The ACT Greens have today labelled claims by members of the Federal Labor Party’s leadership that under no circumstances would they form another minority government with the Greens and Independents as unrealistic and anti-democratic.

“Huge numbers of Canberrans are telling us that they’re deliberately voting for Greens and Independents because they’re sick of the major parties and want to see a power sharing parliament,” Tim Hollo, Greens candidate for Canberra, said today.

“So Mr Albanese’s ‘my way or now way’ approach is profoundly anti-democratic and kind of offensive to people voting for shared power.

“Canberrans have 13 years of experience to show how well government works when Labor and the Greens work together. We’ve built the most progressive legislative agenda in Australia, and off the back of that, our vote has continued to climb, while ACT Labor is now the longest serving local government in Australia.”

Dr Tjanara Goreng Goreng, Greens candidate for the Senate, said: “Canberrans also know that the Gillard Greens independent government was the most effective in 50 years, and after a decade of inaction, we need that type of collaborative legislative agenda that comes from having multiple views in the room.

“Canberrans do not support Labor’s drift to the right, and know that a strong Greens crossbench is the best way to help Labor become the progessive party they once were.

“Many of the policies the Greens are campaigning on, for example negative gearing and capital gains tax reform, or opposing stage three tax cuts, are policies that Labor has supported in the past,” Mr Hollo noted.

“Indeed, one of Canberra’s Labor MPs has actually published papers in support of these positions.”

Mr Hollo referred to Dr Andrew Leigh, MP for Fenner, who argued in 2016 that negative gearing should be reformed, and in 2019 criticised the stage three tax cuts as ‘regressive’.