Party in revolt on PM's deal with Greens

ONE of Labor's most senior officials has attacked Kevin Rudd's Greens preference alliance and questioned why the deal was struck.

ONE of Labor's most senior officials has attacked Kevin Rudd's Greens preference alliance and questioned why the deal was struck when the minor party was trying to "tear us down".

ALP national vice-president Jane Garrett said yesterday that Labor's deal came despite the Greens damaging Labor's brand and the minor party lashing out at Rudd and Gillard government decisions.

Ms Garrett said the deal, which is set to include Greens support for Labor in key House of Representatives seats, was entered into in the knowledge the minor party was "very damaging" to the ALP and the nation more broadly.

Ms Garrett's comments came as a feud was developing between the Victorian and NSW branches of the ALP, with senior Victorian figures privately accused outgoing NSW state secretary Sam Dastyari of being a "bag of wind" on confronting the Greens. This was after Mr Dastyari last year declaring the Greens were "bordering on loony" and should no longer automatically be favoured in future preference negotiations.

The Victorian ALP is outraged the Greens-Labor agreement effectively blocks officials from negotiating with minor parties, such as Family First, for their lower house preferences to help save the seats of some marginal-seat MPs. This is because parties like Family First are predominantly interested in the Senate, where they have the greatest chance of parliamentary representation. The Prime Minister also came under intense pressure from the Coalition at the weekend, with Tony Abbott attacking the Labor-Greens alliance as a betrayal of working people.

Ms Garrett, who is a leading voice in Labor nationally to take the fight up to the Greens, told The Australian yesterday that the Greens' sole mission was to kill the ALP. "I believe that the Greens' party has been very damaging, not only to the Labor Party but (the nation) more broadly," she said while outlining her concerns about the federal preferences deal.

"They have made it clear - repeatedly made it clear - that they want to destroy the ALP. It's not like they are about to form government in the next century.

"And yet they continue to try to tear us down, which only hurts the implementation of good, progressive policy."

Key sections of the Victorian and South Australian Right factions are furious about the deal, which is expected to shore up the position of Greens' senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Until the Labor-Greens preferences alliance, Senator Hanson-Young's position was considered precarious, with the Liberal Party in South Australia moving closer to taking a third Senate seat at her expense.

South Australian Labor powerbroker Don Farrell publicly supported the party's decision to preference the Greens.

"My personal position is neither here nor there and the decision has been made, and I support the decision," Senator Farrell said.

The Coalition has used the preferences deal to accuse the government of having a hidden agenda on policy via secret deals.

Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne said Mr Rudd needed to articulate why it was in the best interests of the country to do deals with the Greens.

"Mr Rudd must explain to Australians why he believes it is in the best interests of Australian jobs and the economy to give preferences to the Greens," he said.

"How much taxpayer money has been, or will be, pledged to grease the wheels for another minority Labor government propped up by the Greens."

Ms Garrett, a member of the Left, is considered one of Labor's rising stars and is the member for the state seat of Brunswick, one of four inner-city state seats under threat from the Greens.

She has spearheaded the anti-Greens attack from the state caucus but has broad support from officials and branch members concerned about the rise of the Greens in Victoria.

Labor is fighting to save three key marginals in Victoria that officials believe would have benefited from a better negotiation of preferences.

The seats are Corangamite (0.3 per cent), Deakin (0.6 per cent) and La Trobe (1.7 per cent).

ALP campaign headquarters said the preferences deal was designed to give the party the best chance of forming a majority government.

"And that is why we have secured a supportive preference agreement with the Katter party in Queensland and the Greens in the Senate in other states."

The Weekend Australian revealed that Labor's chances in Queensland had improved after a preference swap with Bob Katter in four rural seats in return for backing Katter's Australian Party above the Greens in the Senate.

Australian Greens co-convener Ben Spies-Butcher said the party's deal with Labor was designed to prevent total control of the parliament going to Mr Abbott.

"Our first message to voters is that they control their own preferences," Mr Spies-Butcher said.

"This election there is a very real risk that Tony Abbott could gain a majority in both houses of parliament.

"We will be urging voters to preference progressive minor parties and Labor ahead of the Coalition to ensure control of the Senate is not handed to Abbott.

"While not all lower-house seats have been determined, many Greens local branches have also determined to preference Labor in a range of marginal seats across the country."