Deals with Greens cause anger on both sides

DIVISION is mounting in the major parties over deals with the Greens.

DIVISION is mounting in the major parties over deals with the Greens.

Tensions are at their highest in Victoria, which votes in a state election on November 27.

Labor lost the seat of Melbourne to Green Adam Bandt on Saturday, and Victoria's Labor government could lose four inner-city seats to them in November.

Now Martin Ferguson's northern suburbs electorate of Batman, previously Labor's safest seat in the country, will shift from being a Labor-Liberal contest to a clash between Labor and the Greens.

Its margin has been slashed to about 8 per cent.

"Their vote is only going to go north as the inner city and immediate suburbs become increasingly gentrified," former Labor state secretary Stephen Newnham said yesterday. "The question is how both sides respond to it."

Election analyst Charles Richardson explained of the Greens: "Their growth has been slow so that they've built up experience, they've built up party structure and they can plan to attack things over a couple of elections."

Victorian Premier John Brumby yesterday lashed out at the Greens over a reported suggestion that they wanted a cabinet position if any coalition were formed after the November state election.

"One of the things that I have certainly learnt is that every election is close and that you don't make those sort of comments, as the Greens have done," he said.

" I think it smacks of arrogance, to be honest."

Labor sources pointed to increasing internal debate in the party over how to deal with the Greens. The issue is also bedevilling the Liberals.

"I don't know why we preferenced the fruitcake in Melbourne," one senior Liberal said yesterday. "The first thing he said when he was elected was, 'I'll be voting with the Labor Party'."

One influential Victorian Liberal said preferencing the Greens and forcing the ALP to rely on the party for support would push Labor to the Left.

"The Liberals will be able to occupy the centre," he said.

But a party powerbroker claimed the Greens were untrustworthy. "They're so duplicitous," the source said.

"Bob Brown goes around saying 'We've done a preference deal with Labor but I hope all voters do their own thing'. If that's the case, why don't they have double-sided how-to-vote cards like the Democrats did?

"How far do we want this thing to spiral?

"I think both parties may want to do a stocktake after this."