Election 2025: Labor ‘must work with Greens to govern’, says Adam Bandt

Adam Bandt says he would be ‘astounded’ if Anthony Albanese refused to do a deal or work co-operatively with the Greens in minority government.

Greens leader Adam Bandt addresses the National Press Club of Australia. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Adam Bandt says he would be “astounded” if Anthony Albanese refused to do a deal or work co-operatively with the Greens in minority government, as the Prime Minister insists he has no influence on how Labor preferences the minor party at the election.

Scrutiny over Labor’s association with the Greens in the next term of parliament ramped up on Wednesday, when Mr Bandt declared at the National Press Club that axing tax breaks for property investors, including negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount, were among his party’s top priorities in a minority government arrangement.

Mr Bandt is on Thursday also expected to announce a new $10bn plan to give renters the right to install solar, paid for by the Commonwealth, while banning land­lords from refusing the installation of panels except in extraordinary circumstances.

Mr Albanese attempted to brush off the Greens’ demands as nothing but Mr Bandt “trying to make himself relevant”. “There’s nothing new about the Greens talking themselves up,” he said.

However, Mr Albanese was not able to rule out preference deals with the Greens at the upcoming election, arguing the decision rested solely with the ALP’s organisational wing and that his own responsibilities were confided to overseeing the parliamentary Labor Party.

“Preference deals … I’ve been asked about it every day … Very clearly those things are a matter for the organisational wing of the party,” Mr Albanese said in Leichardt on Wednesday.

Anthony Albanese on the campaign trail in Queensland. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Asked if he had any bearing on the decisions of the ALP’s organisational division, Mr Albanese shot back: “What I’m responsible for is what the parliamentary party does.”

Pressed again if he had any influence on the party’s decisions, Mr Albanese said Labor was hoping to seek majority in its own right.

“What we do is we will seek to be a majority government,” Mr Albanese added.

“We won’t negotiate with the ground before, during, after the election about those matters.

“I’ve been clear about that for a decade, and I refer you to my previous 324 answers.”

The issue of preferencing is critical for political parties. The flow of Greens’ preferences at the 2022 election flipped seven seats where the Coalition finished with a higher primary vote into Labor victories on the two-party-­preferred vote.

Greens preferences in Boothby, Higgins, Bennelong, Gilmore, Lyons, Robertson and Tangney flowed at a rate of 83 to 90 per cent in Labor’s favour.

The Albanese government won the 2022 election with 77 seats for a majority of just two in the former 151-seat parliament.

Similarly, Labor’s preferences pushed the Greens past the Liberals in the Queensland seats of Brisbane and Ryan after the Liberal candidate finished with a higher primary vote.

Mr Albanese has for months tried to distance himself from the Greens in the face of criticism over Labor preferencing and potentially forming a coalition with the left-wing party, describing the Greens as having an “extreme agenda”, not being “serious players” and lacking relevance.

Other Labor frontbenchers have made similar comments, including Defence Minister Richard Marles who declared in September the Greens were “throwing their lot in with thuggery”, while Wills MP Peter Khalil said the party was a “full blown protest group”.

Mr Albanese has sought to be more definitive on the prospect doing a formal power-sharing deal with the Greens, claiming last week he had promised not to govern in coalition with anyone “385 times”. “I don’t negotiate with the Greens,” he said.

But Mr Bandt said on Wednesday he was “not surprised” by the language from Mr Albanese and other Labor frontbenchers, who had over the last term called the Greens’ policies “just crazy”.

“I expect they’re going to say all sorts of things during the course of the election campaign; none of that surprises me,” Mr Bandt said in his NPC address in Canberra.

“But at the end of the day, the government can’t convince a third of the country to vote for it. The opposition gets a third of the vote and about a third of the country is voting for someone else.”

Mr Bandt said the Prime Minister was “going to have to learn to play well with others” given polls showing the likelihood of a Labor minority government in the next term.

“I would be astounded … if the Prime Minister or anyone else refused to respect the parliament that the Australian people choose,” he said.

“If he can convince 51 per cent of the population to vote for him, then OK. But that’s not what’s happened – that’s not what he did last time.”

On top of the demands for Labor to scrap negative gearing on investment properties and the CGT discount, the Greens are also planning to pressure the party to put dental into Medicare at a cost of more than $16bn a year.

When asked about preferencing a party that had called the Greens “extremists”, Mr Bandt said his top priority was “keeping Dutton out”.

A Labor spokeswoman told The Australian that the party would “have more to say soon about how we will encourage Australians to elect a majority Labor government”.