Victorian State Election
Saturday is the Victorian State Election and the Greens have a wonderful opportunity to snap up some seats, some for the first time. As always, the ABC through Antony Green has a good summary of the election.
In the State's upper house, the system has changed and the boundaries have been redistributed. At first thought, the Vic greens must have been thinking that they could get three seats. However, it seems that the Liberals have refused to put the Greens ahead of Labor. This makes the Greens job that little bit harder. This beautifully explained by the Pollbludger.
The more interesting part of the election is the seat of Melbourne where the sitting labor Health Minister Bronwyn Pike is now likely to lose her seat to the Greens DiNatale (pictured). The Greens barely lost in that seat last time but i am willing to bet that the Greens will win this time.Yet 'controversy' has stalked the Greens in that seat because it seems that the Greens are going to do a split ticket for their how-to-vote cards. Labor has twisted this around into a 'Greens preference Liberals' story. I hate to resort to name calling but Labor is lame if thats all they can resort to.
The Melbourne election brings up a couple of issues. First, The split ticket issue is always an interesting debate in the Greens. It is always brought up in campaign meeting when preferences are being decided. I have yet to be convinced by it. Although i am also of the opinion that how-to-vote cards should be banned and that a copy be stuck up in each polling booth. Its all about saving paper or recycled paper as it is in the case of Greens how-to-votes.
Second, peter Garrett came out to Melbourne to help campaign for Labor and confirm Labor's position that they believe the Greens are preferencing the Liberals. Well Garrett continues to be used in my opinion. He is rolled out whenever necessary to show Labor's tokenistic environmental credentials. Labor is lame. I feel sorry for him in a way because i doubted that he envisioned himself being used to be constantly fighting the Greens and not the Liberals. Garrett you have become a cardboard cut out.
Good luck to all my fellow Greens in Victoria.
posted by Joel MacRae @ 5:20 pm
3 comments
3 Comments:
What do you mean - "I have yet to be convinced by it."?
Can I assume that you're all for split-tickets, given you feel that Labor are, by and large, little better than Liberals?
Coz I'd want to do it on a case-by-case basis, giving prefs wherever the Labor candidate is decent. Of course this leaves the problem that Labor's most left-wing candidates are all in the seats where Greens get the most primary votes anyway.
And what do you think about Antony Green? Ross reckons he has something against the Greens, always downplaying our chances because we stole his name!
Split tickets i feel can do more harm than good. First, the how-to-vote card will look confusing to many (including me). Second, the loss from Labor voters who are considering voting Greens would outweigh any gain from Libs (and i dont mean in that electorate only). I am just sick and tired of Labor twisting it around into an easy news story that kicks us in the guts.
In addition, there are few examples of any labor candidate being worse than the liberal party.
My suspicion is that Greens, who use to be labor voters, are just so disappointed with labor that this emotion gets in the way of the rational view that Labor is better than Liberal.
As I said, I am yet to be convinced.
Oh and the Antony green thing. I cannot confirm or deny. I have yet to see any bias whatsoever in his analysis. If anything he has been closer to the mark. thats 3 elections now where polling has had Greens 2-3% higher than our election result.
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