The Greens will push for rent controls, and bans on gas projects and logging if Daniel Andrews is forced into a coalition with them.
Labor is heavily favoured to win the November 26 Victorian election, but the left-wing party is eyeing key inner-Melbourne seats.
Underperformance by Labor may give the Greens the balance of power and force the premier to unite with them to form government.
Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam said the state was heading into what could be a historic election.
Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam said her party had five main priorities it would push for if Premier Daniel Andrews was forced into a coalition with her party
‘More and more Victorians are moving away from the major parties and indicating they intend to vote Greens,’ she said.
‘This is because they want a strong, progressive crossbench that can hold the government to account.
‘If Labor isn’t able to form a majority government, they will need to work with the Greens to ensure progressive reform.’
Ms Ratnam said her party had five main priorities should that result come to pass, which Mr Andrews would likely gave to give significant ground on.
First the Greens, like their federal counterparts, want a blanket ban on all new gas exploration as part of the party’s climate policy.
Australia is suffering through an energy crisis as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with gas prices skyrocketing here and abroad.
However, new gas projects would take years to come online, by which time the cost of living would have returned to normal.
Underperformance by Labor may give the Greens the balance of power and force Mr Andrews (pictured with his wife Catherine) to unite with them to form government
The Greens’ main means of addressing the cost of living is to cap rent increases, which also jumped enormously over the past two years, to be in line with wages.
The pandemic accelerated Australia’s trend towards smaller households as residents wanted more space during lockdown and to work from home.
The national rental vacancy rate fell from 2.1 to 1.3 per cent during the pandemic, and rent prices rose by 14.3 per cent.
This will only worsen with Australia’s borders back open, creating a backlog of 872,000 visa applications yet to be approved and another 2.22 million made since June 1.
Wages, by comparison, barely rose over the past decade and when they finally started moving this year were dwarfed by huge inflation.
The Greens want to build more public and affordable housing to address supply issues. Landlords and unlikely to be happy with any of this.
Mr Andrews would likely have to pass the Strengthening Integrity Bill in some form, which beefs up the powers of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.
The Greens’ main means of addressing the cost of living is to cap rent increases, which also jumped enormously over the past two years, in line with wages.
The legislation also includes a code of conduct for ministers and lobbyists overseen by a independent parliamentary integrity commissioner.
Ministers and other senior politicians would be banned from doing any lobbying work for two years after leaving their positions.
Mr Andrews’ government has for its entire reign refused to support private members bills of any kind, believing only the government was equipped to draft legislation.
Fourth on the list is raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, in line with the recommendations of a parliamentary inquiry into Victoria’s justice system.
Every state in Australia has the age set at 10, but the most common age around the world is 14.
Finally, the Greens’ top environmental priority is banning logging in native forests from next year, meaning only plantations could be cut down.
The Greens’ top environmental priority is banning logging in native forests from next year, meaning only plantations could be cut down
Mr Andrews has for the past 12 years refused to even consider making any deals with the Greens, and reaffirmed that position for this election.
Ms Ratnam, a Sri Lankan immigrant whose Tamil family was caught up in the bloody 1983 start to the country’s civil war and fled four years later, isn’t sure about that.
She is confident her party can steal between two and four lower house seats from Labor, eating into the government’s 55 to 27 majority over the Coalition.
The latest poll, a RedBridge survey released on Monday, gave Labor a 53.5 to 46.5 two-party-preferred lead.