Adam Bandt will be an important voice in Canberra if the polls are right and Tony Abbott wins the election, former Greens leader Bob Brown says.
ReachTEL polls published by Fairfax Media on the weekend show Labor trailing the coalition in three of four hotly contested Sydney seats, and Mr Abbott trumping Kevin Rudd as preferred prime minister.
Mr Brown, on the campaign trail with Mr Bandt in the seat of Melbourne on Saturday, said Mr Bandt would not only be a "gift" to the seat of Melbourne but to a conservative-led parliament.
"His voice is also going to be a really important one for people right across Australia in a parliament under an Abbott-led government, that I think is going to come out with some nasty policies that they're not going to show us before the election," Mr Brown said.
Mr Brown said he believed Mr Bandt would retain the seat of Melbourne, based on the latest polls that he had seen where he had 48 per cent of votes.
When asked where the Greens would direct their preferences, Mr Brown said that was a matter for the party to decide.
"The important thing is that people should vote for the first candidate they want, that's Adam Bandt in Melbourne," he said.
Mr Bandt won the seat in 2010 with the help of Liberal preferences, but Mr Abbott has directed candidates to preference the Greens last on September 7.
