It was hard not to laugh at reports last week that Peter Dutton had labelled the teal independents — representing some of Australia's wealthiest electorates — a "radical extreme communist movement". The independents themselves certainly had a chuckle. Dutton says he was referring specifically to the Greens.
But he was eager to rope in the "Green-teals", suggesting they all belonged in the same pinko basket. "The Greens are at least out there and open about the lunacy of their own positions," Dutton told 2GB. "But many of the Green-teals are hiding behind a thin veil.
" It's ludicrous, of course, to suggest any teal independents are secret radicals — a sign of how far off the deep-end conservatives have gone. But to imply that Wentworth MP Allegra Spender, former McKinsey analyst, daughter of fashion designer Carla Zampatti and a former Liberal MP — and holder of a $40 million property portfolio — is a communist may just be the biggest joke of all. "I don't look very much like a communist," Spender laughs when I ask about the Coalition's "Green-teal" jibes that have been levelled at the community indies all term.
"This name-calling, I think it backfires on the Coalition because it looks like the same old politics as usual." She wasn't laughing a few weeks ago, however, when attack ads began appearing around her affluent seat alleging she wanted to raise taxes. The ads come from the right-wing group "Australians for Prosperity" — funded by the coal lobby and run by a.
