Anthony Albanese must preference Greens last to show he’s doing all he can about anti-Semitism, Julian Leeser says

Julian Leeser demands Anthony Albanese preference the Greens last at the election, saying it’ll be a test on whether he is ‘serious about doing all he can about anti-Semitism’.

Greens leader Adam Bandt and Anthony Albanese in question time. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Jewish Liberal MP Julian Leeser has campaigned in Adam Bandt’s electorate of Melbourne and called on Anthony Albanese to preference the Greens, who he says are “Hamas rape deniers”, last at the federal election, saying it is a “real test of whether Labor is doing all they can on anti-­Semitism”.

Addressing party faithful at a gathering for the Liberal candidate for Melbourne, Steph Hunt, Mr Leeser attacked the Greens’ “embrace” of anti-Semitism and accused Mr Bandt, the party’s leader, of failing to stand with his Jewish constituents “who have been under great pressure”.

“They (the Greens) state they believe in the equality of women and the safety of women but became rape deniers when it came to Hamas,” Mr Leeser said.

“They claim to be defenders of LGBTIQ people but have signed up with a terror group who seek elimination of LGBTIQ people.

“In modern Greens ideology, Jews are oppressors – in Israel and wherever they are found around the world … The fact is (Mr Bandt’s) party has been ­fuelling the angst against Jewish Australians.”

With the federal election due by May and Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton escalating personal attacks against each other, Mr Leeser said the Prime Minister should join the Opposition Leader and pledge to put the Greens last “if he is really doing all he can on anti-Semitism”.

“I have come to the electorate of the Greens leader Adam Bandt today to say to the Prime Minister that if the Prime Minister is serious about doing all he can about anti-Semitism and if he really regards the Greens as extremists and peddlers of misinformation, then he and his party must put the Greens last in every seat in both houses,” Mr Leeser said.

“You can’t talk a big game on anti-Semitism but then use your preferences to aid and abet the party of anti-Semitism to win seats in our parliament.”

The Prime Minister’s office declined to respond.

A Greens spokeswoman said Mr Bandt and the party had “consistently fought for all of ­Melbourne’s residents and strongly opposed anti-Semitism and Islamophobia”.

“The real reason the Liberals, Advance and Labor are attacking the Greens is that we’re fighting to make big corporations pay tax to fund dental into Medicare, something their corporate backers are freaking out about,” she said.

The Greens’ candidate for the Labor-held seat of Blaxland, Omar Sakr, has criticised “bogus” media reporting of evidence pointing to systematic use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war by Hamas.

Mr Leeser said of the 32 suspensions of standing orders the Greens moved in the House of Representatives and Senate since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, 15 per cent related to the environment compared to nearly half involving the Middle East.

He urged Liberal and progressive voters to put the Greens last to “inoculate Australia from politically inspired anti-Semitism”, noting 30 per cent of Liberal voters (around 5300 people) preferenced the Greens over Labor at the last election despite the party’s how-to-vote card.

“You (Liberal voters) are not helping the Liberal Party or Australia by preferencing the Greens. It’s not tactical voting. It’s enabling the extreme left to spread its poison,” Mr Leeser said.

“If you (progressive voters) want to rid the Left of anti-Semitism and prove it’s a dead-end cul-de-sac, you must put the Greens last. This is the most consequential election in our country’s history, the most consequential election in Melbourne’s history.”

Mr Bandt told The Australian in an end-of-year interview that Labor was “slowly moving” towards the Greens’ position on the Israel-Hamas conflict and had been “forced to admit that we were right all along” on Middle East policy.