Berko Bandt is an existential threat to Labor

Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Sometimes it pays to go back in time not just because it offers the benefits of 20-20 hindsight but also to spot a bit of hypocrisy in politics and a pathway to the present where Labor and the Greens are at each other’s throats.

In the wake of an outrageous act of terrorism perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, where 1139 Israelis were killed including 650 civilians, 38 of whom were children, where women were subject to appalling indignities, civilians taken hostage and 6000 missiles launched into Israel, the Greens’ immediate answer was to blame Israel and call for a ceasefire.

The press releases were already coming out thick and fast from green HQ in October last year. It is typically the time of the year where Senator Mehreen Faruqi ­issues her dismal rants on the Melbourne Cup.

“Let’s move with the times and leave behind this barbaric industry,” Faruqi intoned gravely. “The Melbourne Cup thrives on gambling, consumerism and alcoholism, all fuelled by animal cruelty.”

The release was linked to requests for donations on the website. Yes, the Greens, the party of animal justice who aren’t the Animal Justice Party, are for animal rights and are not above making a bit of coin out of the dead ones.

Last month, Greens leader Adam Bandt announced by way of media release the sorrowful story of the death of Max, beloved Bandt family dog. This form of political communique might make sense. A little bit of the sensitivity – something, anything to add to the ­already vexing task of humanising the Greens leader.

The member for Melbourne had reflected on how Max, his running buddy and chief hair shedder – it was unsure who was shedding on whom – left him “thinking about the world my children know … a world with pandemics and climate change, with kids living in tents and babies in rubble … and without Max”.

The email linked to a donation page, where Greens supporters could choose to donate between $25 and $250, plus an option of making monthly contributions. He could have spared us all a little time by getting to the point. My dog is dead. Please send money.

It was a brassy move. And by brassy, I mean cold. Who offers up the carcass of a beloved family pet for a fundraiser?

As with all matters associated with political donations, my advice is don’t encourage them by opening your wallet, lest Bandt’s dead dog drive usher in a new era of political donations, where the good and the great cash in on the death of the family pet, taking old Fido down to the vet for the big sleep whether he was due a needle or not. Ker-ching!

More than a decade ago, the Greens, or at least its NSW branch, was the party of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in Australia which blackballed Max Brenner chocolate shops for no other apparent reason than it was Jewish owned.

Senator Fatima Payman

The popular chocolatier had no attachment to the Israeli government or the IDF but no matter. Back in 2013, the Green-Left Weekly shrieked that if the Max Brenner chocolate stores were truly innocent, “they can easily put an end to protests outside their stores by rebranding their store, handing back the franchise rights, and sending a signal that people of all backgrounds condemn Israel’s crimes”.

So it was no surprise that on October 11, and with a ground war from the IDF more than a month away, Adam Bandt offered no condemnation of Hamas without condemning Israel in the same breath.

“This is a painful time for the Jewish and Palestinian communities in Australia, who must be able to grieve the loss of loved ones and publicly express solidarity for those trying to stay safe back home, and anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks on Australia’s Jewish and Palestinian communities must stop,” Bandt said.

In the House on October 16, Bandt and his three Greens colleagues voted against a motion to condemn Hamas. Elizabeth Watson-Brown, Stephen Bates and Max Chandler-Mather joined Bandt sitting awkwardly on the opposition benches all alone. A week later, the Greens denounced the IDF ground invasion of Gaza, which hadn’t then taken place.

Which brings us circuitously to Labor senator Fatima Payman and the welter of pointless motions the Greens are proposing to isolate her. She was elected thanks to the good graces and the rampant factionalism of the West Australian Labor Party. When all is said and done, she is a senator with fewer than 1200 primary votes to her name. She owes her political career to Labor. But her departure, enforced or voluntary, may come at a big price for Labor while the Greens continue to play politics. The effects could be doubled-edged and potentially existential for the Albanese government.

On Tuesday, Katy Gallagher opined that the hubbub around Payman’s crossing of the floor was “not helpful” in reference to the clear air she would have preferred for the government to sell its tax cuts and assorted budget goodies.

Senator Katy Gallagher.

Privately, harder hearts within Labor are furious about the distraction Payman’s self-exile has caused.

Gallagher’s dismissive sniff is not the sort of public reaction Labor MPs in Western Sydney will enjoy seeing. It was tone deaf to the ominous hubbub in Western Sydney where local independents are eyeing off candidacy in a Teal-style assault on Labor heartland.

The relationship between Labor and the Greens has now stretched to breaking point. Not that it will end the cosy relationship the government enjoys in the Senate in the life of this parliament. But with an election a year away, there is a sense emerging that the cosily-hostile relationships might be fraying to the extent where Labor should start pondering the consequences of preference flows from Greens to Labor not hitting the numerical heights of 2022, while they battle independents and a new threat in their heartlands.