In several places, I've emphasised the fact that Labor seats reported as "safest" due to the high two party preferred result against the Liberals are actually closer to being taken by the Greens. I've done this mainly it is often overlooked in an unhelpful tendency to make everything one-dimensional and it find it interesting just in being unusual.
As it turns out, Sam Byrne's campaign material has this plastered all over it - "It's between the Greens and Labor". I must admit that while it may add legitimacy to their perceptions, I doubt that it's an effective way to campaign, particular combined with the rest of their comments.
Still, at least it makes more sense that Anthony Albanese's complaints about them. Whatever they suggest regarding preferences, they're making it very clear that they're not looking for a "protest vote". There might be more to say when you put it in the national context, but I don't see anything misleading said about this particular contest.
Then there's the (inconspicuous) Liberal candidate, who also seems to protest a bit much. Even though he may well have other outcomes foremost in his mind, suggesting preferences for the Greens ahead of Labor is exactly the same as saying (truthfully or otherwise - not that I think there's a deal here) that you'd rather the result go that way. Not that that in itself should matter to a potential voter. In fact, let's completely avoid the Alan Jones response to how-to-vote cards and point out that whatever you think of the parties, candidates, and electoral and parliamentary machinations, there's no reason not to choose your own ordering.
3 comments:
Even though he may well have other outcomes foremost in his mind, suggesting preferences for the Greens ahead of Labor is exactly the same as saying (truthfully or otherwise - not that I think there's a deal here) that you'd rather the result go that way.
I don't think this is true. I think most Liberals would prefer Labor to win any given seat than a Green. But they do want to make Labor work harder for it - by directing preferences to the Greens, Labor has to divert resources to fight against Greens in seats like Melbourne and Grayndler.
Major-party voters are slaves to how-to-votes on the mainland, and I don't see that changing unless we switch to optional preferential voting.
David, that's a very good point which I hadn't really considered fully. However, I stand by the statement that issuing how-to-votes with Greens ahead is saying you'd rather they win, whether it is honest to say so or not.
As for voting practices, I can't help thinking that it just might help a bit if influential people such as Jones were happy to point out that people can vote how they want, rather than simply observe that it doesn't happen. Then again, most of the time there's not much reason for major party voters to think about preferences any more than they have to.
I also meant to point out that either Albo or the journo is very confused about the significance of getting 50% of the primary votes...
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