As an independent candidate in last weekend’s by-election in Prahran, I played a pivotal role in wresting the Victorian seat from the Greens by directing Labor voters to preference the Liberals over the Greens.
This isn’t just me blowing my own trumpet: no less than Greens leader Adam Bandt and the party’s Victorian head, Ellen Sandell, attributed the party’s loss to my how-to-vote card. It is an accusation I wear with pride.
The ramifications of the Prahran by-election will be felt nationwide. I hope my actions will prod the Albanese government to rethink its unholy preference alliance with the Greens at the election.
The Labor Party had refused to run a candidate in the Prahran by-election. I felt this was cowardly, left many voters effectively disenfranchised and would gift the seat back to the Greens. That was something I just couldn’t stomach. As the former Labor MP for Prahran, I had the local knowledge and profile to draw a significant vote. I quit the party and ran as an independent. I ran on the traditional Labor policies of health, education and tackling crime. I made clear my aim was to stop the Greens winning and that I would recommend voters put the Greens last. My preferences would be directed to the Liberals.
The reason for putting the Greens last was because they have become an extremist party. They are hardly the environmentalists of old. They are obsessed with identity politics, absurd economic theories and virtue-signalling. (They also suffer from a deficit of irony – how else to explain their spruiking 50c public transport fares in well-heeled South Yarra?)
Worst of all, they’ve exploited the Middle East conflict for their own purposes, stoked anti-Semitism and promoted division.
One of their voters exposed the anti-Semitic hatred blatantly, when he said at a polling booth he would not vote for me because my wife is Jewish and “the Jews all support Netanyahu”. I doubt he became an anti-Semite recently, but he wouldn’t have felt emboldened enough to broadcast it until now.
Some people said asking Labor voters to preference the Liberals was a big ask or a step too far. My response was that a mainstream party is a far better option than the Greens.
I told voters we need to end the division, that Victoria doesn’t have a foreign policy and the ongoing protests and disruption caused by the pro-Hamas movement, and supported by the Greens, must stop.
The Liberals and Greens were tied on 36.2 per cent of the primary vote. By receiving around 15 per cent of the vote after all the postals are counted, and with 70 per cent of my preferences going to the Liberals, my votes indeed made the difference in the Liberals winning the seat.
Labor should follow my example in the forthcoming federal election and put the Greens last. And they should be forceful in explaining to their voters why they are doing so.
Australians are crying out for leadership, vision and character. Talking about the need for social cohesion amid an anti-Semitism crisis just doesn’t cut it when you’re the government. Taking a stand on principle and matching words with action is what political leaders must do.
Combining with the Liberals to put the Greens last would be analogous to the way both major parties treated One Nation in the 1990s, effectively sidelining it as a national force. It took courage and was in the national interest.
Associating too closely with the Greens damages Labor’s standing with middle Australia. There’s a reason Labor’s primary vote is so low, and the prospect of a minority Labor government dependent on the Greens, let alone in coalition with them, is a nightmare that will stop many people voting Labor around the country.
Putting the Greens last could end that Liberal campaign line.
The Labor hierarchy must understand Greens voters are unlikely to preference the Liberals over Labor in government-held marginal seats. And in the seats of Melbourne, Brisbane, Ryan and Griffith, held by the Greens, the combined Labor and Liberal vote could unseat the incumbents.
On 2022 figures, Labor has prospects of winning Melbourne and Brisbane, the Liberals would be favoured in Ryan, and Griffith would be a toss-up between them.
So long as both major parties put the Greens last and explain why they did, this outcome is achievable.
What Australia desperately needs is two mainstream parties, one on the centre-left and the other on the centre-right, vying for our support to form a majority government. We don’t want any fringe parties exerting control over government. I hope the message from Prahran will encourage the Labor Party to have this long overdue debate.
Tony Lupton was Labor member for Prahran in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 2002-10.
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