Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and a sorry tale of the Greens

It beggars belief that, of all people, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, the most prominent Jewish member of Anthony Albanese’s government, has decided to preference the Palestine-supporting, rabidly anti-Israel Greens in his electorate of Isaacs in the May 3 election.

Alex Ryvchin, leader of peak Jewish body the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, is far from alone in wondering, as he did on Friday: “How could Mr Dreyfus do it?” Mr Dreyfus needs to explain himself, not just to his fellow Jews and constituents, but to the country.

He could have followed the lead of Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns, who ­revealed he would not direct voters in the Melbourne seat of Macnamara to give any preferences to the minor party. Mr Burns’s how-to-vote card will not encourage voters to preference any other party, a departure from any state and national preferencing arrangements.

In directing voters, on his how-to-vote cards, to put Greens candidate Matthew Kirwan No. 2, Mr Dreyfus, it seems, is untroubled by his opponent’s regular attendance at anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests. But he has made a point of not putting Mr Kirwan’s party affiliation on the how-to-vote card.

Mr Dreyfus has no business seeking electoral help (which, with a comfortable 9.5 per cent margin, he probably does not need) from a party with the record the Greens have for mindless anti-Semitism and hostility to Israel. The Attorney-General’s deal also makes it clear that in the event of a hung parliament all Mr Albanese’s assurances about no deal with the Greens would likely count for nothing.

The ALP-Greens preference issue highlights the difference between the two major parties on Israel. It is further highlighted by Peter Dutton’s decision that, unlike Labor, a Coalition government would be happy to welcome Benjamin Netanyahu to Australia in defiance of the absurd International Criminal Court demand for his arrest.

Not that the Coalition can claim a clear conscience on the preference issue. As we report on Monday, the Coalition has directed its voters to preference One Nation second in a number of must-win seats. In Mr Dutton’s home state of Queensland, the Coalition has put One Nation second in 18 of the state’s 30 seats.

The move marks the biggest departure from the Coalition’s ­decades-long reticence to preference Pauline Hanson’s party after John Howard issued an edict in 2001 that One ­Nation should be “placed last on every Liberal Party how-to-vote card around Australia”. In doing so it has surrendered the high moral ground on the issue.