Greens slam ALP over DLP

Tuesday, 12 December 2006

Greens slam ALP over DLP

Labor party preferences have elected the DLP to the Victorian Upper House seat of Western Victoria. The ALP preferenced its old nemesis, the DLP, ahead of the Greens to give the DLP its second Upper House seat.

"The Labor machine, which flew in Peter Garrett to attack the Greens, is so anti-Greens that it prefers this anti-Labor party sharing the balance of power in the Legislative Council," Senator Brown said.

"They have cheated decent Labor voters by directing their preferences to the DLP. It is a rerun of the Victorian ALP preferences electing the Howard-friendly Family First party into the Senate in 2004, resulting in the passage of the Voluntary Student Unionism and cross-media legislation."

"The DLP's social policies are extreme-right and it backs dismantling large slabs of the federal public service. This perverse outcome shows the need for above the line preferential voting to prevent voters being cheated by party machines," Senator Brown said.

"The Greens candidate for Western Victoria, Marcus Ward, scored a much higher primary vote than the DLP and would have been a great parliamentarian. If carried forward, Labor's behaviour will assure the Howard government retains effective control of the Senate in 2007 even if Rudd Labor wins government," Senator Brown said.