The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, will release a $173bn balance-of-power wishlist at the party’s campaign launch in Brisbane on Monday night, outlining seven key concessions it wants from Labor in the event of a minority government.
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has ruled out doing any deals with the Greens to form a government, while Bandt has said the party will not support the Liberals under any circumstance.
But the Greens are preparing their list of key demands for Labor if it falls short of the 76 seats it needs to form a majority government, with the party confident of winning at least one seat in Queensland to give it two lower house MPs.
The party’s seven key demands are no new coal and gas; dental and mental health into Medicare; building 1m affordable homes and better renters’ rights; free childcare; wiping student debt; lifting income support; and progress on all elements of the Uluru statement from the heart.
The cost of the policy demands is about $173bn over four years, Still, the Greens are also advocating $182bn in new revenue and savings measures to cover the cost, including through a “super profits” tax, a billionaires tax, a crackdown on corporate tax avoidance, and ending fossil fuel subsidies.
Bandt will release the party’s demands at a campaign launch at the BlackHops Brewery on Monday in the Brisbane electorate of Griffith, which Labor’s Terri Butler holds on a 2.8% margin.
The Greens are hoping they can secure a win in Griffith and are also eyeing the Coalition-held seats of Ryan (6%) and Brisbane (4.9%) as possible gains. Labor is also hoping to pick these seats of the Coalition.
The Greens candidate for Griffith, Max Chandler-Mather, secured 23.6% of the vote when he ran in 2019, and the party is confident it can build upon this 6.6% swing at Saturday’s election.
Bandt predicted a close result on election night that could put the Greens in the box seat and said voters “deserve to know what will be on the negotiating table”.
“This election has become a narrow contest between a terrible government that’s got to go and a visionless opposition that keeps agreeing with them,” he said. “The Greens will kick the Liberals out and keep Labor on track.”
He said the party would tackle the climate crisis by stopping new coal and gas mines and addressing the rising cost of living by getting dental and mental health into Medicare, building affordable housing, and freeing childcare.
Bandt said expanding Labor’s childcare policy to make it free for everyone would cost up to $3bn more than its existing policy.
Labor has not released the full costings of its childcare proposal, but is estimated to be between $5.4bn and $6.3bn a year. The Greens’ childcare policy costs about $8.3bn a year.
“The Greens also want action for First Nations people, including a Truth and Justice Commission to begin acknowledging the violence and dispossession of this land’s first peoples, as well as progress towards a Treaty, to complement Labor’s commitment to progress the Voice to Parliament,” Bandt said.
On Sunday, the party leader said he was confident the Greens would hold the balance of power in the Senate and “possibly also in the House of Representatives”.
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“We’ve been clear we want to see a change of government,” he said. “It’s time to exclude this terrible government. They’ve had years in power, made housing more expensive, and made the climate crisis worse.
“So in a power-sharing parliament, we wouldn’t support the Liberals, whether they’re led by Morrison or someone else.”
The latest Guardian Essential poll shows the Greens’ vote was steady nationally at about 10%, S; stilln Queensland, it is tracking at about 13%, compared with about 9% in Victoria and New South Wales.
