AN influential Labor strategist has called for the major parties to starve the Greens of preferences in a One Nation-style pincer movement designed to kill the party.And I'd be right behind that, and even voting for it, except for two little problems. I don't think it speaks well of an electoral system if the biggest fish in the pond can get together and manipulate it with the intention of destroying a smaller opposing party, and, somewhat hypocritically, I'm not really much keener on the ALP or the Liberals either and wouldn't shed a tear if it was done to both of them.
Former Victorian ALP secretary Stephen Newnham predicted the ALP and the Coalition would soon swap preferences to isolate the Greens federally and at a state level.
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Mr Newnham, a prominent figure in right-wing Labor politics, is considered one of the leading forces in the ALP for having predicted the rising threat of the Greens and the need to expose their policies. Between 2005 and 2009, he ran the Victorian ALP and was one of several figures who stressed that the Greens could become a major threat, particularly in key inner-city streets.
Mr Newnham said the Victorian Liberal Party's decision to preference against the Greens at the last state election in key seats would herald the beginning of the end of the major parties preferencing the Greens.
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"The last (Victorian) election was potentially the greatest strategic disaster for the Greens in this country," he said.
"And the reason it was such a disaster was, for the first time, a major party preferenced them last and won a narrow election, arguably on the back of doing it."
Still, it's probably the Green tail wagging the ALP dog that we've got to thank for Jules going back on her promise not to introduce the kind of tax she introduced yesterday, so fuck 'em.