Big parties scramble for inner west

Latest NSW election polling has state Labor picking up 23 per cent of the vote and being comprehensively thrown out of government. Significantly, polling also has NSW Greens at 17 per cent, just 6 points behind the party currently in power.

Under attack from the left and assuming that his enemy’s enemy might be his friend, NSW Labor Party president Michael Lee has called on the Liberal Party to preference Labor ahead of the Greens in the inner west seats of Balmain and Marrickville.

Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt, according to poll analysts, will lose her seat of Marrickville if there is a 7.5 per cent swing against her at the election in March, with Greens candidate Mayor Fiona Byrne likely to pick up the spoils. Less than half that per centage would unseat increasingly unpopular Education Minister Verity Firth in Balmain and deliver the seat to local identity and Leichhardt Mayor Jamie Parker.

As the Greens candidate for Balmain, Mayor Parker described the move as “unprincipled because having trashed the good name of progressive politics, Labor is now trying to trash the progressive vote to save its own hide. “

Speaking as the Greens Marrickville candidate, Mayor Byrne said that Greens “are not relying on Liberal preferences for our campaign for Marrickville. We are campaigning to win the seats based on our positive policies and our strong local vote.”

NSW Labor is following the tactic of recently unelected Victorian Premier John Brumby, who also urged Liberals to preference Labor ahead of Greens in that state’s recent election. Victorian Greens pick up nearly 20 per cent of the vote.

Commentators identify the lack of daylight between Labor and Liberal on many issues as another reason the parties might preference each other ahead of Greens at the upcoming election, but it is also evident that neither party will want to share decision-making powers with a Green crossbench in the new state government after March.

By Roger Hanney