Australian Greens Party leader Senator Christine Milne has said she cannot trust the word of the conservative Liberal-National Prime Minister Tony Abbott in political negotiations.
The federal government is expected to need support from the Australian Greens to get some of the measures in its recently announced federal budget through the upper house Senate.
Senator Milne said this morning on ABC News 24 Breakfast that she had only had one meeting with Mr Abbott since the election, in which he “told me one thing and did the exact opposite”.
“It was with regard to Tasmanian World Heritage area, where the PM had said he was going to withdraw the area from World Heritage listing,” she told ABC News.
“I said to him it would be a very bad idea. He said, ‘Oh, I’ve never said that’. He said, ‘What’s locked up is locked up’. He would just oppose anything more being protected.
“And then within weeks the federal government submitted to the World Heritage Centre in Paris its intention to withdraw 74,000 hectares.
“So you simply can’t deal with a PM who tells you one thing, then does another,” she added.
In relation to some of the widely disputed elements of the Liberal-National government’s budget the Greens have said they will not support the proposed doctor co-payment, and they are planning to block welfare changes.
“You have to act in good faith and you have to be able to trust people, and it’s clear from that, that I wouldn’t be able to trust what the Prime Minister had to say,” Senator Milne said.
The Australian Greens are also opposing a range of changes and repeals that the Liberal-National government is seeking to make to Australia’s clean energy laws and regulations.
They also oppose the abolish of a number of climate related authorities.
The government’s leader in the Senate Eric Abetz said the Greens did not wish to negotiate in good faith, and accused Senator Milne of being two-faced.
“The sort of language that Senator Milne uses does her no credit whatsoever,” he said.
“When it comes to extreme policy positions I think everybody accepts the Australian Greens have the mortgage on that in the Australian parliament.”
