The Australian Greens propping up the federal government live on another planet as shown by their performance on asylum-seeker policy, Victorian Labor leader Daniel Andrews says.
The Greens entered into an agreement with Prime Minister Julia Gillard to form minority government following the 2010 election.
Now Labor is reviewing its links with the Greens after concerns within the ALP the minor party is driving key policy decisions.
Mr Andrews says Greens in both the state and federal parliament are inward looking, self-indulgent, evangelical idealists.
“Their (the Greens’) main game is being holding themselves hostage if you like to … an evangelical idealism that achieves nothing,” he said.
The Greens’ refusal in Canberra several weeks ago to support any deal on asylum seekers that included offshore processing was an interesting close-up of the way the party operates, he said.
“They would rather protect their ideals than find the common ground that might just protect the most vulnerable,” Mr Andrews told reporters in Melbourne on Monday.
“The absolute, almost evangelical idealism – these people are on a different planet.”
Labor is preferencing Family First ahead of the Greens in the by-election for the state seat of Melbourne on July 21.
The poll is likely to be a close contest between Cathy Oke, for the Greens, and fellow Melbourne City councillor Jennifer Kanis, for Labor.
Labor holds Melbourne by a 6.2 per cent margin.
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