Election 2025: Anthony Albanese’s preference for Israel-hating radical

Anthony Albanese and almost all of the Labor frontbench have given their second preferences to the anti-Israel Greens despite multiple accusations of anti-Semitism against them.

Clockwise from top left, Anthony Albanese’s how-to-vote card; Hannah Thomas, the Greens candidate for Grayndler at a protest; and the Prime Minister on Tuesday. Picture: Aaron Francis/NewsWire

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Anthony Albanese is directing supporters in his seat of Grayndler to give their second votes to a Greens candidate who claims ­Israel is guilty of genocide and ­demands the Prime Minister blacklist the Jewish state and expel its ambassador.

As almost all of Labor’s frontbench get into preference deals with the anti-Israel party, Mr ­Albanese has put Greens candidate Hannah Thomas as his ­number two recommendation to voters without identifying which party she represents on his how-to-vote card.

The preference swap comes ­despite Mr Albanese’s own claims that the Greens are spreading misinformation on the Israel-Hamas war and that he will not be ­negotiating with them in a hung parliament.

The nation’s peak Jewish body on Tuesday criticised Mr Albanese’s preference stance, saying he was “uplifting and rewarding” the political extremists in the Greens with his voting recommendation.

And after five days of silence on his vote-swapping deal with the Greens in his safe outer-Melbourne seat of Isaacs, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus on Tuesday repeatedly told The Australian that the how-to-vote cards he was giving out to voters at pre-poll stations at the time were “a matter for the party”.

Almost every other member of the Albanese ministry with publicly disclosed how-to-vote cards – from Jim Chalmers and Richard Marles down to assistant ministers and “special envoys” – have also directed voters to give the Greens their number two preferences.

The two exceptions are ­Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy, who has given his second preference in the NSW central coast seat of Shortland to an independent, and special envoy for ­social cohesion Peter Khalil, who is facing a tense battle with the Greens to hold on to the Wills electorate.

Anthony Albanese leaves St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne after the death of the Pope. Picture: Aaron Francis/NewsWire

Mr Albanese’s own Greens challenger, Ms Thomas, has said to vote for the Greens is to “vote with Palestine”, that the Albanese government is complicit in “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, and that it should help the International Criminal Court lock up Israel’s democratically elected leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The Prime Minister could ­absolutely make a difference … He could sanction Israel, he could ­enforce the IC (sic) ruling, he could expel the Israeli ambassador, he could stop military trade, he could recognise Palestine,” she told a Sydney anti-Israel rally in March.

Labor’s state secretaries, federal campaign headquarters and Mr Albanese’s office did not respond to questions on his preferences, the scores of other pro-Greens vote-swapping deals, and why the Melbourne seats of Wills and Macnamara – where the Greens have been put third and Labor is running an open ticket respectively – were considered exceptions.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin told The Australian that it was “profoundly disturbing” that Mr Albanese was directing second preferences to a party and a candidate that had accused him personally of genocide.

Mr Albanese’s how-to-vote card for the seat of Grayndler.

“When the Prime Minister approves any sort of deal with such a party and tells voters in his seat to put the candidate second, it tells the country that the Greens are legitimate and one can do deals with political extremists,” he said on Tuesday. “The Prime Minister should be excoriating them for libelling our community and his own government, not uplifting and rewarding them.”

Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said: “We implore both major parties to place all candidates involved in extremist anti-Israel agitation or fomenting hatred against Jews at the bottom of their preference lists and to do so in all seats without exception.”

As Labor candidates across the nation manned booths on the first day of voting, Mr Dreyfus was campaigning outside the Mordialloc scouts hall in his safe Labor-held seat of Isaacs and gave out how-to-vote cards which encouraged voters to place Greens candidate Matthew Kirwan second on their ballot papers.

When questioned by The Australian about Labor’s controversial vote swapping deal with the Greens, Mr Dreyfus repeatedly said it was a “matter for the party”.

“That’s a matter for the party and I’m going to keep giving you that answer because I’m here handing out how-to-vote cards,” he said.

Mr Dreyfus has faced a formal letter of complaint over his vote-swapping deal with the Greens from the ECAJ, who questioned how an eminent Jewish Australian such as Mr Dreyfus could preference the anti-Israel party. 

Mr Albanese’s endorsement of Ms Thomas as the people of Grayndler’s second-best choice as an MP behind himself comes despite the Labor leader saying the Greens’ stance on Israel has been “appalling” and that Palestine cannot be recognised as its own state until it is guaranteed Hamas will play no role in it.

In June 2024 Mr Albanese attacked the party he is now giving preferences to and its deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi for failing to condemn Hamas and its suggestion there should no longer be an Israeli state separate from a future Palestinian one.

“The Greens position on this (Israel) has been appalling … (Senator Faruqi) couldn’t answer whether Hamas should play an ongoing role, whether it should be dismantled,” he said.

“She had the statement that said, she had the statement that Palestinians should self-determine what happens in the region. It was unclear whether that meant, you know, one state from the Jordan River to the sea and what the implications of that were for Israel’s right to exist.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus campaigning outside early voting centres in the seat of Isaacs. Picture: Nadir Kinani

“Some of the misinformation that has been perpetrated by the Greens, for example, about defence issues is simply wrong. That’s bad, but what’s really bad is that they know that it’s wrong. They know that it’s wrong and they continue to spread it.”

A Greens spokesman did not answer questions if Labor had approached Ms Thomas about Mr Albanese putting her as his second preference.

“This election we want to keep Dutton out … That’s why we’ve preferenced Labor above the Coalition in every seat across the country,” the spokesman said.

Ms Thomas has put the Prime Minister third on her preferences.

The Australian revealed last week that Mr Dreyfus had given his second preference in his safe seat of Isaacs to a Greens candidate who backs the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network and protested outside cabinet colleague Clare O’Neil’s office.

That was despite Mr Dreyfus – Labor’s most senior Jewish MP – staring down legal threats from the Greens over his claims they were encouraging violence outside MPs offices and attacked them for failing to condemn terror group Hamas.

MPs traditionally do get some say in preference deals and Labor’s MP in the inner-south Melbourne seat of Macnamara, Josh Burns, is running an open ticket and denying Greens preferences after rising fears among his electorate’s significant Jewish population.