But emails leaked to Fairfax Media reveal that just one day later, the Greens campaign manager in Batman, Gavan Mcfadzean, emailed ReachtTEL, one of the best-known pollsters in Australia, to conduct polling. Greens leader Richard Di Natale took full advantage of all the attention this week. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "Interested in undertaking a voting intention/2PP poll for voters in the federal [seat] of Batman]" the email to ReachTEL read. Reachtel's James Stewart declined. "Hi Gavan, thank you for your email. Unfortunately, we can't assist the Greens with polling in Batman as we have a conflict. My apologies," he responded.

Labor is increasingly nervous about the fate of frontbencher David Feeney in Batman, with its primary vote in the former stronghold falling to 41 per cent in 2013, and fears it could go the way of the neighbouring seat of Melbourne and turn Greens in 2016. Greens candidate for Batman Alex Bhathal. Credit:Facebook The Greens candidate in the seat in 2013, Alex Bhathal, is standing again and is confident she can grow her vote from the 26.4 per cent of her previous primary vote. Asked to explain the apparent contradiction with her leader, Ms Bhathal told Fairfax Media she knew nothing about the request for polling. "I'm the candidate, I wasn't involved in those discussions at all. We have a large team. I don't know what they are all doing is the honest answer," she said.

"People send me documents and I don't have the time to read them." I don't know what they are all doing is the honest answer Mr Mcfadzean confirmed he had contacted ReachTEL to commission polling but played down the significance of the request. "It wasn't focus group or issues based. Polls can be inaccurate, it can be hard to get an accurate read," he said, referring to the fact that major published polls tend to compare the two-party preferred vote of Labor and the Coalition, not Labor and the Greens, which is the relevant comparison in a seat like Batman. "We just wanted to see how we were tracking," he said, adding the Greens have not subsequently conducted polling in Batman since the knockback from ReachTEL.

On the prospect of a preference deal between the Coalition and the Greens to defeat Mr Feeney, Ms Bhathal posted on Facebook on Tuesday that "there is no deal. We will never preference the Liberals ahead of Labor". "David Feeney is desperately trying to secure Liberal preferences. He knows that in seven weeks, voters in our electorate will choose better representation from a local Greens candidate with 30 years' experience helping our community and who will stand up for what matters. We're building to win Batman in our own right this election, just as Adam Bandt did in 2013." The request for polling is not the first. Back in April - before Senator Di Natale made his declaration - the party commissioned a ReachTEL poll of more than 800 voters in the seat of Melbourne Ports to determine if they supported Labor MP Michael Danby's move to preference the Liberal Party ahead of the Greens. A spokesperson for the Greens said: "The Australian Greens national body hasn't commissioned any polling of lower house seats but local branches are free make to decisions about how they use their campaign resources, within guidelines".