Greens shift focus to contest over economic policy

Greens leader Adam Bandt says the minor party will win more seats by fighting Labor on the economy and cost-of-living.

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

Greens leader Adam Bandt says he is repositioning the Greens as a party that fights just as hard on economic policy as the environment in a bid to win more lower house seats and present a more ­serious challenge to Labor.

With the minor party blocking Labor’s agenda in the upper-house on housing and superannuation policy, Mr Bandt argued the Greens were no longer a party of protest but had evolved to providing a viable alternative to Labor across the policy spectrum.

The Greens drew a fierce attack from Jim Chalmers on Friday after The Australian revealed the party would block Labor’s proposed $2.3bn tax increase on super­annuation balances for wealthy retirees, unless the government immediately added superannuation payments to paid parental leave.

“As leader, I want people to know that the Greens will fight just as hard for them on housing and education and material interests as cost of living as we will on the climate,” Mr Bandt told The Weekend Australian.

“I’ve always been of the view the Greens have a strong alternative economic offering and part of our job is to communicate that.”

The Greens are also pushing to amend Labor’s industrial relations legislation, due to be introduced next week, to include a “right to disconnect” so workers can turn-off their phones, block their bosses’ calls and switch off their emails at the end of the day.

Mr Bandt said there was a growing sense that current policies had failed to address the major challenges facing the nation and also facing workers, warning Australia is experiencing a major political realignment.

“Even people who previously might never have considered ­voting Greens are now doing it,” he said. “It’s a big part why, in Queensland, so many people shifted over to the Greens because they heard us not just fighting on climate but also fighting on issues like the pension and JobSeeker, as well as wages and housing.”

At the last election, the Greens won the electorates of Griffith and Ryan in Brisbane off Labor and the seat of Brisbane from the Liberals. The party now holds a total of four lower house seats including Mr Bandt’s seat of Melbourne.

“My job is to grow the Greens,” Mr Bandt said.

“The Liberals are in terminal decline and becoming increasingly irrelevant. Labor is becoming the nation’s centre right party and the Greens are now Australia’s ­social democratic party.

“Our goal at the moment is to get action on climate and cost of living and to grow the number of Greens in parliament.”

While not lowering the priority attached to climate, Mr Bandt said he was expanding the focus of the Greens beyond the environment and warned Labor is vulnerable in electorates that have large numbers of renters.

Labor was ignoring these voters “at its peril”, he said, with the Greens refusing to pass the government’s $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund unless a national agreement is reached on a two-year freeze on rental increases.

Parliamentary Library analysis for the Greens has revealed the top electorates in the nation with the greatest number of households spending more than 30 per cent of income on rent. Topping the list is the Labor seat of Richmond in NSW (46.8 per cent of households), where the Greens received 25.3 per cent of the primary vote compared to Labor’s 28.8 per cent at the last election.

Responding to the Greens’ threat to block Labor’s $2.3bn tax hike on superannuation balances for wealthy retirees, the Treasurer accused the party of “siding with the Coalition”.

“It’s getting harder to tell the difference between Peter Dutton’s Liberals and the Greens in the Senate,” Dr Chalmers said.

“We’ve made it clear for some time that we intend to act on the super guarantee on PPL when budget circumstances permit – that remains the case and we’ve said so publicly and repeatedly.”