Labor, Dreyfus direct preferences to Greens
'There should be unity from the major parties around marginalising the Greens for what they have done to our communities and our country'
Jewish groups have expressed bitter disappointment at Labor directing preferences to Greens candidates around Australia, ignoring requests by communal roof bodies to put the party last on how-to-vote cards.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has directed his second preference in Isaacs to Greens candidate Matthew Kirwan, despite condemning the Greens numerous times for their divisive rhetoric.
Kirwan called for sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel, has signed the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network’s “commitments for Palestine” and last year joined an anti-Israel protest outside the office of Dreyfus’s party colleague Clare O’Neill.
“It is bitterly disappointing that a senior member of the government and an eminent Jewish Australian could see fit to instruct his supporters to put a ‘2’ next to a party that has done more to vilify the Jewish community than any party in Australian history,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said.
“Mr Dreyfus has previously shown a keen understanding of how extreme anti-Israel rhetoric is in fact antisemitism no matter the euphemisms or political code it comes wrapped in. It is difficult to comprehend how a person who knows this could uplift and legitimise the purveyors of this antisemitism.
“There should be unity from the major parties around marginalising the Greens for what they have done to our communities and our country.”
The ECAJ has repeatedly called for the major parties to preference the Greens last.
Despite this, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has given his second preference to The Greens’ Hannah Thomas who posted on Instagram earlier this month, “If you’re anti-genocide, vote 1 Greens”, while Education Minister Jason Care has preferenced Greens candidate Omar Sakr second, despite Sakr declaring “Zionism is on the side of Nazis”.
Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite, who represents a large Jewish community in Kingsford Smith, has also preferenced the Greens second.
Both Dreyfus and Thistlethwaite hold their seats on safe margins.
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