What is interesting is that for a decade now, Labor has not seen that the Greens are to Labor as One Nation was to the Coalition - they are not comrades in arms, they are direct competitors. In the case of the ALP the Greens are leaching votes from the left. By signing this Agreement with Bob Brown, Gillard has effectively given her imprimatur to disaffected Labor voters turning to the Greens. Strategically it was a foolish thing to do.
Faced with a similar threat, Howard unleashed the old, feisty Abbott upon Hanson. I don't condone the methods he used, but Abbott was successful in eliminating ON as a threat. What the ALP should be doing is not planning new group hugs with the Greens, but planning a similar strategy to undermine their support.
The most direct method would be to expose their policies. A commentator in the Australian last week described the Greens as comprising basically 3 groups of supporters. First, the green Greens, like Brown - genuinely passionate about environmental issues but perhaps light-on in serious policy matters. Second, the brown Greens made up of a large number of both urban and rural people attracted by the "feelgood" factor of "being green". The doctors' wives who drive a Prius, for example. Third, are the red Greens, based largely on the mainland and from whence Adam Bandt derives his support. This group are the most powerful and now drive the Party. It is they who sidelined Brown 6 weeks ago and did a preference deal with Labor. It is they who call the shots on policy. Who are they? They have much less in common with Brown's idealism and more in common with the old Labor far left. Bandt received union support and funding because left wing unions empathise more with the socialist agenda than Gillard's centre left agenda.
If Labor do not recognise the threat and take steps to staunch the flow, the Greens will grow at the expense of Labor and disaffected Labor supporters on the right will leave for the conservatives as the party moves further left.
Step 1 is to expose the greens. For some reason the party is always immune from critical analysis by the mainstream media. Brown is interviewed by Oakes, O'Brien et al as some kind of benign elder statesman. Never any hard questions. Scratch the surface of a vast majority of Green supporters and few will know much of what the party actually stands for. It is on their website for all to see under policies. Not detailed ones mind you, but more than enough detail to scare the living daylights out of any intelligent person who takes their vote seriously. A Party that does not have a spokesperson on Finance or Economics says it all really. A Party that seriously advocates closing down our coal industry does not deserve to be taken seriously. There is plenty of ammuninition there for the ALP headkickers to discredit the Greens. What remains to be seen is if they recognise the once great ALP is in danger of being white-anted.
