Preferences, and "Who's afraid of the Greens?"

Preference deals are a byproduct of our political system, but remember that you, the voter, actually choose where your preference goes when you number your ballot papers.

It is fairly simple in the lower house, which usually has a smaller voting ticket. If you put Greens first and the candidate is not elected, then your vote flows to your second, then third and later choices until a candidate is elected. So your Green vote is never wasted! The cartoon at the top of this blog shows you how this works.

If you vote "above the line" in the upper house (on the larger voting ticket), then your preference is distributed according to the preference flow decided by the party you vote "1" for. You can ask to see what this preference flow is when you vote.

For example, you can see if Labor is sending your preference to Family First above the Greens (if they do, the Family First candidates will have a higher numbers than the Greens candidates). If you vote below the line and number every square then you control exactly where your preference goes.

In this election, for the first time you can even choose in the upper house to restrict your preference flow to a minimum of five candidates. This means if you vote below the line for Greens candidates from 1 to 5 then stop, your vote will be lodged for the Greens but will not be transferred to any other party if none of the Greens candidates are elected.

Peter Campbell
Greens Candidate for Box Hill

Here is an excellent letter from my friend and fellow Green Robert Humphries.

Who's afraid of the Greens?

Reverend Robert Humphreys, Coburg
Letter to the editor, The Age, 7 November 2006

MANY people have come to the conclusion that the Liberals and ALP — despite certain rhetoric to try and keep their "true believers" in line — in reality are little different from each other. For both these parties what really matters is holding or pursuing power no matter what that may entail. We are seeing this played out in the run-up to the Victorian state election, in the matter of preference deals to try and shore up votes and seats in the new Parliament.

First we had the news of the ALP possibly preferencing the religious conservative right Family First party over the Greens in the upper house. Now, as Paul Austin reported in The Age yesterday, we have the extraordinary possible spectre of the Liberals preferencing their supposed arch enemy, the ALP, ahead of the socially progressive Greens in certain inner Melbourne seats.

Why do the ALP and Liberal parties so dislike the Greens? My hunch is that they both feel threatened by a grassroots party that is gaining support from people across the existing political spectrum who want real action on climate change and policies that reflect commitment to social justice for all people. More and more people are realising that the principles the Greens have held aloft for over 20 years are ones our society, our world desperately need for its wellbeing and very survival.