Greens and PUP in Victorian upper house deal

CLIVE Palmer and the Greens have struck a Victorian election preference deal in a bid to snatch control of the upper house.

CLIVE Palmer and the Greens have struck a radical Victorian election preference deal that will unite mining interests with hard-Left environmental politics in a bid to snatch control of the upper house.

The Palmer United Party and the Greens have exchanged preferences in many upper house seats in Victoria, in a deal that gives either party the chance to seize the balance of power from the Coalition on November 29.

The PUP-Greens agreement could affect the public standing of both parties federally. For years, the Greens have slammed Labor for doing preference deals with small conservative parties.

The collision of mining interests and a Leftist agenda was greeted with bemusement from the major parties. It comes as the state Coalition has all but conceded it will lose control of the upper house.

The Greens yesterday refused to confirm or deny the deal with PUP but a senior Labor strategist said: “It’s clearly a broad deal.”

Of the eight upper house regions in Victoria, PUP has preferenced the Greens ahead of Labor in eight regions and the Greens ahead of the Liberal Party in four.

The Greens have preferenced PUP over the Liberal Party in seven regions and PUP over Labor in four.

The move will spark serious questions in both minor parties about why a deal was struck between what are considered natural enemies.

Both Labor and the Liberal parties have attempted to make a virtue in the election campaign of refusing to trade preferences with the Greens in the wake of the disastrous relationship in the last federal parliament between Labor and the Greens.

Greens Victorian leader Greg Barber yesterday refused to confirm or deny any deal with Mr Palmer’s PUP, pointing The Australian to the voting tickets that were being published.

Mr Barber then turned on the Queensland-based party, warning it had actually been “smashed on preferences”.

“He (Palmer) is a one-man band; he’s done extremely badly wherever you look,” he said. “I’d be writing him off.”

One player close to the preference discussions said that with PUP’s support, the Greens would comfortably hold their upper house seats in northern and western Melbourne and gain seats at the ALP’s expense in eastern Victoria and two other city seats.

This was on the basis that the PUP vote held up in Victoria.

“In those (latter) three seats there is always a tussle between the ALP and the Greens for that last seat,” the source said.

That result would likely see the Greens hold the balance of power. The source said the Greens had their “fingerprints” on the deal with PUP.

PUP in Victoria referred questions on the deal to the party’s headquarters but no-one responded to The Australian.

The Victorian upper house is made up of 40 seats across eight regions and is decided by senate-style proportional representation voting.

The Coalition has control of the upper house but on current voting patterns will lose its majority.

PUP has no representation in the current Victorian parliament. The Greens hold three upper house seats.

The Greens have been under siege from Labor and the Liberal parties in Victoria during this election over preferences.

Labor refused to do any deals with the Greens and the Liberal Party vowed to preference the Greens last in a bid to shore up its traditionally conservative vote.

Labor leader Daniel Andrews yesterday defended his party’s decision to deal with some small, right-wing parties on preferences.

Mr Andrews said that during the campaign he had told the ALP not to do a statewide deal with the Greens after being approached by the minor party.

He said Labor would distribute its preferences according to the party’s values.

“But it is also consistent with our hard work and our aim and everything we’re working towards,” Mr Andrews said. “And that is to change the government.”