An interesting situation is developing, with the success of the liberals in highlighting the failures of Labor's left wing policies, the new PM Julia Gillard, in order to win the election, has been forced to modify policy to counter voter concerns. In doing so JG is moving Labor policy notably to the right, especially on the issue of asylum seekers.

The rational for this is obvious. The choice on which direction to move is dictated as to whether Labor loses voters to the Greens, or to the Liberals. As the assumption is that Labor will get the preferences from the Greens, the strategy to dump the "Green" policies and values might lose Labor votes, but gain them seats.

The Greens are in a no win situation, as giving their preferences to Labor actually means that Labor can ignore them in favour of the centrist right voter. If they withhold their preferences, they risk the liberals getting in.

The liberals are in a win win situation, as if JG continues with previous Labor policies she risks losing the election, but if she moves to the right, the Liberals indirectly get their policies implemented.

SM.... greens ? Youtube is a gold mine :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/AussieEnigma777

enjoy.

The Greens are left of Marx.. in some wierd place that escapes description except in breathtakingly surreal terms.

But on topic ? yes.. Labor's lefties are going green. (on the outside anyway.. still red on the inside)

Of course, the Greens may well decide not to allocate preferences at all, as has occurred before. At any rate, Greens voters are notoriously undisciplined in following HTVs.

One thing that SM has correct is that Labor is shifting even further to the right under Gillard's backflips. However, I wouldn't say that they are a "dumping ground" for the Labor left - rather, more of a refuge since the ALP has become increasingly difficult to differentiate from the Libs.

Indeed, there's been a steady drift for years of left-leaning ALP voters and members to the Greens. I predict a marked acceleration of that process at the next election.

<< The liberals are in a win win situation, as if JG continues with previous Labor policies she risks losing the election, but if she moves to the right, the Liberals indirectly get their policies implemented. >>

I don’t get it Shadow Minister.

If Gillard usurps Lib policies, which she has basically done on border protection, then the Libs lose. They get their policies implemented, but they don’t care about that, they care about winning power!

<< The Greens are in a no win situation >>

Is it any wonder, wot with Hanson-young’s ‘dog-whistling’ comments about Gillard’s call for open debate on asylum seekers and border protection and Brown’s support for her and other quite atrocious comments on the subject on Lateline last night, which is nothing new for him…and the Greens lack of meaningful input into population and sustainability issues.

The best that they can hope for is the chance situation that they might hold the balance of power.

Bob Brown used to be my guru. I was a member of the Greens and state candidate in the infamous seat of Mundingburra in 1995.

What a pity they are not what a real green party should be.

Posted by ALGOREisRICH, Tuesday, 6 July 2010 2:45:30 PM
" ... Labor's lefties are going green. (on the outside anyway.. still red on the inside) ... "

Ah yes, a beautiful thing to behold

BUT

Green on the OutSide, PINK on the inside *BoazY*

PINK!

..

" ... Pink, it gives a sense of beauty, of artisitic expression, and notes that the more natural a life style you lead, the greater the sensitivity will become. ... "

..

What the S&M Minister means to say is that the ALP knows that it has lost the purists on the LEFT, but sensing the liberal party's weakness to the centrist right, seeks to capitalise and enhance its primary vote, both at the libs expense and likely by *GREEN* preferences as well.

Ludwig,

The old style Labor party no longer exists. What remains is probably more conservative that the liberals 10 yrs ago. While the liberals would obviously prefer to govern, that they have forced Labor to abandon everything they stood for is a small victory.

As for the ex labor left wing, whether they "find refuge" in the greens, or are dumped from Labor is merely semantics. While they might win more votes, they find themselves increasingly ignored by their erstwhile allies. Because the Labor party can rely on their preferences no matter what, they can be ignored.

Hi dreamy..indeed :)

Ludwig.. it seems a truth that the more Left people openly go..the less people who vote for them. So..in order to win elections, Labor is posturing itself as centrist it seems. The hard core left will either renew their "Socialist Alliance" membership or join the Greens (perhaps as well)
Labor still benefits from their preferences it seems..so it's either shuffling deck chairs on the political Titanic or..they might still scrape through on the prefs.

I'll be doing what I can in marginal seats to stop them doing so :)

I'm in and/or surrounded by 3 or 4 of them.

*It's WAR* .... (to the sound of a Marching patriotic type tune)

I can see some disgruntled Labor lefties wanting to join the Greens as well as a few of the real Liberals who don't like the Neo-Con direction of their party. Possibly Malcolm Turnbull and Malcolm Fraser, for instance.
But the greens don't like people switching Parties for opportunistic reasons.

Unlike the 2 majors parties, the Greens don't have policies that sway in the wind. They post them and allow their members to discuss and modify them through a democratic process. If a policy area is not clear cut then the rule is to represent the constituency, or use a conscience vote. The big parties change for populist reasons and members are bound to the party line, regardless of constituent or member concern.
Most seasoned members of other parties cannot come to grips with this and don't like this kind of true democracy.

That said the swing to the right by both Liberal and Labor is causing grief for many members of both parties as well as those who traditionally voted for them. These voters are looking to the greens along with many of Generation Y who see real problems with the Traditional parties. Conroy is a joke among those aged 18-30, Abbott scares them and they wonder why Garrett joined Labor instead of the Greens, where his performance would have been so much better.