carjackings and aggravated carjackings separate offences with penalties of 15 and 25 years in jail.

The Herald Sun supports the call for realistic penalties and also a greater understanding by authorities of the underpinning culture.

Innocent members of the public have been seriously injured in these attacks. Someone will eventually be killed. The charge will then be murder.