The preference deals are done and dusted and now, as voters make their way to pre-polling, we’re getting a glimpse of some of the deals done between the parties in order to boost their chances of getting elected — or to just keep some buddies on side.
Liberals: Christian Democrats, Family First, Labor and the Greens
Perhaps it’s not so odd for the conservative party to preference the radical Christian parties in Australia, but it’s an odd look for the Liberals, who are running several gay candidates at this election. The party founded by Australia’s homophobe-in-chief, Fred Nile, is second on the Liberals’ how-to-vote (HTV) cards in New South Wales, ACT, NT and Tasmania, third in Queensland, and fourth in WA. This leads to some interesting HTVs for the House of Representatives, including the gay Liberal candidate for Sydney preferencing a candidate who would seek to limit his rights over the Greens and Labor candidates.
Nile is a bit like Alan Jones: while he has power in New South Wales, a lot of the rest of Australia don’t seem to get it. The deal for preferences is largely designed to keep Nile onside in New South Wales, where Nile and the other CDP MP in the state decide the fate of the Liberal state government’s legislation.
Where Nile’s party doesn’t get second preferences, the Liberals tend to go to either the ex-CDP party Australian Christians or Family First, and have done so in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. The gay candidate for Brisbane is preferencing Family First ahead of Labor’s Pat O’Neill and the Greens’ Kirsten Lovejoy.
One of the “we’re not racist, but …” parties, Australian Liberty Alliance, is absolutely fuming that it missed out on key Liberal party preferences in Queensland. The party is preferencing LNP candidates highly, but the favour was not returned, with the ALA candidate in Bowman appearing behind both Labor and the Greens on the LNP’s how-to-vote card.
Labor and Derryn Hinch and Sex Party and Lib Dems
Shame, shame, shame. Derryn Hinch’s ascension to the Senate appears almost likely. He has managed to not only get the donkey vote slot in Victoria, he has also secured third place on Labor’s HTVs in the state, behind the Sex Party. He’s also No. 6 on the Coalition’s HTV. Lest anyone fear Labor is doing deals with the Greens, the Greens rank fifth on Labor’s Senate ticket in Victoria.
[A campaign Winnebago and You’re the Voice on the bagpipes: on the hustings with Derryn Hinch]
The Liberal Democrats — which didn’t win the top spot on the NSW Senate ballot this time but still rank D, well ahead of the Coalition at F, Labor at N, and Greens at AL — somehow managed to get Labor’s No. 6 on its NSW Senate HTV card.
Perhaps a nod to her popularity in the state, and a view to keep her on side, Labor has placed Jacqui Lambie’s party at No. 2 on its HTV cards in Tasmania.
Greens and Fred Nile
Much hay had been made of the Greens preferencing a Christian Democrat above an indigenous gay Liberal candidate in Sydney. It’s not so much a deal as a bad look for the Greens. It is an own-goal for a party that has spent a lot of time facing criticism over preferences in this campaign, but will ultimately have little impact on the outcome. The criticism was enough, however, to force the Greens to reverse the decision. Still, the Liberal is preferencing the Christian Democrat before both the Greens and Labor candidates.
It’s not the only place Fred Nile’s party ranks above the Liberals on the Greens how-to-vote, with the CDP candidate ranking higher than far-right Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic in the very marginal seat of Bass in Tasmania. Given Nikolic’s desire to suspend civil liberties and rush through lots of national security legislation, perhaps this won’t be as big of an issue for Greens voters as it was in Sydney.
[Civil liberties be damned: meet the new chair of Parliament’s national security committee]
Independent MP for Kennedy Bob Katter has faced criticism for posting an ad where he pretends to shoot LNP and Labor people just days after the Orlando shooting massacre. He also walked out of an interview with Triple J’s Hack over questions as to whether he still believed there were no gay people in his electorate — despite a gay man running as the LNP candidate against him. The Greens, oddly, have preferenced Katter over the LNP candidate.
Just to remind you that the Greens Sydney campaign after much complaint from members put Nile last. It was a hard call who’s worse the LNP or the CD said candidate Sylvie Ellsmore. But the members made decided. I think it’s called grass roots.
But it’s bullshit, they are not frigging preference exchanges, they are just stupid cards.
In the comments at The Guardian there are many ALP supporters saying “Put the LNP last”.
Even this article distorts the issue because it probably isn’t clear to most readers that in the lower house seat the vote of everyone who follows either the old or new Green how-to-vote card will end up on the ALP pile (and so the order of the last two makes no difference at all).
And note how when the ALP were accusing the Greens of doing a deal with the Liberals this was mentioned again and again, not just by Labor, but by commentators. Yet now the truth is know that is the ALP who did a deal with the Liberals not only is the ALP/Liberal deal not mentioned all the time, BUT EVEN THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT MENTION IT.
Preference deals cannot be made in the house of reps, never have been able to. Do any of you people vote?
People need a how to vote card? FFS!!! Read…listen…THINK!!!…decide…vote. It’s not that hard.
Turnbull wanted a different looking Senate & he’s certainly going to get his wish. In fact, much more than he wished for….
I have never used a how to vote card. I decide my own preferences. Mind you it has taken a bit of work given the size of the Senate ballot paper in Victoria with 38 parties and about 16 independent candidates
I asked the Greens for their recommendations for how to fill in ALL the numbers above the line, and unfortunately they only sent me to the page which tells me their first 6 preferences.
So I’ll also have to do lots of work to decide how to vote.