It is interesting to see stories about the Greens finally making the best read lists on internet news lists. There are two of them shown on this morning’s Reality Check and it coincides with Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown bobbing up more frequently on news and current affairs television.

Mr Brown will surely be delighted that Prime Minister John Howard chose to link him with Labor in his latest conspiracy theory published in The Australian this morning.

“Let me just conjure up what Australia will be if Labor wins on Saturday,” Mr Howard told the paper in an interview.

“You will have Labor in power at every level. You will have inevitably some Labor-Green majority in the Senate, after June 30. There will be a return of political correctness. There will be a softening in relation to things like drugs. You will get a less socially conservative country at the very least. I think the country’s mood is that people want economic progress but they don’t want experiments with our basic values and institutions. Imagine if you are depending on the Greens to get a measure through the Senate on education. Imagine what they would extract.”

Being taken seriously like that by Mr Howard will give the Greens campaign a boost. Opinion polls have a habit of understating the third party vote yet Newspoll now has the Greens on 7% which is almost where they were at the last election.

Sydney Morning Herald

  1. 8-year-old charged with rape, kidnap
  2. Stu seen as weakest link
  3. Some peace for sisters after long wait for answers
  4. Paris Hilton cleans up her act in new s-x tape
  5. Gyrating pop star arouses fury of the mullahs

The Age

  1. Embattled Prime Minister spruiks a fresh face
  2. Mills asks why don’t you drink rats’ milk?
  3. Downer ‘knew’ about AWB kickbacks
  4. Boy, 8, charged with rape, kidnap
  5. Council worker finds bomb in car

The Australian

  1. ALP takes winning lead into…
  2. Beware Green alliance
  3. Labor has winning lead
  4. Ex-chief faces action on Patel case
  5. Costello could be PM in a week

ABC

  • Greens astounded as Flannery backs Turnbull
  • I’ll stay even if we lose
  • Debnam breaks ranks on Kyoto
  • No survivors found after missing plane located
  • Vaile denies Coalition split

The West Australian

  1. Ben Cousins avoids drug charges in US
  2. My life is ‘beyond a nightmare’
  3. Star WA batsmen suspended indefinitely
  4. AFL bans Cousins for 12 months
  5. Paris back in new ‘clean’ s-x tape

Sydney Telegraph

  1. Orlando Bloom backstage fan
  2. The Right Brain vs Left Brain
  3. Rangers break law to enforce it
  4. Labor ‘tradie’ a Robbie mimic
  5. Mason the no-show Rooster

Melbourne Herald Sun

  1. Right Brain v Left Brain
  2. Justin average couple
  3. Four lost in plane crash
  4. Spring fires into summer
  5. Cousins escapes US drugs charge

Advertiser

  1. $100,000 tram party
  2. US cops unlikely to charge Ben
  3. Gong for Vanessa the undresser
  4. Fire could spread
  5. Howard’s $280m advertising bill

Courier Mail

  1. Boy’s cries heard in hospital
  2. Gangs ruling no-go zones
  3. Watch out for ‘footpath rage’
  4. Wendell’s love child ‘no secret’
  5. Weather beacon to be turned off

news.com.au

  1. Movie deal for subway romantics
  2. Agitated Diana refused treatment
  3. Woman linked to teen girl’s…
  4. Wendell love child ‘no secret’
  5. Aussies are mean, says Geldof