ALP 'must stem' the greenslide

LABOR elder statesman John Faulkner has warned his parliamentary colleagues in the party's Left they must confront the growth of the Greens.

LABOR elder statesman John Faulkner has warned his parliamentary colleagues in the party's Left they must confront the growth of the Greens and convince voters of why Labor deserves their support.

Senator Faulkner said the party was facing a "growing electoral force" in the Greens that could not be ignored. He told a meeting of Labor's Left-faction MPs this week that existing evidence indicated the Greens were growing as an electoral force. It was "silly" to overlook this and Labor needed to put its case "strongly to the electorate".

His comments came after left-winger and Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese reminded the MPs the Left faction had won many battles over the past 10 years, including the winding back of industrial relations laws and the national apology to the Stolen Generations.

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet told the meeting divisions did not help the party.

The Greens have been stripping votes away from Labor in key seats where progressive voters feel Labor has abandoned socially progressive ideas, including gay marriage and refugee policy.

The Greens now threaten about five inner-city seats where they have won more primary votes than the Liberals. It is the same dynamic that existed in the seat of Melbourne where Greens MP Adam Bandt won at the federal election in August.

Senior Labor sources in the Left told The Australian yesterday the key to overcoming the drift was to change policies that were alienating voters. It is understood the party's left wing will agitate to overturn Labor's opposition to gay marriage at the party's national conference next June. One source said a compromise position could be reached where a conscience vote might be allowed. But another senior Labor source said she would resist a compromise deal on a conscience vote because it would lead to the potential defeat of pro gay marriage laws. She said the party must be bound to a "progressive position".

Meanwhile, former prime minister John Howard warned yesterday that the rise of the Australian Greens as a new political force needs to be taken seriously by both major parties. He said the Greens' recent vote boost was overwhelmingly due to Labor's ditching of an emissions trading scheme and its stance on asylum-seekers.

"I think the real watershed moment was when Mr (Kevin) Rudd decided to put off the ETS. I think it cost his party 3 or 4 per cent which went to the Greens."

Mr Howard effectively backed the Liberal Party giving preferences to Labor ahead of the Greens in the future. "Hawke and Keating statements on economic policy have been closer to mine than the Greens."

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