Party's two-seats dream slipping away

THE Greens now face the prospect of four years in the political wilderness without real power.

Carmel Tebbutt 280311

HAVING snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in one, possibly two, NSW lower house seats, the Greens now face the prospect of four years in the political wilderness without real power.

Despite predictions the party would snatch two of Labor's prized inner-western Sydney seats -- Marrickville and Balmain -- to achieve its first representation in the NSW lower house, that dream appears to be slipping away.

Greens federal leader Bob Brown conceded yesterday that Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt would most likely retain Marrickville. Balmain remains a three-horse race between Greens candidate and Balmain Mayor Jamie Parker, Education Minister Verity Firth and Liberal James Falk, with Labor slightly ahead.

ABC election analyst Antony Green said the ALP would almost certainly retain Marrickville, but Balmain was too close to call.

"It's pointless talking about (Balmain) until all the votes are counted. Labor are only 102 votes ahead," he said.

However, Mr Green predicted the Liberals would not win. "You would need something like 80 per cent of the Greens' preferences to get close," he said.

He said preferences from whichever of the Labor and Greens candidates finished behind would get the other across the line.

Fronting the media to explain what was widely seen as a disappointing result for the Greens, lead upper house candidate David Shoebridge said the Greens could be proud of their effort.

"They focused their resources on those two seats. We stood up, we're still up, and we'll be in the counting for the rest of this week," he said. "There remains the possibility, in the NSW upper house, to get a majority to do things like call for papers."

Sydney University political scientist Rodney Smith said the Greens' Marrickville candidate, Fiona Byrne, had suffered from her difficulty getting to grips with the truth over her support for a boycott of Israel.

"It began to look like she was being a bit too clever by half by appealing to people for whom the boycott might be appealing, but at the same time saying, 'Oh no . . . I don't support it'," Dr Smith said.

He said that Mr Parker had struggled after the late entry of a rival independent candidate and former local mayor, Maire Sheehan, who directed her preferences to Labor.

"When you've got a candidate like that come in pretty much at the last minute and preference another candidate, obviously that has a spoiling effect on the campaign," Dr Smith said.

Former NSW premier Bob Carr hailed Ms Tebbutt and Ms Firth as "heroes" of the election.

"It's now clear that the internal politics of the Greens are chaotic," Mr Carr said.