Liberals fake their green credentials on polling day
Austin G Mackell
Liberal Party operatives have been busted at polling booths on election day dressed in green and handing out fake Greens Party pamphlets which indicated they should preference the Coalition ahead of Labor. An official from the Australian Electoral Commission who was present at the Oxford booth in Bennelong, where such tactics were observed and filmed, said of the tactic, “It’s dirty, but it’s legal.” My colleague Emma James and I were there in our capacity as reporters for the ElectionWIRE youtube channel [http://www.youtube.com/electionwire]. What we saw was a blatant attempt to deceive greens voters, and to convince them the Greens wanted them to preference Liberal ahead of Labor, when the opposite was the case.
A young man at the booth, later named in an online comment about the video as Aryan Shahabi, was dressed in a green T-shirt, matching the shade used by the Greens in their campaign material and volunteer outfits, with the words “The Green Army” on it in white, in a font similar to that used by the Greens. When directly asked if he was from the Liberal party he replied, “I’m not sure.”
He was handing out fliers which, bearing the Greens website and a large photograph of Bob Brown, appeared to be from the Greens. These pamphlets, did say, in fine print at the bottom on the back “Authorised by Mark Neeham, Liberal Party”, but much more prominent was a quote from Mr Brown urging voters to “decide for themselves” who to preference, and a table, comparing Liberal Party policies favourably to Labor’s on “Carbon Reduction,” “Local Environment” and “Greener Homes”.
An AEC staff member at the booth identified as “Tim” said that earlier in the day there had been more than one of the Libs in Greens clothing, and that a confrontation had erupted between them and members of other parties culminating in “yelling”. Upon conferring with the District Returning Officer, however, he was told to take no action. Similar tactics have also been reported in the Queensland electorate of Ryan, with faux green pamphlets saying “put Labor last”, and reports have circulated that “Green Army” volunteers were also at polling booths in the seat of Grayndler in Sydney’s inner west. Labor has also been accused of misleading tactics, with operatives in the seat of Lindsay allegedly dressing in a manner that implied they worked for their Liberal opponent.
