A Labor MP says the Greens are a “vanity project” that, at best, influences the “social democratic project” in Australia, and Labor should reabsorb voters on the left of Australian politics.

The left-aligned Labor MP Andrew Giles makes the comments in a speech to be delivered on Saturday night in Melbourne at the launch of Whitlam’s Children, a book examining the relationship between Labor and the Greens by Shaun Crowe.

In a copy of the speech, seen by Guardian Australia, Giles criticises a view held by “some in our party” that Labor should abandon some far-left voters, rejecting the notion that it is “somehow a good thing that the Greens have carved away a section of progressive and leftwing Australians”.

I don’t want to cede a centimetre of reformist political space to anyone else Andrew Giles

The comments repudiate the view – held by some in the Labor right – that the loss of inner-city seats where voters tend to have more socially progressive views could benefit Labor by allowing it to focus its electoral message on voters in suburban marginal seats who are more focused on hip-pocket issues.

Giles sets a challenge for Labor to develop progressive policy while maintaining its appeal to a broad section of Australians by further democratising the party.

The comments are a statement of intent before the Labor conference in December and an attack on the Greens, “almost none” of who – according to Giles – cited a broad appeal as part of their political vision in interviews with Crowe.

Labor’s national conference will be finely balanced between the left and right factions, which is likely to contribute to lively policy fights on issues including party reform and the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ campaign to change industrial laws.

Giles labels Crowe’s argument that Labor is an “office-seeking” party while the Greens tend to be more “policy-seeking” to be “apt though more generous” to the minor party than Giles would be.

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The Labor MP said the book had “reinforced rather than changed my view that the party is a vanity project in that it is unconcerned with the possibilities of government or the political dimensions of inequality”.

Giles rejects the Greens’ view that Labor offers a “debased model of catch-all politics”, warning that to disregard certain groups of voters will only add to “our growing democratic deficit in Australia”.

“To secure a better, fairer and more sustainable Australia, we need to bring together all of us who are concerned to achieve this end,” he says.

“So we need to consider how the ALP operates, structurally and culturally, to keep people involved and to see the diversity of those we’d like to support us electorally brought together politically through the party.”

The Labor left faction has consistently pushed for greater democratisation of the party, including giving members more say in preselections to increase its factional power in a party with a more progressive membership than parliamentary leadership.

The former ALP president Mark Butler made party reform a central plank in his re-election pitch before he lost the job to Wayne Swan in June.

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Giles notes Crowe’s conclusion that “most Greens” interviewed for the book cited “some kind of disillusionment with the Labor party” as a central reason for choosing the minor party.

Giles says this “represents a real challenge for both parties”, particularly for Labor to “ensure that we welcome into our movement anyone who wants to be part of securing a good society, through the transformative work of governments”.



“I don’t want to cede a centimetre of reformist political space to anyone else,” he says. “Labor should aim to cover the field of left and centre-left politics in Australia.



“At this time of increasing inequalities of income, wealth and power, and decreasing faith in politics, it’s my firm view that this should be the basis on which we seek to continue to represent the concerns of all Australians who see government as the key to securing a good society.”