And taking his campaign to ABC radio, he said any arrangement to direct preferences to the Greens would be anathema to "the party of Menzies and Bolte and other great luminaries" in the Liberal tradition. Liberal senator Eric Abetz is opposed to any preference deal with the Greens. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "They took on the extreme left head-on and would never countenance doing preference deals," Senator Abetz said. "The way that you allocate preferences says a lot about what you as a party stand for and what matters to you." Mr Kroger has hinted at a "loose arrangement" with the Greens, thought to be one in which the Liberal Party would preference the minor party and it, in return, would run open tickets in key marginal seats - rather than directing preferences to Labor. Expounding on the virtues of such an arrangement on Monday, Mr Kroger said it would force Labor to spend more money and dedicate more resources to defending their Victorian seats.

"We don't like handing Labor seats for free. I think that's not a clever thing to do politically," he said. And he held that the difference was immaterial because the ALP had "moved to the left" on issues including tax policy, industrial relations and Israel. Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger is happy to consider "arrangements" as in many ways Labor is "indistinguishable from the Greens". Credit:Justin McManus "In many ways they're actually indistinguishable from the Greens," Mr Kroger said. But conservative operators in the Liberal Party are worried grassroots members still consider there to be a significant distinction between Labor and what Cory Bernardi calls the "dangerous bunch of extremists" of the Greens. Liberal senator Cory Bernardi considers the Greens to be a "dangerous bunch of extremists". Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Senator Abetz even suggested a deal could damage the Liberals in rural electorates. "I have no doubt that the membership of the Liberal Party would not want to see us preferencing the Greens that stand for death duties, that stand for increased petrol prices, increased gas prices, increased power prices that would see higher unemployment," he said. "I think it will cost us votes if we go down that track and I'm confident we won't. But if we were to go down that track it would cost us votes in the rural seats and those seats are very important. We hold the vast majority of them and we need to keep them." The Greens have emphatically denied that a preference deal has been struck with the Liberals, but it is unlikely such an arrangement would be formally written down and signed. Rather, Mr Kroger has signalled his intention to keep Labor guessing on the specifics until polling day. Follow us on Twitter