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Australia's Opposition Leader on Tuesday thwarted calls for a Labor-Greens coalition to secure the 2016 federal election, after the idea was put forward by Greens MP Adam Bandt overnight.
Labor Leader Bill Shorten said he would not consider the proposal, suggested by Bandt after numerous news outlets predicted a hung Parliament -- in which no single political party has an absolute majority of seats -- following the federal election on July 2.
"(Bandt) is dreaming, Labor will fight this election to form its own government," Shorten said from the campaign trail on Tuesday.
Speaking to political panel show Q+A on Monday night, Bandt said a hung Parliament was a very real possibility, but a forming a coalition with Labor would be preferable to allowing the Liberal National Party (LNP) coalition to continue in government.
"(The election) may then result in what it did in 2010 -- no side winning," Bandt said on Monday evening.
"You look at Germany, they're on the way to generating 30 percent of electricity from renewables, that's because back in the '90s they had Labor and the Greens co-operating together. That's what I would like to see happen."
"And if we do end up in a situation where, like 2010, no one wins and everyone has to negotiate, then I would like to see Greens working with Labor."
Deputy Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek was just skeptical, and said she would be "horrified" if Labor considered a coalition in the event of a hung Parliament.
In 2010, Labor struck a deal with the Greens which she said hurt Labor's governance -- which it lost at the next election in 2013.
"I think most Australians would be horrified by the idea of another hung parliament," Plibersek said.
"It was extraordinarily difficult... some of the compromises that we made I think cost us quite dearly during that time in government."
(APD)
