Nationals – Labor / Greens alliance a disaster for regional Australia

Labor – Greens alliance a disaster for regional Australia

The signing today of a formal alliance between Gillard Labor and the Brown Greens will send a shiver down the spine of regional Australia.

If such a Labor – Green beast forms government, the regions will be threatened by Greens policies such as an even bigger mining tax, a giant new emissions trading scheme also imposed on agriculture, an end to fishing in many marine areas, death duties, an open door policy on boat arrivals, and an end to coal extraction and other mining. Food prices for all Australians will rise as The Greens pursue their policies to end intensive agriculture and stop irrigation in the Murray Darling Basin. The list goes on.

As Leader of The Nationals Warren Truss said today, already, this Labor Government has been one of the worst ever for people living outside the capital cities.

“In Labor’s first Budget, $1 billion was slashed from regional programs. In the second, even more was cut and Labor gave us an emissions trading scheme. In the third Budget, Labor gave us a mining tax.

“Everything Labor has done has been bad for the regions, smashing confidence, jobs and investment. As a result, regional people responded in kind for Labor at the election, delivering record low results for the ALP in many electorates.

“Meanwhile, The Nationals increased its two party preferred vote in almost every seat, winning three new seats and an extra senator. Proportionally, it was our best result since 1949.

“The people of regional Australia saw what was happening under Labor, and acted accordingly.

They will react with dread at a formal Labor – Greens alliance in government and the threat this poses for regional Australia,” Mr Truss said.
Head to head: The Nationals and the Greens

Right through the election campaign and even afterwards, Greens Leader Bob Brown was loudly claiming that the Greens had somehow surpassed The Nationals. On the numbers so far, the facts tell a different story:

Fact 1: The Nationals won 12 of the 24 seats they contested, while the Greens won only 1 of the 150 seats they contested.

Fact 2: The Nationals achieved an average primary vote of 38.8% in the 24 seats contested. The Greens average primary vote in the same seats was just 8% – a full 3.5% lower than the Greens’ average primary vote nationally of 11.5%.

Fact 3: In the 56 regional seats (as defined by the ABS) the Greens received 405,730 primary votes, while The Nationals received 712,165 primary votes – even though we ran in only 24 of those 56 seats. In other words, The Nationals received 306,000 more votes in regional Australia than the Greens, despite contesting 32 less seats.

Fact 4: In 24 head-to-head contests, The Nationals did not just suppress the Greens vote but drove it backwards in seats like Cowper and Riverina, with respective swings against the Greens of 2.5% and 0.6%.
Fact 5: The Nationals achieved a swing in primary vote terms of 6% in the 24 seats contested. The Greens achieved a swing in primary vote terms of 3.7% nationally, or just 1.6% in the 24 seats the party contested against The Nationals.

Like many of the Greens’ claims, the results don’t match the rhetoric.
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3 comments to Nationals – Labor / Greens alliance a disaster for regional Australia

  • David

    I honestly couldn’t read the whole thing I was laughing so hard.

  • Milknife

    Fact 5. Nationals wont be forming government.

  • Chris

    1. From 9 to 12 seats is a 33% increase. 0 to 1 is pretty much by definition infinitely better.

    2. 38%. Or, more accurately 3.72% of the national vote. Versus 11.55% of the national vote.

    3. Uh, whut? The AEC puts the Nationals’ primary vote at a grand total of 439,755. But, y’know, don’t let the truth get in the way of your outright lies.

    4. A conservative party outperformed a progressive party in conservative seats? Holy shit, how did you manage that? Of course, the fact that you list a 0.6 swing suggests that the Greens actually picked up swings pretty much everywhere else. But then, that doesn’t fit the narrative, does it?

    5. Conversely, the Greens actually have wide appeal. And while the Nats won 3 senate seats this election, the Greens won double that. Who’s more popular, again?

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