As someone who dreads the thought of Tony Abbott – seriously, Tony Abbott, the shameless liar and vicious social conservative, representative of the most corrupt and dishonest multinational corporations raiding this country – being anywhere near the Lodge, can I make a request of the Labor Party?
Look, guys, I don’t like you and you don’t like progressive voters like me – but surely we can both agree that neither of us wants to see another Workchoices style hard rightwing (yes, even more rightwing than the faction that controls your party) government in office, cutting services and flogging off national assets just to fund tax cuts for the super-rich. And yet that’s what you’re in serious danger of causing.
To that end – please, concentrate on the fight against the Liberals, instead of wasting your efforts trying to crush the Greens. You’re the only ones who can win over those conservative voters bleeding from you to the Coalition. The Greens are not going to appeal to them: the Greens represent progressive economic and social policies to which these voters are apparently (if we understand what the Labor Right faction has persuaded you) innately hostile. That’s why you’ve abandoned social liberal policies like marriage equality, and refuse to properly fund public services and build infrastructure like decent public transport networks?
Only you can win over those conservative “swinging” voters. It’s ridiculous to suggest, as Lindsay Tanner disingenuously does, that the Greens should try to win conservative seats: it’s just not possible, at least in the short term. If someone is going to take those voters from the Coalition, it’s going to have to be you. So could you get started on it, please? Direct your campaigns to convincing THEM that the RSPT is in their interest – which, of course, it is. (And do a better job of selling it in Parliament.) Stop trying to chase both sides of politics at once – it isn’t going to work this time. If you devote your efforts to destroying the Greens, you could certainly (with the amount of money and other resources as an incumbent old party at your disposal) do them real harm. But you’d do that at the cost of putting Tony Abbott in the Lodge.
Don’t do it. You apparently want to be a middle-of-the-road soft rightwing party – well, do that. Don’t pretend to be anything else. The Greens will represent the progressives you’ve long since abandoned, and you can concentrate on keeping the vandals and wreckers out of power.
Unless you’d seriously prefer to subject Australia to the Liberal Party again, after only three years, because what you hate most of all is the idea of progressives finally realising they can actually have a voice in Canberra.
Moved On 
From the article:
But Labor’s primary vote has shrunk by 10%. It isn’t rightwingers leaving Labor, it’s the lefty Labor voters giving the govt a kick. The problem is, enough of them are kicking that the coalition could sneak in over the line. A wake up call if ever those voters needed one.
You hit every trite talking point with that one Jeremy! There is no more potent stimulator of the gag reflex than a proselytising Green. The voters are parking their votes with the Greens while they make up their minds. Do you really want to scare them away? The two party-preferred polls give a better indication of where Cancerous Kev is heading.
“it’s the lefty Labor voters giving the govt a kick”
I never voted labor because I am a lefty, no fucking way am i going to vote for pricks that foist tens of millions on the nations richest schools, NEVER! I’m not going to vote for them because they’re the lesser of two evils, this is the problem as I see it, too many lefties vote Labor because they aren’t the coalition.. If they all used their heads and voted green then we’d have quite a different political landscape.
I’m going to vote for what I believe in and think that others should do the same.
And yeah if Abbott gets over the line it’s because Rudd has broken too many promises ie it’s his fault. I wish he’d join the Liberal party, the guy is a Tory through & through.
The Coalition can win as long as Tony and Barnaby keep their mouths shut. But can they?
Confessions, I don’t really see lefty voters kicking the government by preferencing Liberal. At most the Greens will gain a few senate seats, and maybe one or two in the lower house.
They are preferencing the Greens. If they were going over the Libs, their primary vote would be increasing, but it isn’t. In fact, the Neilsen isn’t really a good poll for the coalition when you look at the fact their primary vote is stuck, and they’ve got an unpopular leader.