Election - How to Vote

Message / Question

Hi Dave, love reading your commentary on politics, great web site. Why does it seem like both labour and liberal is becoming less christian? I mean 50 years ago you could be christian and vote labour or liberal. Now it's just liberal, and looking at Turnbull, hardly at all... what to do??? We feel hopeless!

Response

It’s true that we have seen the major political parties constantly lowering their moral and ethical standards over the years. I’m not sure that either Labor or Liberal were ever “Christian”, but they have certainly moved a long way from any standard that may give people that impression. I guess that’s an example of the old saying that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”!

So who do should you vote for in the election? I’m not going to promote any particular political party in this blog, however here are a couple of important guidelines that may help a bit.

First, you may not like any of the parties or individuals on your ballot paper, so I suggest that you look at the list and ask yourself the question “Which one is least ‘worst’?”. That’s settles your first preference. Then continue asking the same question to determine your remaining preferences. You could, of course, find a political group that you DO like (e.g. it may be one of the so called “Christian” parties) and follow their “How to Vote” card, but I must admit, I prefer to determine my own preferences rather than complying with a preference swap deal that these parties have entered into.

Secondly, and VERY importantly, is your preference order for the Senate. I have seen some small parties suggesting that you should vote 1 – 6 above the line and NOT include a major party. This is VERY bad advice for anyone who cares about who will control the Senate. It would normally be expected that the 11th and 12th seats will be closely fought (12th especially) and every vote will count for these seats. If you vote 1 – 6 above the line and don’t include a major party in your 6, then any preferences that you have left to distribute after your first six have been either eliminated (most probable if all 6 are small parties and/or independents) or elected, your preferences will simple expire at #6. That means that you will have surrendered your right to influence who wins seats 11 and 12. Is this important? VERY! Let’s just presume that you are a “conservative” voter and you would rather see the Liberals win the last seat rather than Labor or Greens. By “killing off” your preferences at number 6, you have stopped your preference from flowing to the Liberals, which, in simple terms, means that the Labor and Greens candidates have one less vote to find to get ahead of the Liberals and win that seat. (You can apply the same principle to any of the 3 main parties). Whilst this may not seem like much, if you have say 10,000 people follow the how to vote card mentioned above, that becomes a LOT of votes that the Labor / Greens don’t have to get to win that seat. So if you follow a small party’s “how to vote” card, follow the 1 to 6 that they suggest by all means, but then add a 7th preference, and make that number the party that you consider to be the “least worst” – the one that you would rather have if your small party misses out.

Finally (and with a sigh of desperation) remember, regardless of who wins, we will still have a politician – and that in itself, is a bit of a disappointment!