We may be just four days in to the election campaign, but already there is an intriguing subplot emerging. It is the potential for a coalition government.
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Labor and the Liberals have already said no, but the Greens say they’re interested, as long as it’s with Labor.
Interestingly, Labor has ruled out governing with the help of the Greens if a hung parliament eventuates.
The Liberals were quick to rule out any deals, and even went as far to warn voters against a Labor-Green coalition.
The Greens, on the other hand, have unsurprisingly signalled a desire to do a deal with Labor if it fell short of a few seats on election night.
On Tuesday, former Tasmanian Greens leader and current Greens Senator Nick McKim made no bones about his preference for a deal with federal Labor.
He said a previous coalition between the Greens and Julia Gillard’s Labor Government in 2010 had created some valuable policy outcomes.
From a Labor perspective, however, the alliance was politically unpopular, and perhaps it is that memory that is driving the current opposition with leader Bill Shorten.
On face value, at least, the two parties look like a reasonable fit – Labor and the Greens share some common ground on a number of policy issues, including carbon emissions. The one stumbling block of late between the two parties has been Labor’s stance on turning back asylum seeker boats, which aligns it much closer to the Liberals.
Mr Shorten, however, has other ideas. He said his party would not consider a deal with the Greens under any circumstances.
"No deals with Labor about forming a coalition. No deals," Mr Shorten told journalists on Wednesday.
A hung parliament in the lower house is unlikely. In the current parliament, the Greens hold just one House of Representatives seat – Adam Bandt in the Victorian seat of Melbourne.
Many Tasmanians hold a somewhat dim view of coalition governments following the recent union between Lara Giddings’ Labor government and the Greens, which ended in a landslide victory for Will Hodgman’s LIberals in 2014.
Ultimately what brings them undone is the two parties involved spend so much time trying to appease each other’s agendas, they lose sight of the big picture – serving the best interest of the public.
