A WAR of words has erupted between The Nationals and The Greens over what a new Greens-Labor alliance will mean for rural Australia, with both parties claiming to have more support among farmers.
The Greens last week signed an agreement with Labor to ensure supply and confidence in the Lower House, with Labor concessions in the areas of climate change and parliamentary reform helping seal the deal.
Early in the election campaign The Greens and Labor agreed to a major preference deal which saw Labor preference The Greens in the Senate, while The Greens delivered its preferences to Labor in up to 50 of its most marginal city seats.
The Prime Minister will junk the idea of the widely-ridiculed citizen's assembly on climate change and replace it with The Greens' suggested Climate Change Committee – part of the parliamentary committee process.
Dental health care commitments and a $20 million study into high-speed rail by next year were also agreed to.
The Greens will have more access to the PM with regular meetings promised and will be able to access departments like treasury and finance to develop their own policies.
The Greens now claim that rural and regional seats had an average swing to The Greens of three per cent at this election and recorded an average vote of 10pc in rural and regional seats.
Greens Leader, Bob Brown, has consistently claimed his party is the friend of farmers and better placed to address the real concerns facing modern day farming such as water issues, mining versus farming matters, renewable energy, supermarket power and foreign ownership concerns.
But Nationals Leader Warren Truss disputes The Greens' claim to success and support in regional Australia.
"Let’s look to the ledger. The Nationals won 12 of the 24 seats contested. The Nationals achieved an average primary vote of 38.8pc, and recorded a nationwide primary vote swing of 6pc," Mr Truss said.
"Of 150 seats stood in, The Greens won one - in inner city Melbourne. The Greens average primary vote was 11.6pc, or a swing of 3.8pc.
"That swing fell to 1.6pc in the seats where Nationals and Greens candidates ran head to head.
"The outlandish claims of The Greens need to be placed in perspective against the results of this election. For every policy of The Greens that might meet the approval of some rural voters, there are another 100 that terrify them."
Opposition leader, Tony Abbott said the deal would be bad for the bush and would put The Greens "in the driving seat" of a new Labor Government.
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