Adam Bandt shared policy plan could be fatal for Labor

Greens leader Adam Bandt. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Adam Bandt’s new vision for the Greens is a power (sharing) grab aimed at Labor which has a fatal attraction.

An attraction, that is, which could prove fatal for the ALP.

The current Greens leader’s plan to offer support for a minority Labor government is reminiscent of Bob Brown’s vision, exactly 10 years ago, for the Australian Greens to supplant the ALP as one of Australia’s mainstream political parties. But this vision is more sophisticated and realistic.

It is also far deadlier for Labor because Bandt’s idea is less ambitious but more seductive.

Instead of seeking to replace the ALP as a mainstream party, as the Greens’ founder suggested when the Greens held the balance of power in both the Senate and House of Representatives, Bandt is offering Labor voters the comfort of political and parliamentary stability while casting a progressive vote.

The same holds true for small l Liberals and independents wary of voting Green. But ALP voters seduced into voting Green are a greater threat to Labor-held seats in the inner city areas than Liberals voting Green are to Liberal MPs.

Bandt is not seeking a Coalition in a Labor-Green government or even as much as a cabinet seat in a Greens-backed Labor government, as Greens have overseas and in Tasmania and the ACT.

The Greens are trying not to frighten the horses by just offering “stability” in return for a shared influence on policy.

For Bandt this is a reassuring positive to take to an election and gives Greens candidates maximum freedom on policy during a campaign.

But the mere existence of a Greens offer to Labor, apart from real danger of draining Labor votes in ALP electorates, is politically deadly for a Labor Party which is already losing votes to the Greens on the left and to the Coalition and One Nation on the right.

What’s more, Bandt’s offer comes at no cost to the Greens: this is not a symbiotic political proposal. It is parasitic because it has the potential to accelerate Labor losses to the Greens.

It is also an empty offer to support a minority Labor government because when given the opportunity, as Brown and Bandt were in 2010, they have supported Labor.

It was Brown’s demand then for a carbon tax which Julia Gillard accepted which essentially cost her the leadership and Labor government. This is a smart Greens vision with big advantages for Bandt, but for Labor it’s all losses.