Victorian Greens Party leader Greg Barber refused to name (or did not know) disendorsed candidate for the Upper House Cheryl Wragg.

Wragg made headlines today and yesterday for revealing that Barber had foisted a hand-written energy policy in contravention of the endorsed Victorian platform – and used that policy to disendorse Wragg after she publicly revealed this fact.

In an interview with ABC Radio, Barber showed that he is just another low-life gutter politician:

ALISON CALDWELL: There’s a perception in the public that the Greens encourage free thought because you’re not meant to be a traditional party where everyone’s expected to tow the line, but essentially it sounds as if, if you don’t do that and if you challenge the party line well you’re just not welcome.

You’re just like any other party.

GREG BARBER: Well we have policies that were put together and endorsed by the membership as a whole and of course the job of a candidate is to explain those policies to the voters, otherwise the Greens members would be dudded.

ALISON CALDWELL: You’ve deftly managed to do this whole interview without mentioning the name of the disendorsed candidate.

GREG BARBER: We had 128 candidates running for every seat in Victoria. One candidate had their own review and we couldn’t really allow that to go on. We’d be sending different messages to different parts of Victoria and in fact that’s not right.

ALISON CALDWELL: What’s that candidate’s name?

GREG BARBER: What’s the point?

CHERYL WRAGG: Well there you go.

That’s emblematic of what I’m saying to you.

ALISON CALDWELL: With the election just three days away, Cheryl Wragg’s name will still be on the ballot paper as a Greens candidate though she says she’ll be running as an independent.

Barber says there is 128 candidates running in Victoria, but there is only one candidate who Greg Barber personally convened a special meeting to disendorse her.

CHERYL WRAGG: While Mr Barber may be able to command the endorsement review committee to sack me within the space of 12 hours or something, he does not yet have the power to order the sun to shine for 24 hours a day and PV’s aren’t going to cut that and nor is wind generation at this time either.

Wragg was the Greens Party candidate for the unwinnable 2nd spot in the Upper House Eastern Region, and was a former member of the ALP Environment Committee before leaving to join the Greens.