‘Preference the Greens last’, former Labor minister Mike Kelly tells MPs

Mike Kelly has urged Labor MPs to ‘take a hard look’ at Greens candidates pushing anti-Israel messages and tell their constituents to preference the minor party last.

Former Labor MP Mike Kelly. Picture: AAP

Former federal Labor minister Mike Kelly has urged government MPs to “take a hard look” at Greens candidates pushing anti-Israel messages and tell their constituents to preference the minor party last or just “not vote for them” on the senate ballot paper.

Dr Kelly’s intervention follows Greens leader Adam Bandt declaring last month that in any future minority parliament, the Greens would “use every lever at our disposal to push for an end to the invasion of Gaza and the occupation of Palestine, as well as for Australia to recognise the state of Palestine”.

In response, Peter Dutton and other senior Liberals demanded Labor rule out relying on the Greens in minority government and commit to putting them last on how-to-vote tickets.

Dr Kelly, a senior army officer and co-convener Labor Friends of Israel, said that in all his time in politics between 2007 and 2020, he had never been so shocked by the behaviour of the Greens. He alleged they were using the Israel-Palestine conflict for political gain and stoking community division. “If there was a Greens candidate in (my former seat of) Eden-Monaro who was taking this line, I would call it out, and I would recommend people put the Greens vote last on the ballot paper, or not vote for them (in the senate),” he told The Australian.

“Just vote as far as you’re required to, and no further.”

While the Greens’ slate of federal candidates remains light – only nine non-sitting members have been announced so far to contest seats – almost all have a pro-Palestine presence.

Former Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam, who will contest the seat of Wills, has been a mainstay at Melbourne pro-Palestine rallies and has called for ties with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems to be severed, donning keffiyehs with party colleagues in May during a state parliamentary debate.

Jy Sandford, the party’s candidate for Jagajaga in northeastern Melbourne, has demonstrated outside sitting Labor MP Kate Thwaites’ electorate office as well as that of state Labor minister Anthony Carbines.

Protesters plastered Ms Thwaites’ office with “Free Palestine” stickers and posters urging her to recognise Palestinian statehood, and calling Israel’s war “genocide”.

It is the Greens’ branches, however, that have long been a source of concern for the Jewish community.

In January, it was revealed that the Port Macquarie Hastings branch, in a leaked Facebook chat with a member of the public, described the creation of Israel as a “huge mistake”. “The state of Israel was a creation of 1948 … A huge mistake as Jews should have been domiciled in Europe and the US where they would have been much safer,” the message read.

In March, the Central Coast Greens asked on Facebook why the government continued to call Israel a “friend”, describing it as a “terrorist state”.

The Sturt Greens, who announced their candidate, Katie McCusker, in May, posted on Facebook in February that Israel was “destined to lose” and that Hamas had been acting in self-defence on October 7.

Mr Bandt also drew criticism from Jewish leaders in November for promoting a rally with a poster that showed a picture of Palestine and Israel as belonging to just the former.

Dr Kelly said the Greens’ participation in pro-Palestinian rallies and language around the “genocide” occurring in Gaza were harmful to social cohesion.

The minor party has rejected the assertion it is taking advantage of the crisis for political gain, with Mr Bandt last week threatening Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus with legal action over comments regarding the Greens’ involvement with “violent” pro-Palestinian protests targeting Labor MPs.

Mr Bandt on Tuesday urged Labor to put more pressure on the Israeli government to ensure “a lasting ceasefire” and “move beyond words into action”.