Labor Conference: NSW Labor continues culture of deception

Commenting on today's NSW State Labor Conference Greens NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon stated that misinformation about the Greens in the motion passed by conference will reinforce the perception that Labor is incapable of meaningful reform.

"Labor and the Greens have a common enemy in Tony Abbott. Labor should focus on exposing what a disaster it would be if he became prime minister instead of spreading misinformation about the Greens," Senator Rhiannon said.

"Despite what NSW Labor general secretary Sam Dastyari says, the Greens have never had 'a free ride' or an automatic arrangement with Labor on preferences and Mr Dastyari should know this.

"There have been a number of occasions when the Greens and Labor have not exchanged preferences, including in the last state election and in the 2004 Victorian senate election when Labor preferenced Family First before the Greens and Steve Fielding was elected.

"In the 2004 federal election Labor also allocated a third of their Senate preferences to Fred Nile ahead of the Greens NSW lead Senate candidate.

"It is astonishing that the Labor Party, suffering from a public perception of lack of integrity, engages in even more misinformation to try and win back votes.

"The amended motion on the Greens passed by the conference contained two pieces of misinformation.

"Labor has crafted the motion to give the false impression that the Greens NSW preferenced Pauline Hanson and an array of ring wing parties ahead of Labor in the last state election. This is not true. The Greens gave no preferences to Pauline Hanson or any right wing parties.

"The Greens NSW preferenced Labor in only a handful of Lower House seats because their policies hurt the people of NSW and the environment. The previous state Labor government was toxic. In the majority of seats the Greens did not allocate preferences.

"We did not preference any party in the Upper House. Labor is being hypocritical as they essentially did the same thing.

"The Labor motion also states that unions are no longer able to run campaigns because of new laws the Greens supported in the NSW state parliament. Again this is a fabrication. Unions can still run issue based campaigns and they are doing that right at the moment with a good campaign on workers' compensation," Senator Rhiannon said.