Even for a tactically challenged party on the edge of electoral oblivion, it seems a bizarre misstep. Why are Labor MPs jumping on a bandwagon of union thugs dissing the Greens?
Any reading of polling — and Bernard Keane crunches the numbers compellingly today — would tell you there are only votes to be lost, not gained, in an attack on more progressive minds.
As for the values argument — “we have different values and different policies, and we certainly distinguish from them,” Greg Combet said this morning — that’s fairly laughable given Labor’s principled stand on almost nothing except a carbon tax the Greens forced it into.
No, this is just political desperation. It veritably reeks.
Are Greens’ policies really as “extreme” as One Nation? Impractical and superficial, perhaps, and certainly deserving of scrutiny given the party’s powerful parliamentary position. But some have been adopted by Labor. And at least two — gay marriage and euthanasia — are more in line with public sentiment than both major parties.
They’re no more hollow than the heart of Labor, an administration that shuns desperately-needed organisational reform and tries desperately to walk a middle ground that pleases no one.
Christine Milne and her cohort won’t be why Labor is wiped from the map next year. It will be Labor’s extraordinary ability to blame anyone but itself.
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makes you wonder what planet some of these labor party officials union people and mps like greg combet are on
fair dinkum i thought greg combet of all people had more sense
ive voted labor all my life and will do again at the next election, im no radical but i do regard myself as having progessive political views, and i agree with a many of the greens policies
do these imbiciles in the labor party think that by bashing the greens that they are going to get the middle ground on side
all they are doing is going further and further to the right and tony abbott and his lackeys have that ground already
if the labor party wants to be a right wing party ala the liberal party then they should form a coalition with them
then we can have one big happy right wing government
what a disaster that would be for the country
Gormless is the word that springs to mind.
I think our best, and only, hope is that Abbott implodes and someone sensible steps into his shoes.
Another treble voice from the NSW Right. It is fascinating, waiting for the next self inflicted bit of damage.
Clearly the Labor party has undergone an unfortunate programme of inbreeding which has produced a self-cannibalism gene.
I didn’t vote for any party in the Lower House last election – I’m allergic to “shit sandwiches”.