Albanese rules out power-sharing deal with Greens

Anthony Albanese has given a categorical response when pressed on suggestions Labor could strike a power-sharing deal with the Greens.

Anthony Albanese has categorically ruled out a power-sharing arrangement with the Greens if Labor does not win enough seats to govern outright.

Greens leader Adam Bandt had offered to make a deal with Labor after the next election, arguing the opposition could not win government without the support of minor parties.

But Labor leader Anthony Albanese has dismissed the intervention as an attempt to “get some attention”.

When pressed on whether Labor would ever agree to share power with the Greens, Mr Albanese replied with a succinct “no”.

Former prime minister Julia Gillard in 2010 struck a deal with then Greens leader Bob Brown to form government after failing to secure a majority.

Mr Albanese was a minister in that government and said the deal stopped Tony Abbott being installed as prime minister at that election.

Anthony Albanese has ruled out a power-sharing deal with the Greens. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Adam Bandt says Labor is unlikely to win an outright majority. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

But the Labor leader insisted he was opposed to power-sharing on principle.

“Labor should govern in our own right. We’re a party of government, and we’re not a party of a coalition with Bob Katter, or with Helen Haines, or with Zali Steggall, or any of the other single people who are there in the parliament.”

Divisions in the federal government have been heightened by the return of Barnaby Joyce as Deputy Prime Minister, as emboldened Nationals push back against the Prime Minister’s stated aim to reach net zero as quickly as possible.

Labor has pledged to reach net zero by 2050, but has not committed to a mid-range target.

The Greens have called for a 75 per cent emissions reduction by 2030, and Mr Bandt said the party would insist on ambitious climate policy to form government.

“If there is a power-sharing parliament, which there is likely to be, that would give us the chance to kick the Liberals out and push the next government to go further and faster on climate change,” he told The Weekend Australian.

Mr Bandt clarified he would not necessarily seek cabinet roles for Greens MPs, as seen in the ACT’s power-sharing arrangement.

Climate change became a vexed issue under the last power-sharing arrangement, after Ms Gillard signed off on a carbon tax despite ruling out the policy during the campaign.