The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, has said his party will not move from its position that offshore processing centres must be closed if there are negotiations with the major parties after the election.
He was speaking while campaigning in the Victorian electorate of Batman on Thursday, a seat held by Labor’s David Feeney but which the Greens’ Alex Bhathal, running for a fifth time, hopes to win.
The day before, Di Natale told reporters that although the Greens wanted offshore processing centres closed, that position was a “starting point” and that everything was a “negotiation”.
Asked to clarify on Thursday whether the Greens were willing to do a deal with Labor, he said: “Our policy will never change. We want those camps closed.
“That is a bottom line that we will never negotiate on. Those camps must be closed because they harm and damage people. If we have an opportunity to vote against offshore processing, we’ll do that.
“Our policy is rock solid. We will never compromise on an end to those camps. We will never compromise on the cruelty and brutality that is offshore detention. But that shouldn’t stop us from trying to get the other two parties to change their position.”
Di Natale also dismissed claims that Labor party strategists believe Adam Bandt’s seat of Melbourne, the only lower house seat held by the Greens, could go to Labor’s candidate, Sophie Ismail.
“I think Adam Bandt has done a wonderful job in Melbourne and I’m very, very confident Adam will be returned,” he said.
The press conference outside the Commonwealth Bank building in Reservoir, where many senior citizens were doing their banking, was interrupted by a couple of vocal pensioners.
“It’s all bullshit,” an older man yelled while walking past. Another senior man asked “What are you going to do for the pensioners?” before quickly being guided out of earshot by a member of the Greens staff.
Reservoir, about 12km north of Melbourne, is increasingly gentrified, attracting young, independent professionals and couples looking for housing more affordable than Brunswick and Fitzroy. But there are also many people with Italian ancestry and Di Natale spoke to them in Italian, sharing jokes and outlining how to vote.
He then moved on to the markets in the neighbouring suburb of Preston, joining Bhathal as she talked to storeowners. Bhathal, who has lived in the electorate for 30 years, knows many of them well. There was an awkward moment when Feeney showed up, shook hands with Bhathal and then moved on. Feeney has a habit of showing up “a few minutes after” the Greens do, Bhathal said.
The Greens have 600 volunteers on the ground in the Batman electorate, with up to 170 people door-knocking at once. Taylor Karney, 21, and Lance Fox, 35, voted at a Labor pre-polling visited by Di Natale and Bhathal on Thursday.
They know who Bhathal is. “Her posters are everywhere,” Karney said.
“But they need to talk about more than just the environment and start speaking about employment and taxation and other things that also affect people in their everyday lives.”
Di Natale spent a lot of time answering questions about Greens policy. He said it was frustrating that the Greens policies – beyond the environment – weren’t cutting through.
“But it’s changing,” he said. “People see our positions on things like renewable energy and our commitment to the NBN; they see how those policies are jobs-rich. But it’s a challenge, being a party that’s relatively young compared to the two old parties, and being in a party that doesn’t get the media exposure of its policies that the other parties do.
“We’ve released a suite of policies around jobs and the new economy.”
The Greens have announced a $400m investment in Tafe to provide skills for the long-term unemployed and the elderly. The party’s Renew Australia policy has a plan to transition workers in coal to renewable industries through training and reskilling programs.
“I’ve made a deliberate effort to focus on our strong position on jobs and also economic issues,” he said.
