Adam Bandt in Greens, ALP power play

Adam Bandt has invited Labor to enter a power-sharing arrangement to ‘kick the Liberals out’ at the next election.

Adam Bandt has invited Labor to enter a power-sharing arrangement with the Greens and independents to “kick the Liberals out’’ at the next election, but revealed the minor party will ­demand a more ambitious approach on climate change.

The Greens leader used ­research from the parliamentary library to argue that Labor’s only chance of forming government, based on the past six months of Newspoll, is to gain the support of the Greens and independents on supply and confidence.

The research, based on a uniform swing in each electorate, predicts Labor would have reached 75 seats on its two best polls this year – one seat short of a majority government.

“The maths just says we are heading towards a power-sharing parliament; (there) is a swing against the government,” Mr Bandt told The Weekend Australian. “It shows Morrison being pushed out of majority government but not enough for Labor to win in its own right.”

Mr Bandt said the Greens’ policy demands on a minority Labor government would be based on the principles it took to the next election including: achieving a net-zero emissions target by 2035, 15 years ahead of the international benchmark of 2050; a ban on coal from 2030; a 6 per cent wealth tax on the rich; and a “super profit tax” for companies with a turnover of more than $100m a year.

He said a Labor-Greens alliance would make an Albanese government more progressive and limit the influence of outspoken Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon, who is pushing the party to be more supportive of the coal and gas sectors.

Anthony Albanese told The Weekend Australian he would not be forming a coalition with the Greens, saying Labor would win a majority of seats at the next election. “Labor will govern in our own right,” Mr Albanese said. “The only coalition is the dysfunctional rabble we have seen on display this week.”

Mr Bandt said parliament this week showed the most stable government would be one where power was shared between Labor, the Greens and the crossbench, rather than the “chaos” of the formal Coalition between the Liberals and Nationals.

While the Barnaby Joyce-led Nationals this week caused havoc for the Liberals on water policy, Labor, the Greens and ­the ­independents used the Senate to block key parts of the government’s climate change agenda.

This included a vote that expunged a government regulation to broaden the remit of the renewable energy agency that would have allowed it to invest in carbon-capture and storage, ­hydrogen and electric car charging stations.

The upper house also referred legislation that would help open up gas in the Beetaloo basin to a Senate inquiry, delaying public investment in the project until the final report is due in March 2022.

Mr Bandt said the power sharing deal Julia Gillard and Bob Brown struck in 2010 provided good outcomes for Australians. In this deal, the Greens secured Labor’s support for a fixed price on carbon, which Ms Gillard ­fatally called a “carbon tax”.

“A power-sharing parliament created ARENA and a power-sharing Senate saved it,” Mr Bandt said. “What this week shows is that Liberals and Nationals working together is chaos. But the Senate shows that there’s the capacity to work together across the political spectrum, amongst the non-conservative parties.”

“If there is a power-sharing parliament, which there is likely to be, that would give us the chance to kick the Liberals out and push the next government to go further and faster on climate change and to make the big ­corporations pay their fair share of tax.”

Mr Fitzgibbon called for a Greens-Labor divorce, “not a vote-destroying marriage”.

“The biggest barrier to Labor winning the seats it needs in ­regional Australia and the outer suburbs is the perception we are in bed with the Greens,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

“It’s a view seeded in the deal Labor struck with them in 2010 to form a Labor government and one further entrenched by Labor’s serial failure to follow its own formal support for blue-­collar and hi-vis workers in traditional industries.

“I remind those who can count that 33 per cent plus 10 per cent of the primary vote equals 43 per cent of the vote. That is not an election-winning formula.”

The Greens have nine target seats that include the Labor-held electorates of Richmond, Griffith and Macnamara, and the Liberal-held seats of Ryan and Brisbane.

Mr Bandt said it was not his aim to form a formal coalition with Labor that would require a Greens MP or senator to join the ministry, similar to the arrangements in the ACT.

“The ACT arrangement is a success story … It is delivering for the ACT and it is a stable and ­effective and progressive government,” Mr Bandt said. “Is that an approach that we necessarily think will work federally? Well that is not what we are saying.”

Mr Bandt said the Greens’ climate policies, which include a 2030 emissions reduction target of 75 per cent, were now in line with the other G7 nations.

The G7 nations have agreed to reduce emissions collectively by 50 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.

Mr Bandt accused Mr Albanese of letting Scott Morrison “off the hook” on climate given growing international pressure for action. “The Greens are trying our hardest to hold the Liberals to account on climate and Labor, driven by Joel Fitzgibbon, are letting him off the hook,” Mr Bandt said. “So Joel Fitzgibbon, and Labor’s silent treatment on 2030 targets … just help Scott Morrison.”

Reflecting on the political failures of the so-called carbon tax, which the Abbott government revoked, Mr Bandt said the collective sales pitch of the policy was wrong. “One thing that I think we all collectively in that 2010 parliament could have done better was, after getting the reform, continuing to talk about how urgent it was to tackle the climate crisis. And, instead, the government’s advertising became about cost of living. And that just helped Tony Abbott.”