Labor leader follows Tony Abbott in promising not to join with minority parties or independents in event of hung parliament

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

Kevin Rudd has joined Tony Abbott in ruling out deals with Greens and independent candidates in the event of another hung parliament.

Earlier on Wednesday, Abbott again ruled out forming a government with minority parties if no party emerged with an outright majority on 7 September and urged the Labor leader to also preference the Greens last.

Abbott said he had made a “captain’s call” to preference Labor ahead of the Greens – making it much harder for the Greens’ only lower house member, Adam Bandt, to retain his seat of Melbourne.

After Abbott’s decision, Rudd said Labor’s preference decisions would be made on a seat-by-seat basis – but he ruled out making a formal agreement with small parties similar to the one entered into by former prime minister Julia Gillard with the Greens and the country independents.

“We will not be entering into any coalition agreements, we won’t be having any negotiated agreements, we won’t have any deals with any independents or any minor party,” the prime minister said.

The Liberal decision means Bandt will have to win his seat outright on primary votes, rather than relying on the redistributed preference votes of other parties. At the 2010 election, Bandt won a primary vote of 36%, before going on to win 56.04% after preferences were shared out. However, a Galaxy poll in July this year suggested his primary vote could be as high as 48%, which would give him a good chance of winning the seat despite the Liberals’ move.

“It’s because we have seen three years of bad government that I have instructed Liberal organisations around Australia to put the Greens last,” Abbott said. “This is my captain's call. I say to Mr Rudd: 'Are you man enough to do the same?’ I will not lead a minority government because what Australia needs right now is a strong and stable government.”

Abbott did not rule out making preference deals with other minority parties, such as those of Clive Palmer and Bob Katter.

The Coalition leader described Greens policies such as a bank levy, 100% renewable energy and increases in the mining tax as “fringe economic policies”.

“There is a world of difference between the Greens and, as far as I am aware, just about everyone else who is contesting this election campaign,” he said.

Katter welcomed Abbott’s decision and said he had not decided where his Katter Australia party’s preferences would flow.

“The environmentalists’ movement in Australia had turned into a cancer and had to be cut out,” he said.

Abbott’s decision follows comments from former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett who had urged the federal division of the party to place the Greens and independents last, “even if it means in some seats from our point of view a Labor candidate might win”.

The strategy from both sides is designed to focus voters on deciding on one or other of the major parties.

It follows three years of a minority Labor government, held in power by the Gillard deal with the Greens and country independents.

The Coalition leader has been extremely effective at taking advantage of the instability of the minority government.

His preference announcement – meaning the Coalition will place the Greens below Labor in its “how to vote” list of recommended preference order for voters for the House of Representatives – will affect only those seats where the Greens are placed second on the primary votes. The only other seat which had a strong Greens showing in 2010 was Grayndler, the inner-city Sydney seat held by the deputy prime minister, Anthony Albanese. The Guardian’s Lonergan polling showed the Greens in third position there recently.

Voters are not required to follow the “how to vote” cards produced by the parties for the House of Representatives, but many do.

Albanese said Bandt only won the seat of Melbourne in 2010 with Liberal party preferences.

The Galaxy polling in Bandt’s electorate, which was taken after Labor announced its PNG asylum seeker deal, showed a 93% satisfaction level with the Greens as well as a high level of opposition to refugee policy.

Bandt declared the Greens “the new opposition”, while the major parties were “the Coles and Woolworths of parliament”.

“It makes the choice for Melbourne stark. People can do what Tony Abbott wants them to do or they can vote Green,” he said.

Christine Milne, the Greens leader, said her supporters and the community at large would see the preference deal for what it was and questioned the Liberal party’s coalition with the National party.

“This is about shutting down the democratic options in this country,” Milne said. “Does he intend to get rid of the Nationals? They [the Liberals] cannot govern alone.

“Liberal and Labor have moved close together on cruelty to refugees to cutting funding to universities and on increasing coal exports, so I am not in the least bit surprised you’ve got this collusion,” she said.