Victorian ALP campaign strategist and assistant state secretary, Kosmos Samaras, has made a call for the Labor Party to accept Australia as a three-party political system – with the Greens firmly in third spot.
Samaras’ comments arose after Liberal Party’s Michael Kroger acknowledged the growing threat of the Greens in several blue-ribbon seats and revealed a campaign strategy directed at conservative Liberal voters who had strayed.
In a debate concerning Labor’s approach to tackling the rising prevalence of the Greens in the inner city, Samaras stated that “for far too long now, those in political commentariat have explained the Greens political party support as a protest, a flash in the pan, and a product of temporary voter disillusionment.”
In a personal blog post, Samaras suggested the Greens were increasingly attracting wealthy, inner-urban workers and that Labor will face a tough task fighting the Greens in its former heartlands of inner-city Melbourne and Sydney.
Samaras’ view is supported by Victorian Labor minister, Jane Garret, who says that the influx of wealthy careerists in former working-class suburbs of Melbourne has changed the political dynamic.
Samaras says this change represents “a new class of voter, party created by the knowledge economy…a different person entirely [who is] a product of the complete contraction of high income jobs to the centre of Melbourne.”
Labor has said it will continue to strongly contest inner-city seats with a refined approach focused on ‘contestable’ voters in high-income – but unstable contract employment, whose economic status would be threatened in the event of a downturn.
Samaras told reporters that the ALP were “about contesting this space and holding the Greens to account, especially in the area of job security. These people still need to eat and the Greens have no plan for that.”
