Federal election 2016: Greens put high price on power

Bill Shorten would face a number of Green demands for power-sharing negotiations if there is a hung parliament.

Bill Shorten has ruled out a deal with the Greens. Picture: Kym Smith

Bill Shorten would face demands to abandon Labor’s asylum-­seeker policy, ban new coalmines and increase taxes on miners by at least $2 billion a year under Greens conditions for power-sharing negotiations if the election produces a hung parliament.

Greens leader Richard Di ­Natale dismissed the Opposition Leader’s repeated declarations that Labor would not negotiate with the minor party in a hung parliament, bluntly saying he did not believe the ALP would give up the chance to form government.

But campaigning on the NSW north coast yesterday, Mr Shorten again ruled out a deal with the Greens after last week saying its MP Adam Bandt was “dreaming’’ if he thought there would be a deal.

Citing previous deals between Labor and Greens, including the Julia Gillard-Bob Brown alliance in 2013 and the 2010 agreement in Tasmania where state Greens leader Nick McKim was included in the cabinet, Senator Di Natale said: “I don’t buy it. I simply don’t buy it.

“Can you imagine Bill Shorten with the prospect of either ­assuming government in ­a responsible, power-sharing ­arrangement, or taking Australia to another election? I don’t think he’ll do it,’’ he told Sky News’s Australian Agenda.

With 47 days until the July 2 election, Senator Di Natale outlined the terms the Greens would set for any negotiation, saying they must include “strong action on global warming. With that comes an end to new coalmines”.

The Greens would demand an end to miners’ access to the fuel tax credit scheme, which is worth $2.2bn to the industry and the party claims are “fossil fuel subsidies’’, political donation reform; and a national anti-corruption watchdog.

He emphasised the Greens would insist on Labor agreeing to changes to asylum-seeker policy.

“We want more decent and compassionate treatment towards innocent people seeking refuge and asylum. And this idea that it’s one extreme or the other, it’s either stopping the boats and inflicting that cruelty and brutality on innocent people, or opening the floodgates, that’s a nonsense,’’ Senator Di Natale said.

Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek said Labor would ­“continue to make sure that the boats don’t restart, that we’re not putting people-smugglers back into business, because they are wicked people who take advantage of desperate people from around the world’’.

But she said “letting people face indefinite detention on Manus Island and Nauru is not something we ever contemplated when we set up these centres’’.

Labor’s campaign has suffered internal turbulence as its candidates have either questioned the turnbacks policy adopted at last year’s national conference or previously protested against the government’s policies.

With polls putting the government and Labor neck and neck, a hung parliament remains a possibility.

Three sitting independents are recontesting their seats, former crossbencher Tony Windsor is attempting a comeback in New England, and the Greens are trying to build on Mr Bandt’s foothold in Melbourne.

The party is attacking Labor seats such as Batman and Wills in Victoria and Grayndler and Sydney in NSW.

In Grayndler today, the Greens will move to wedge Labor by promising to legislate to protect weekend penalty rates rather than the opposition’s policy of allowing the Fair Work Commission to decide the issue.

Mr Bandt, the party’s industrial relations spokesman, will campaign with the Greens’ candidate for Grayndler, Jim Casey, urging Labor to back the Greens’ bill to maintain weekend penalty rates rather than accept the commission’s ruling.

Mr Bandt will argue the issue shows Labor’s propensity “to vote with the Liberals on key issues’’. He said Labor talked tough on penalty rates “but will not do anything to protect weekend rates should they be cut’’.

In Victoria, the Greens will today target the seat of Melbourne Ports, held by longstanding Labor MP Michael Danby with Senator Di Natale appearing with its candidate Steph Hodgins-May in St Kilda.

Senator Di Natale indicated the Greens would not deal with the Liberals on power-sharing in the event of a hung parliament.

He said there would have to be a “road to Damascus’’ conversion by the Coalition on key issues.

“You’ve got a government that has been the only government in the world to repeal strong laws on tackling global warming. You’ve got a government that is being condemned by human rights organisations for their cruel and brutal treatment towards innocent people seeking asylum,’’ he said. “You’ve got a government that is taking massive corporate donations, and continues to prop up the fossil fuel lobby.’’

Senator Di Natale said the vote for independents and Greens had been growing.

“You’ll see both sides of politics, after the election, talk to the Greens and independents, and hopefully what we end up then with is an outcome where we get a multiparty government, which, as I’ve said on a number of occasions, will be the future for Australia,’’ he said.

Senator Di Natale described as “nonsense’’ the notion that Ms Gillard’s deal with the Greens was political poison.

“It was the turmoil and the chaos and internal division between the Rudd and Gillard forces. That was effectively what brought down what was a period of government that produced some terrific outcomes,’’ Senator Di Natale said.