Anti-Israeli stance focus of Greens review

THE Greens' will consider whether Fiona Byrne failed to win Marrickville because of her support for a boycott of Israel.

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THE Greens' post-mortem of their NSW election result will consider whether the party failed to win the seat of Marrickville because of candidate Fiona Byrne's support for a boycott of Israel.

The Greens had hoped to win the inner-Sydney seats of Marrickville and Balmain on Saturday, based partly on an expectation that Labor voters angry with the party would not be able to bring themselves to support the Liberals.

Federal Greens leader Bob Brown admitted yesterday that voters were upset by Ms Byrne's repeated misleading statements over her decision in December, as Marrickville Mayor, to support a motion boycotting goods and cultural exchanges from Israel. Ms Byrne said early in the campaign that if elected to parliament she would push for a statewide ban.

However, she subsequently labelled her comments a "falsehood" when they were reported by The Australian. Ms Byrne later denied she had "pushed" for the motion, but was revealed to have been planning to speak at an anti-Israeli-apartheid rally this week.

Asked yesterday whether Ms Byrne's actions, which plagued the latter days of her campaign, had contributed to her failure, Senator Brown said: "I think it had an effect on it -- that's my feedback from the electorate and it's no doubt something that the NSW Greens will be looking at."

Labor has seized on the Greens' failure to win seats on Saturday to demand that Tony Abbott follow the lead of the Liberals in Victoria and NSW by refusing to pass the party preferences ahead of Labor in the next federal election.

"It is difficult to envisage a situation whereby the Greens would win a seat in the House of Representatives without Liberal Party preferences," Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen said yesterday.

Senator Brown played down his own pre-election expectations.

"I'm very pleased with the result we got. Hopes are not feet-on-the-ground stuff. We are not in politics on the basis of hope. We are in politics on the basis of reality."

With counting of votes continuing, Senator Brown said it would be "very, very difficult" for his party to win Marrickville.

"And the seat of Balmain, well, 86 votes in it . . . we have a very strong likelihood of gaining quite a few votes of those 4000 votes yet to be counted," he said.

"I would give it to Jamie Parker to win that seat."

In last year's federal election, the Greens claimed the balance of power in the Senate and won their first House of Representatives seat -- Melbourne.

However, their failure to win seats on Saturday or in last year's Victorian election came after the Liberals refused to recommend their supporters give the minor party preferences ahead of Labor.

Yesterday, Mr Bowen said the results showed Mr Abbott had the power to determine the Greens'

future in the federal House of Representatives.

"Mr Abbott goes on a lot about the Greens," Mr Bowen told

the Ten Network's Meet the Press program.

"Well, it is up to him whether he'd preference the Greens or not and (Victorian Premier) Mr (Ted) Baillieu and Mr (Barry) O'Farrell have shown that without Liberal Party preferences, it is very difficult for the Greens."

Additional reporting: AAP