CAMERON MILNER: Why Labor must make the politically right decision to preference the Greens last

Labor must now make the electorally hard, but politically right, decision to put the Greens political party last on their preferences at the next election.

The longer Albanese decries the Greens’ support for riots in Melbourne and using anti-Israel chants like “from the River to the Sea” yet chases Greens votes, the greater the insult to middle Australia and our Jewish Australian community alike.

The Greens are no longer the environmental party of Bob Brown, or even Richard Di Natale.

Under Adam Bandt the Greens are an extreme party of the hard left who last week stood with rioters in Melbourne who lit fires and threw acid and faeces at our serving police officers.

This is a deeply troubling continuation of radicalism that saw the Greens endorse a similar violent demonstration in front of the Sydney Opera House that celebrated the Hamas October 7 attacks on innocent women and children with chants that some heard as “Gas the Jews”.

The Greens have always flirted with anti-Semitism with their boycott campaigns of Jewish businesses and their MPs’ use of anti-Semitic tropes at public rallies.

While Greens MP for the Queensland seat of Griffith Max Chandler-Mather stood next to Hitler signs and a coffin bearing Albanese’s face, his wife, a leading Greens activist herself, still has a pro-Hamas post on her X account, even after the Jewish community publicly raised concerns. It’s actually a post that would deny a Gazan tourist a visa to Australia, according to current guidance from ASIO.

The Greens stand to be Labor’s governing partner when Albanese leads Labor into, at best, a minority government at the next election.

Labor preferences matter deeply as the party now has such a low primary vote they are now actively directing their supporters to elect more Greens MPs to our federal parliament.

Unlike some Labor powerbrokers like Steven Conroy, who talk big yet baulk when it comes to recommending the Greens are placed last, I say Labor now has no other choice. Labor must put the Greens last, just as we have One Nation over its anti-immigrant positions.

I was there in the 1998 Queensland State election when Peter Beattie was prepared to stand up to One Nation because of its founder Pauline Hanson’s comments about Australians of Asian backgrounds.

Labor risked an electoral loss for standing up for what was the right thing to do, not the politically expedient move to simply turn a blind eye to racism.

Labor lost 11 seats to One Nation as the conservatives still preferenced Hanson’s party, yet we won more from the conservatives as voters saw the ALP standing up for Australian values.

Labor should listen to their voters and stop preferencing the Greens.

Labor must now make the same preference call based on human decency and a joint commitment to fight for fairness and equality and call out attacks that are racist, xenophobic or anti-Semitic.

Albanese and Labor can’t just mouth the words, yet continue to engage in a grubby preference deal with extremists.

The Greens are openly on the record and no one can deny their lurch to the Left and their craven chasing of Islamic voters in key Labor Party electorates like Wills.

The Greens even had an election leaflet with the Hamas red triangle symbol printed on it - when caught out they tried saying it was a watermelon slice!

The protesters that blockaded out federal parliament earlier this year also unfurled the Hamas red triangle – the symbol of the listed terrorist organisation.

The Greens supported the protesters and failed to condemn pro-Hamas graffiti on our Australian War Memorial.

When asked they said Hamas had a right to remain governing in the Palestinian Territories.

Albanese was so fond of saying the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.

Well when it comes to taking the preferences of the extreme Greens and, what’s worse, working to elect more of them at the next election, Labor must change or stand condemned as standing with the Greens and all their extreme views and against the rest of Australia.

Ultimately parties can only recommend preferences on how to vote and voters get to decide their actual vote.

Labor, by continuing to tell voters they prefer the Greens, shows voters what Albanese and his version of the Labor Party really stand for and how they would so happily govern with their support after the next election.

Labor should listen to their voters and stop preferencing the Greens, lest the voting public condemn the ALP and the minor party in equal measure for the Greens’ extreme anti-Australian values at the next election.

Cameron Milner is director of GXO Strategies and a former ALP State Secretary with three decades’ experience on Labor campaigns