PETER VAN ONSELEN: Anthony Albanese’s weasel words about the Greens are one big con job that treats all of us like fools

The Prime Minister would have you believe that when it comes to the Greens, he will not deal with them, that he is not a party to any preference agreements made with them and that voters are free to form their own opinions on the subordinate part . It’s none of his business.

When it comes to the Greens’ more controversial policies, Anthony Albanese sees no evil, hears no evil and speaks no evil.

Except, of course, he does.

A major party leader claiming to have nothing to do with a minor party making deals with his political party ahead of a federal election is promoting a very false scam.

Even more so when Labor needs the support of the Greens to pass legislation through Parliament. The Greens are the largest minor party in the Senate. When legislation is being negotiated, Anthony Albanese’s chief of staff regularly calls to find out which way the Greens want to vote.

Last week the Prime Minister was asked in an interview whether Labor should refuse to accept the Greens’ preferences given some of the controversial positions the small party has taken on issues such as Palestine.

Albo drew from his grab bag of weasel words to answer the question.

He claimed ‘I don’t accept preferences’ from the Greens. He said any preference agreements would be made “by the organizational wing” of the Labor Party, and not by him.

But wait, isn’t Albo the leader of the Labor Party? Is he seriously claiming that deals with the Greens to exchange preferences have nothing to do with him?

That was not an acceptable excuse for Albo when John Howard was Prime Minister and the Liberal Party was looking at preference swaps with One Nation (before the then Prime Minister ruled it out).

At the time, Albo was one of Howard’s strongest critics, demanding that the then prime minister rule out deals with extremely small parties such as One Nation. Albo even labeled One Nation as ‘abhorrent’.

Albo is happy to demonize the Greens as extreme when he faces the media, but he is equally happy to stand idly by as his organizational staff deals with the small party in the run-up to the looming election.

While he claims it has nothing to do with him. Pull the other one.

While I am certainly prepared to believe that Albo lacks the leadership qualities necessary to instruct his agents to refuse to do business with the Greens, I cannot accept that he is powerless to issue such a directive if he would like that.

Leaders of political parties are in charge, if they have the courage to do so. Especially in government when the said leader is also the Prime Minister.

That brings extra authority.

The fact is that Labor has been making preferential deals with the Greens for decades: winning the preferences of the small party in the voters of the lower house in exchange for bending the preferences of the Labor Party in the Senate to their will.

It’s a win-win relationship… One of which Albo wants to pretend has nothing to do with him.

Greens leader Adam Bandt and his wife Claudia Perkins at an earlier Midwinter Ball

Without such deals, the Greens would likely not win as many Senate seats as they do, reducing the minority party’s influence over policymaking.

So remember that the next time you hear Labor MPs complaining about the Greens’ influence.

They could close the party by not helping them win Senate seats through Labour’s preference deals, but they won’t because in return for those preferences the Labor Party gets all the key green preferences in key marginal seats in the House of Commons that needs them. victory against the Liberal Party.

Labor only wins government because of these deals.

That’s Labour’s deal with the devil, so to speak. It’s also just the nature of how politics works in a preferential voting system like Australia’s.

I just wish the Prime Minister wouldn’t treat us like fools by claiming that the entire process and decision-making behind it has nothing to do with him.

It’s embezzlement of the most egregious kind.