Victorian state election: Greens face backlash after rape allegation
The Greens are facing brand damage from allegations of sexual violence in the two largest states which could spark a backlash in elections in Victoria on Saturday, New South Wales in March and federally by May.
The Victorian Greens are facing a major backlash from women at Saturday's Victorian election after a Greens candidate dumped Thursday over a rape allegation was identified as Dominic Phillips.
The revelation adds to a horror campaign for the Victorian Greens who have come under fire for defending their controversial candidate in Footscray Angus McAlpine, who was forced to apologise for degrading comments to women in his lyrics as a rapper.
Their brand is also taking damage in NSW where Greens upper house MP Jeremy Buckingham is being urged to resign amid "sexual violence" allegations.
Toxic cultural problem
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been warning the party has a "toxic cultural problem" with women as he seeks to repel a push by the Greens.
The Greens had hoped to build on their three Victorian seats of Melbourne, Prahran and Northcote with tight battles in Brunswick and Richmond where former prime minister Paul Keating injecting himself this week to urge voters not to dump Planning Minister Richard Wynne.
"No deal will be offered and no deal will be done," Mr Andrews has insisted throughout the campaign when asked about ruling with the Greens.
The Greens Mr Phillips is standing for the bayside seat of Sandringham and his name will still appear on ballot papers despite being stood on Thursday after a woman wrote to Greens leader Samantha Ratnam by email accusing him of rape.
The party did not name Mr Phillips when he was dumped on Thursday but Ms Ratnam revealed his identity on ABC radio on Friday morning to quell rumours on social media. Mr Phillips has not publicly commented.
History debated
Ms Ratnam said she received the written complaint alleging serious sexual misconduct at 8.26am on Thursday and at 10.12am "she personally contacted the complainant to confirm that their message had been received, was being taken seriously and that immediate actions were being taken".
Mr Phillips has previously been reported to have "liked" Facebook pages degrading to women and racist but Ms Ratnam said that had occurred when he was only twelve or thirteen years old.
"These are quite different to the allegations lodged with us yesterday morning," she said.
"I think it's really important to distinguish each of these allegations and their seriousness," she said.
The focus on the Greens came as an exclusive poll for The Australian Financial Review revealed that Mr Andrews' Labor Party is on track to win comfortably in Saturday's Victorian election and rebuild its majority.
Hillary Clinton would be president
But both leaders insisted on Friday they don't believe the polls.
"Labor would have won in Tasmania, Brexit would have failed and Hillary Clinton would be the president of the United States so I guess we take them with a dose of interest but then move on ... we are competitive."
Mr Andrews agreed the election would "come down to a handful of votes in a handful of seats".
Both Mr Andrews and Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas came under heavy fire after he revealed on Thursday that Labor would double their debt from 6 per cent of Gross State Product to 12 per cent - estimated to be more than $60 billion.
"We've got to borrow prudently to build for the future", Mr Andrews said.
