Labor deal leans left

Despite a war of words this week between the premier and the Greens over preferences in a handful of marginal seats, the two parties have made a preference deal to stave off conservative forces.

One of those forces, Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party, has in turn been boosted by a preference swap with the Liberals and by Family First pulling out entirely from NSW politics.

The Christian Democrat deal has members of both Labor and the Greens concerned about the growing religious right in the Liberal Party.

Labor’s Penny Sharpe said the ramifications for the gay and lesbian community of a Debnam government would be dire.

The extreme religious right in the Liberal party would look at two things, stopping any further reform and rolling back some issues like age of consent.

Sharpe said she hoped the religious vote was not a growing force in NSW.

Labor is preferencing the Greens in the upper house and that’s what we want to see, obviously -“ the Christian Democrats are still a problem for further gay and lesbian law reform.

The Christian Democratic Party has told the faithful on its website that it is a mathematical certainty either the Greens or the CDP would hold the balance of power in the upper house after 24 March.

Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon said there was every reason to be worried about what the conservatives might do to the gains already made for the gay and lesbian community.

I’ve seen David Clark and Fred Nile moving amendments to lay the basis to attack abortion; this is the very insidious way they are working together to eat away at the social reforms that we’ve achieved, she said.

We know how the Liberals voted on the equal age of consent, we obviously have considerable concerns how many of these rights will be reversed if Debnam was elected.

Many of the so-called left wing of the Liberal party, the wets, have been lost with preselection going to people whose roots are in churches and have a long-term agenda.

But Liberal MP and shadow attorney-general Chris Hartcher responded by saying gay and lesbian issues were a matter of conscience and pointed out Labor had its own very influential right-wing faction, that included premier Morris Iemma and ministers Joe Tripodi, Michael Costa and John Della Bosca.

The suggestion that the Liberal Party is beholden to any one group or faction is incorrect and strange, especially coming from two of the most factionally divided political parties in the world, he said.

The Sydney Star Observer has polled a range of candidates to gauge their views on issues relating to the gay and lesbian community. Their answers are available to read online.