The Greens say their candidate has been unfairly excluded from a live SBS TV forum focusing on the party’s “only winnable” federal seat in Queensland.
A recent poll has put Kirsten Lovejoy within striking distance of the Labor primary vote in Brisbane. However, she has been refused a place in a candidates’ discussion to be broadcast nationally next Monday on The Feed program.
The program, which called for audience members to attend a forum in which “local candidates and our host, Jeanette Francis, will explore the issues that affect voters in Brisbane, Queensland and throughout Australia”, will feature only the Liberal and Labor contenders.
The Greens say the producers indicated they wished to focus on the contest between two gay men – the Liberals’ Trevor Evans and Labor’s Pat O’Neill – and ask them about marriage equality. They also told party representatives who questioned the omission of Lovejoy that the program would feature Greens candidates in other stories.
“This doesn’t negate the fact that our candidate for our only winnable seat in Queensland has been excluded from an important televised debate five days before the election, one that involves both the other candidates who have a chance to win the seat,” the Greens spokesman, Ben Pennings, said.
“SBS is also a publicly funded broadcaster and we expect better than this.”
Lovejoy, who says she learned of the event from voters who told her they were looking forward to seeing her in action, said it was “disappointing that they’ve opted to exclude me from the discussion, particularly when the Green vote is on the rise and there’s an expectation in the community that I would be there”.
“People are talking about this as a three-horse race and polling shows there’s not a lot in it between Labor and the Greens so you would think that we’d be given the opportunity to speak alongside the other two potential seat holders,” she said.
A Roy Morgan poll in recent days put the Greens in the Coalition-held seat of Brisbane on a primary vote of 17.5%, beside Labor’s 21% and the incumbent party’s 44.5%.
The Greens say the high vote for “others” at 17% gives Lovejoy a chance at prevailing on preferences, a scenario similar to the election of the first Queensland Greens councillor, Jonathan Sri, in an inner Brisbane ward in March.
A former Greens leader, Bob Brown, said on Tuesday that Brisbane was “inevitably going to become a Green seat in the federal parliament, if not this time then further down the line”.
Lovejoy said the decision to select only major party candidates for a forum touching on marriage equality was surprising given the local Veterans party candidate, the transgender former army officer Bridget Clinch, had “done so much to draw attention to issues of equality and issues within the army and has been a leader in that space”.
“From the Greens perspective, we’ve been championing this issue forever and we won’t stop,” Lovejoy said.
Nick Hayden, the executive producer for The Feed, said the Brisbane forum at the Queensland University of Technology was one of “a series of election shows broadcasting from a new electorate each day across the final week of the campaign”.
“None are open forums, but rather each show focuses on different issues and political battles,” he said.
“The Greens are well represented across the week of shows, with Greens Grayndler candidate Jim Casey appearing on Tuesday’s show and Greens leader Richard Di Natale likely to appear as well.”
It is understood Clinch has been filmed for a segment on The Feed to be broadcast on another date.
The audience invitation from SBS, which does not mention parties but calls for attendees to declare their political affiliation, bills the program as an opportunity to “see what your local candidates are about, and where they fit in the national picture”.
