I have always chosen to fill out the Senate election ballots below the line – meaning I have to number every single damn box!
Basically, if you believe in the powers, duties and responsibilities of the Upper House of Parliament, then you wanna make sure you get it right. There are so many minor parties that really have no chance of getting in, but direct their preferences to the big players in such a way as to sometimes stack a result
I found this helpful summary over at GetUp! The full details of the flow of preferences can be found at the Electoral Commission’s website.
So here are a few notes on the preference flows that we think you might be particularly interested in (note: we’ve limited most of our comments to the flows among just the parties that currently have Parliamentary representation – so when we say that Party A has preferenced Party B and then Party C, more than likely there are a stack of “microparties” in between):
The Democrats have preferenced the Greens above the two major parties in every state, but in most states they have “split their ticket” between the major parties – meaning that if you vote above the line for the Democrats and the race for the last seat in your state comes down to Labor vs the Coalition, there’s a 50% chance your vote will go to the Coalition above Labor and a 50% chance your vote will go to Labor above the Coalition. (In NSW and Queensland, however, they registered a single ticket with Labor above the Coalition.) A new party called the Climate Change Coalition has preferenced Pauline Hanson above Labor in Queensland, and One Nation then Family First above the Greens and Labor in WA. This election, Labor’s preferences flow directly to the Greens in every state. Looking only at parties that currently have Parliamentary representation, Labor’s preferences then go to the Democrats, then Family First, then the Coalition. In every state, looking only at parties that currently have Parliamentary representation, the Greens‘ preferences go to the Democrats and then Labor before either Family First or the Coalition. In South Australia, independent candidate Nick Xenophon has split his ticket (meaning that if you vote for him above the line, your vote has a 50-50 chance of ending up in either pile) in the following way among parties that currently have Parliamentary representation:
50% of preferences will go to Family First, then the Greens, then the Nationals, then the Liberals, then Labor 50% of preferences will go to the Greens, then Family First, then the Nationals, then Labor, then the Liberals Among parties that currently have Parliamentary representation, the Liberals’ preferences generally flow first to Family First, then to the Democrats, then to the Greens, then to Labor. In many (but not all) states, Family First sends its preferences to the CDP (Fred Nile), One Nation, and/or Pauline before any of the ‘major’ parties. Among major parties, they always flow to the Coalition before Labor, the Democrats or the Greens.
