It is disappointing that Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party are spreading lies to scare progressive voters.

As Australian Greens Co-Convenor Giz Watson said in a statement on March 8th, “There is no deal. This is nothing more than a cynical attempt to throw mud at the Greens and hope some of it sticks.”

Unlike the Labor Party, the Greens make decisions around preferences, policy and candidates with our membership. We disagree with the Liberal Party on almost everything. It’s the Labor Party that have a long history of swapping preferences with the Liberals.

The Greens are the only party standing up to the Liberal Party, and that’s why Labor is scared. The Labor Party has voted with the Liberal Party six times more than the Greens have.

If they are scared they will lose votes in progressive seats like Grayndler the answer is not to make up lies about the Greens, it is for the Labor Party to work out what they stand for and start standing up to the Liberal Party.

Frequently asked questions

1 // Have the Greens ‘done a deal’ with the Liberal Party on preferences?

Answer: No. We have not done a deal with the Liberal Party or any other party.

Unlike the other parties, our preferences are determined by the membership — not factional powerbrokers. Our members believe in welcoming people who seek asylum, strong action on global warming and tackling inequality.

2 // Will the Greens form government with the Coalition?

Answer: We disagree with the Coalition on nearly everything so it would be unthinkable to support them in government. The Greens are the real opposition to the Liberal agenda. In fact, the Labor party has voted with the Coalition six times more than we have. The most likely coalition is between the Liberal and Labor parties — they have more in common with each other than the Greens do with either of them.

3 // What about “open tickets”?

Answer: Our starting point has always been  that people should vote 1 Greens and then preference how they want. People, not parties, should determine preferences.

Our default position is to let people allocate their own preferences because we think voters are wise enough to do so. This has been the case since Bob Brown was leader.

It’s disappointing that the Labor party don’t think voters are smart enough to direct their own preferences in the House or the Senate.

4 // Why have the Liberals agreed with the Greens on some recent policies?

The Greens put policy ahead of politics, which means we will always support good reforms (… especially when they were our reforms in the first place!)

It’s not often that the Liberal Party and the Greens agree, in fact 94 per cent of the time we vote against the Coalition (that’s compared to the almost 40 per cent of the time the Labor Party agrees with them!)