Friends and enemies

For some unknown reason I get the emails of Peoplepower, the new Victorian political party, basically rather like the Democrats including Stephen Mayne of Crikey fame and Vern Hughes (he used to be in Socialist Forum (for whose newsletter I wrote this) but now writes for the Institute of Public Affairs). An email today suggested that Victorian Labor was seeking a deal with the Liberals, that in exchange for Liberal preferences in the inner-city seats (which would dash any hope of Greens winning) Labor would preference to the Liberals in safe National seats. This would place many Nationals at serious risk especially Hugh Delahunty in Lowan. It is a plausible scenario, especially as Labor's Northcote candidate is unlikely to inspire local ALP branch members to campaign for her. Mary Delahunty (sister of Hugh) attracted votes that would have otherwise have gone to the Greens, as shown by her polling about 5% points better than Labor Legislative Council candidate in 2002. Alexandra Bhathal is a strong candidate for the Greens. Labor and the Greens are like Liberals and Nationals their ideological closeness encourages competition between them. Can the Greens stand up to Labor on this, their preferences give them some power over Labor but where can they go?