Pro-ALP record sparks warning on ‘fake independents’ Helen Haines, Zali Steggall and Rebekha Sharkie

Crossbench MPs Helen Haines, Zali Steggall and Rebekha Sharkie have voted with Labor on two out of every three divisions in the 46th parliament, new analysis shows.

Zali Steggall says ‘the reality is that two out of three of the votes in this parliament have been to gag debate – to shut down members from speaking’. Picture: Gary Ramage

New analysis shows crossbench MPs Helen Haines, Zali Steggall and Rebekha Sharkie have voted with Labor on two out of every three divisions in the 46th parliament, with the Morrison government using the data to warn Australians against supporting “fake independents”.

Ms Haines voted with Labor 67.92 per cent of the time, Ms Sharkie 64.64 per cent and Ms Steggall 66.04 per cent, according to research from the Parliamentary Library.

All three independents hold former Coalition seats – Indi in rural Victoria by 1.39 per cent, Warringah on Sydney’s northern beaches by 7.2 per cent and Mayo in the Adelaide Hills by 5.1 per cent respectively.

The Parliamentary Library analysis includes all divisions, including votes on motions, legislation and procedural matters, which the independent MPs argued inflated the extent of their support for Labor.

Several key government bills were not supported by the trio of independents, including amendments underpinning the Foreign Relations Bill allowing the commonwealth to cancel international agreements made by state and territory governments.

The analysis comes as a coalition of independents – backed by Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court – targets a raft of government-held seats, including Josh Frydenberg’s seat of Kooyong in Melbourne and Dave Sharma’s seat of Wentworth in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Despite their voting records, all three crossbenchers ­refused to say if they would support a Labor government in the event of a hung parliament when asked by The Australian.

But Mr Frydenberg on Wednesday called out the failure of ­independent candidates to nominate who they would support in a minority government despite campaigning for transparency and accountability in politics.

“Independents are fake independents,” the Treasurer said. “They are being run and organised and are acting as a political party. Their strings are being pulled elsewhere by Climate 200. They’re running on a Labor Party ­platform.”

He took aim at the Climate 200 candidate running against him in Kooyong, Monique Ryan, given her history in the Labor Party.

“They’re running more often than not with former Labor Party members – in my case a longstanding former Labor Party member who sought to hide that fact from the community by calling themselves a small “l” Liberal, a cleanskin with no political background when exactly the opposite is true,” he said.

Helen Haines. Picture: Gary Ramage

Rebekha Sharkie. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Dr Ryan was a member of the Labor Party from 2007 until 2010 but says she did not attend meetings and quit because she was disappointed with its record on climate change.

Mr Sharma, who faces a challenge from independent Allegra Spender in Wentworth, which he holds on a margin of 1.3 per cent, also said his constituents “should be concerned” by the voting records of crossbenchers.

“An independent in these seats is only getting elected with Labor and Greens preferences,” he said. “Their policy agenda is a Labor/Greens policy agenda. They won’t commit to who they will support in a hung parliament. But the voting record shows that, up until now, they (independent MPs) vote overwhelmingly with Labor and the Greens.”

Mr Holmes a Court – who has funnelled millions of dollars to support candidates and sitting MPs – has claimed he would have “no strings” or influence if his ­independents had to choose the next prime minister in a hung parliament. He also would not say whether Anthony Albanese offered a better policy platform and declared that Climate 200 was “in no way” a political party.

Ms Haines said that, as an independent, she voted for “Indi 100 per cent of the time” and ­argued the Parliamentary Library statistics appeared to elevate the extent of her support for Labor ­because it included “procedural motions and motions to gag ­members”.

“This government has moved to gag debate more than any other government in history – more than 340 divisions across the life of the parliament,” she said.

“There has been more votes on gagging members of parliament than on any other type of vote. I vote against gag motions almost all of the time – the free and open exchange of ideas in parliament is crucial to our democracy.” She said she had supported more than 90 per cent of the 370 government bills to pass the parliament “whether they were voted on or not”.

“Since I’ve been in parliament, I’ve voted 287 times on new laws that did go to division,” she said.

Ms Steggall also said the Parliamentary Library data did not “show the full picture”.

“The reality is that two out of three of the votes in this parliament have been to gag debate – to shut down members from speaking,” she said.

“I do no not believe that members should be gagged. When it does go to a formal vote, I have voted with government 51 per cent of the time.” The other independent in the lower house, Andrew Wilkie, voted with Labor 92.6 per cent of the time.

Writing in The Australian, Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff Peta Credlin warns that if the Liberals had to negotiate a minority government, “they would find themselves hostage to left-leaning independents”.

“That’s assuming these ­independents could ever back the Coalition, which is doubtful given Zali Steggall’s recent comments … that she could support the Lib-Nats but it would help if they dumped Scott Morrison as leader.”