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In bed with the Greens

By Malcolm Colless - posted Friday, 3 September 2010


That’s a big ask made more tenuous by the involvement that the Greens are certain to want in the formulation of future budgets to suit their narrow political objectives.

As for the “three amigo” Independents they should try to secure a guarantee for a three-year Labor parliamentary term if they decide to get into bed with Gillard because it’s a fair bet that they will be thrown out by their largely conservative electorates come the next poll should they go down this path.

Meanwhile having consummated this marriage with the Greens what happens if Gillard fails in her bid to form a minority government? Will it be automatically annulled?

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It may not be that easy to do bearing in mind that a lot of Labor MPs, who would otherwise have gone down the drain in the backlash against the ALP Government, owe their political skins to Greens’ preferences.

Whatever the case, the recriminations within the ALP that have been largely bottled up during the post-election crisis will inevitably erupt once game is over, no matter who wins.

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About the Author

Malcolm Colless is a freelance journalist and political commentator. He was a journalist on The Times in London from 1969-71 and Australian correspondent for the Wall Street Journal from 1972-76. He was political editor of The Australian, based in Canberra, from 1977-81 and a director of News Ltd from 1991-2007.

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