The Australian has some hot goss on The Fake Greens:
The Greens candidate attempting to win the seat of Batman and end a century of Labor representation in Melbourne’s north is accused by members of her party of intimidation, bullying, branch stacking, spreading “reckless false statements’’ and cultivating ALP-style factionalism within the party’s largest branch.
A complaint lodged by 18 Greens campaign volunteers, office-holders and elected representatives calls on the party’s state executive to disendorse Alex Bhathal as the Batman candidate and expel her from the party, warning that her election to federal parliament would pose a serious risk to the party’s future growth and unity.
The party said the complaint had been considered and dealt with.
The complainants are current or former members of Ms Bhathal’s Darebin branch, which controls preselections for the Darebin council, the state seats of Northcote and Preston, and the now winnable federal seat of Batman.
They are Greens who supported her previous campaigns, who attended branch meetings and party functions with her and who, since the 2016 federal election when she ran and lost in Batman for a fifth time, are concerned at her “increasingly malicious’’ behaviour towards anyone she perceives as disloyal.
The 101-page complaint and covering letter, seen by The Australian, depicts a power-hungry, perennial candidate who ruthlessly uses proxies to stifle debate, manipulate internal party procedures and undermine fellow members. It accuses her of “serious, repeated, often wilful misconduct’’ and demands the allegations be fully investigated.
“This misconduct has included systematic intimidation, and malicious and reckless false statements about members and party decisions,’’ the complaint reads.
“The attached statements include instances of direct intimidation and victimisation on the part of Alex, as well as the wider, more systematic operation of her political machine, which has been used to undermine consensus decision-making processes, attack and harass members considered to be ‘in the way’ and we believe, to recruit members for the purpose of swaying preselection results. Alex’s behaviour has escalated markedly in the past year. Her tactics have become more aggressive and ruthless, her breaches of the code of conduct more flagrant and brazen, her behaviour many magnitudes more destructive. We believe she must be held to account and cannot be allowed to continue on as a representative and member of the Victorian Greens.’’
…The complainants, who requested their identities be concealed from Ms Bhathal, say the party’s interests would be better served by the Greens losing Batman than Ms Bhathal winning it. This would enable the party to preselect a new candidate for the next federal election.
…Ms Bhathal is a Tampa Green: the cohort of political activists who joined the Greens in the lead-up to the 2001 election motivated less by environmental concerns than opposition to immigration and border protection policies.
If it’s in the paper today it sure doesn’t sound like it was “dealt with”.
Does this kind of factionalism help explain the fall of environmental policy and rise of social policy as the core of The Fake Greens?
