Inside Labor’s courting of the teal independents

From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven AM. Politics was changed at the last election in a way the major parties are still grappling with now. The record crossbencher delivered looks set to grow even more. With a hung Parliament looking ever more likely in the lead up to the next election, Labor is courting the teals, knowing the relationship could be crucial to forming government and keeping

It did have a rocky start.

Independents are threatening to block and stall labor legislation in Parliament following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's decision to cut their staff resources. Sixteen Lower House and eighteen senators will have personal advisor teams trimmed from four people to one a PM.

Now, some of that did get returned.

But look, they've managed while not having the balance of power in the House, They've managed to have a constructive relationship. It's been in some cases a warm relationship. There's individual cabinet ministers who've got on very well with these independents. At the same time, you know, Labour's obviously dealing with some serious you know, antagonism from of course the Opposition and the Greens, and so I guess in some ways, you know, there are a lot Labour's a lot nicer

I think it's very business like and it's quite productive.

There's certainly an open door policy in terms of collaborative discussion around improving legislation and policy positions.

So there's been high level, regular meetings with this broad new influx of independence, this cross bench in this parliament.

And the Independence. They have now been in their roles for more than two years. So what have they said to you about what it's been like for them in canber and about what they have managed to achieve in that time.

I mean, this is something that is a core attack line now from the opposition leader that what have they achieved? Have they achieved anything? Will they tell me that? I absolutely have despite not having the balance of power. So the big win, the first win was the net zero target of forty three percent being a floor not a ceiling. That was something that pretty much all of the independs will tell you that was a big win.

Helen Haynes, she can point to the.

Die Review, which is getting more community consultation over renewable energy infrastructure developments. So you know, she tells me that the labor has a real blind spot with rural and regional areas.

When I go interrogating legislation closely, that's where I always see the gaps and that's what I frequently take to them.

And so she's assisted that. Manique Ryan would point to reducing the Heck's indexation. That's seizing the burden on students. So that's something that came from public pressure.

I've got two amendments which will would make a real difference to people's experience of HEX and what one's about the timing of indexation now, other's about rolling back some of the job ready graduates program. They're both things that the governor has acknowledged it needs to do, but it said that it has no intention of addressing.

Right now the House.

Independents say that the government they don't know how to deal still with this record cross bench, they don't know how to deal with some of the members. It's difficult for them and sometimes they get woken up. And one of the examples that a Legras Spender gave me was the recent example of the census question.

Is out there going okay. Labour thought it was fighting with a coalition on this and this is why it behaves like this, But actually they forgot that it was actually fighting the community and it would and also a whole bunch of the cross bench work and I let it go quietly.

Either and I think that And you mentioned the Opposition has been attacking some of these independents, but some of them have also ramped up their attacks on Dutton as well. We heard Zali Stuggle recently calling him racist over his handling of the Palestinian visa situation. But just as Labor may need the tills if there is a hung Parliament, surely the Coalition would as well. So what are they doing about that?

Look, obviously the inner City Independence and the Coalition are opponents but can I tell you at the same time, when we talk about the weekly or parliamentary briefings that go on between the Labor government and the cross bench, the coalition holds its own fortnightly briefings during parliament with the cross bench as well.

The Prime Minister if he's in a minority government in the next term of parliament. It will include the Greens, It'll include the Green Teals, it'll include Muslim candidates from Western Sydney. It will be a disaster.

But we're getting this continuing narrative that we're headed towards the hung parliament. So lines are being laid down now via the opposition leader about how they're Green Teals and how they're going to be working with the Labor government and minority and it's going to be a disaster for the country.

Coming up after the break, the big fight that could rail Labour's relationship with the Independence Karen the Abenezy government, we know it's currently working on a package of electoral reforms. Independent MPs. They are worried about that, about what might be coming and how they could be affected. So tell me how this fight is shaping up.

One of the main planks of the Independence getting elected was integrity and electoral reform and looking at the issues of donation spending and Labor has gone with that and promised reform, but there's an absence of the Independence the cross Bench being involved in the negotiations with the government, which is causing the cross bench's major concern. They believe it's being set up for a stitch up, a two

The government has a long standing commitment to real time disclosure of political donations over one thousand dollars, but this hasn't happened because the government has indicated at once opposition support on electoral reform. Time is running out to implement transparency before the next election. Why won't the government make good on its promise and pass this legislation immediately with cross bench support in both houses. We need transparency now.

So what the independents are particularly concerned about is spending

Let's talk a little bit about the Greens, because obviously there is a situation where they could have the balance of power in the Senate. What are their chances.

Well, separate from chances, I think I would immediately say, well, they've got some high ambition for what it could get in the House, and they are eyeing off the balance of power in the House as well. They currently have four MPs in the House, which is their best result ever, and they're looking to build on that. They're going hard on issues such as housing. They want to be the party of mortgage holders, of people who are renting, and they're getting some great responses out in the field.

This election.

We will be running the biggest campaigns in Green history to win lower House seats too. There are at least I have new seats across the country where we believe we're in with a strong chance.

Look, I've spoken to Labor strategists who say, well, that's absolute bluster. They've said it every single time their polling has remained the same. But Labor was elected in twenty twenty two on a historically low primary vote and that hasn't improved for them. So Cosamaris from Redbridge, he's a former Labour strategist, he says, well, it's now looking like a deeper hung Parliament than even what we were predicting

Okay, So Karen, both the Coalition and Labor, they'd obviously lack to form a majority government in their own right, but as you say, that is looking increasingly unlikely. So how do you think that that is going to affect the messaging around the upcoming election campaign. What are we going to start to hear from people like Peter Dutton and Anthony are but easy.

We're starting to hear it now, So things are changing.

So for the Coalition, they're saying publicly that they're aiming for majority government, we're not seeing much of an attempt to take back the seats in the inner city that they need to. So it does feed in with this narrative that Peter Dutton's actually going for a two term strategy to win back government. To basically write down Labor, Labor is going for majority. Will we keep saying that it's going for a majority in its own right. It

I think the two party system is a threat to itself. It's up to them to change their behavior. It's up to them to show more accountability. It's up to them to show more vision for the country. It's up to them to be more ambitious. It's up to them to stop bickering with each other. It's up to you the Liberals to demonstrate what their principles and values are and it's up to Labor to follow their principles and values

Karen, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Also in the news today, the final report of the Royal Commission into Defense and Veterans Suicide has been handed