Pact is predictable but not devoid of risks

THE alliance between the Labor Party and the new Greens MP in the House of Representatives, Adam Bandt, confirms what we know: in the final week of his campaign Bandt posted an electorate-wide mail reassuring voters he would support a Labor government.

Formalising the arrangement heightens interest in what looked like an inevitability.

Apart from the various policy measures attached to the agreement, the open lines of communication are a key feature of the pact.

Julia Gillard will meet Greens leader Bob Brown and Bandt every week during parliamentary sittings, and every fortnight otherwise.

The open consultation process contrasts with the way former prime minister Kevin Rudd treated the Greens, refusing to meet Brown for more than a year, including during the negotiations on the emissions trading scheme.

The move is designed to give Labor the appearance of equal representation in the lower house with the Coalition, which has 73 seats if you include the West Australian National, Tony Crook.

But the Labor-Greens alliance carries risks for both sides. Bob Katter and Tony Windsor hold many views that are anathema to policy positions the Greens favour.

If Labor is seen to be too close to the leftist party the rural independents may decide Labor isn't the sort of government they are prepared to support.

From the Greens' perspective, without formal agreements for a price on carbon or a parliamentary vote on an issue such as gay marriage, the alliance risks casting them as just another political party willing to sell out core commitments to attain power.

Labor strategists believe they needed to make a public statement about the certainty of support Gillard can rely on from the Greens in the wake of Andrew Wilkie's unwillingness to fall in behind Labor.

And although the alliance is only for the House of Representatives, it sends a signal that if the independents are looking for viable government, Labor is the party more likely to work with the Greens in the Senate, where they will hold the balance of power in July next year.

Tony Abbott condemns the alliance, suggesting it will lead to radical legislation passing through the parliament.

But that ignores one simple reality the rural independents are well aware of: they will decide what legislation passes through the House of Representatives and the circumstances when it does.

No alliance between Labor and the Greens can change that.