ALP Left joins Greens attack

SENIOR Labor Left figures have backed calls for the party to take a tougher line against the Greens.

How the Greens got in

SENIOR Labor Left figures have backed calls for the party to take a tougher line against the Greens as members of all factions lashed the minor party for its stance on offshore processing and contempt for blue-collar workers.

As the NSW Nationals yesterday revealed they expected to preference the Greens last at the next election, Labor Left faction convenor Stephen Jones said he expected that NSW general secretary Sam Dastyari's motion to take a tough line on Greens preferences would pass the state conference.

"When the asylum-seeker legislation was in the Senate, the Greens had the choice between being a protest movement or a parliamentary party," Mr Jones said. "They chose to continue to be a protest movement."

Senior left-aligned minister, Greg Combet, distanced the government from the Greens, declaring Labor did not share the same values.

"We (Labor) have different values and different policies, and we certainly distinguish from them (Greens)," the Climate Change Minister said.

Human Services Minister Kim Carr, also from the party's Left and a member of the national executive, accused the Greens of having "the best social conscience that money can buy" and having a "smug and self-righteous attitude on many blue-collar issues".

Other senior sources predicted Labor would consider giving its preferences to Family First ahead of the Greens in South Australia and possibly Victoria at the next election in an attack on the minor party's Senate prospects.

Victorian MP Michael Danby, a member of the Right faction, predicted Victorian Labor would join NSW in reconsidering giving preferences to the Greens.

"Disillusioned Labor voters who previously supported the Greens will be returning to us now the asylum-seeker issue has clearly exposed the Green political party voting with Tony Abbott and failing to offer legislative solutions to the worsening asylum-seeker problem," Mr Danby said.

He said that, during the cross-party meetings in the last week of parliament, the Greens argued for communiques and working groups, while asylum-seekers were drowning.

"Nearly 30 Labor MPs were present at the meeting," Mr Danby said. "For many who attended, it was the first time we were exposed to the behaviour of the Greens political party. Their prevarications at the meeting and their collaboration with the Liberals in the Senate has deeply frustrated the Labor and independent members, who want a compromise on asylum-seekers. Even Bob Katter voted for it, and he is not exactly a commo."

Since The Weekend Australian revealed Mr Dastyari's push for a tough stance against the Greens last Saturday, senior Labor figures have lashed the party's "loopy" policies.

Chief government whip Joel Fitzgibbon attacked the Greens' policy manifesto as "either populist and unachievable, or in other sections it's achievable and economically destructive".

"They are idealistic, not realistic and I think given they have increased their primary vote six-fold since I was first elected in 1996," Mr Fitzgibbon said, "it's about time Labor sat up and realised that they are growing their primary vote off these unrealistic policies at the expense of the Labor Party."

Mr Fitzgibbon said the Greens were not just a party of the environment. He said some of their policies were "quite loopy", such as the abolition of the World Trade Organisation, the IMF and the World Bank.

"On the domestic front, the total abolition of TAFE fees and charges - now that second example sounds wonderful but it is not realistic," he said.

"We need to build our primary vote by exposing some of these policies rather than sitting back and living in the hope that some of the vote that we've lost to the Greens will return to us by way of preferences."

Of the 10 Greens in parliament, only two - leader Christine Milne and Richard di Natale - were elected without needing preferences. Former leader Bob Brown, who retired last month, also received enough votes not to require preferences.

Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt attacked the Labor powerbrokers.

He said preferencing the Coalition ahead of the Greens was a gift to Tony Abbott and would hasten the return of WorkChoices.

"With ALP heavies wanting to elect pro-WorkChoices Coalition MPs ahead of anti-WorkChoices Greens, Tony Abbott gets closer to control of both houses of parliament and an attack on people's rights at work," Mr Bandt said.

"Most Labor voters would be shocked to think that their vote could help elect pro-WorkChoices Liberals ahead of progressive Greens MPs who will protect people's rights at work.

"Every time ALP factional heavies say their party's future lies in becoming more like Tony Abbott, another Australian decides to vote Green."

Sarah Hanson-Young, one of three Greens senators whose terms expire in 2014, said the party was still committed to working with Julia Gillard as Prime Minister. "We have disagreements with some things but we have agreements on others," Senator Hanson-Young told Sky News.

"We come to the table with a spirit of goodwill, compromise and negotiation with the absolute desire, as us Greens always do, to get better outcomes.

"But there are principles that we will stand by such as when we deal with asylum-seekers and refugees."

Nationals NSW state director Ben Franklin said his party was 100 per cent opposed to the "extreme" agenda of the Greens and he would take a motion to the Nationals' next central council to preference the Greens last.

Tony Abbott said the Liberal Party organisation would make a decision about Green preferences "at the right time".

Mr Abbott described the fight between Labor and the Greens as "just posturing by the Labor Party which is in an alliance with the Greens to form a government in Canberra".

In the wake of Mr Dastyari's announcement of moves for a tougher line on Greens preferences, present and former Labor MPs have lined up to attack the party.