Polls and Preferences

[Neferti]

Has Kevin Rudd just stitched up a preference deal with the Katter Party?

Is Kevvi selling off the Farm? He is full on over-active Bipolar mode. They end up drooping and really going off the tracks.

[kevin457]

Will the Greens give their preferences to Labor and vice versa this year?

Labor appears to have climbed a little in the polls and with preferences might do a little better than predicted. The Nationals seem to have been swallowed up altogether by the Libs, but the Libs couldn't make it without them.

Labor appears to have climbed back into bed with the Greens, for the purpose of increasing their chances of being re-elected. It's a you scratch my back and I'll knife yours arrangement, it's just the Greens wont get with the program until after the election, when they realise the nature of the over promising under delivering beast.

Labor knows they have lost the election, their objective now is to simply win as many seats possible, and if this means climbing in bed with another minor party to unseat a Green, so be it.
Hopefully, Labors & Greens compulsory preference system and 'how to vote us back in to finish fucking the country', cards will be a thing of the past, as Libs plan to introduce 'optional' preferential voting. Ie, simply place the number 1 next to the party you want to lead our nation.

Why should we be forced to vote for candidates we don't support ?

In preferencing candidates from 1 to 5, we are still inadvertently handing those we might not have otherwise voted for our votes by way of trickle-down preferences.
The vote you cast without having cast a vote.
Whats more... if you fail to preference other candidates , ie, only place the number 1 next to your preferred candidate, the your vote wont be counted under the current dodgy system.

We need electoral reform to make the system better reflect the wishes of our nations people, not the wishes of those who count the votes and corrupt the electoral process from start to finish to suit themselves.

[Rorschach]

Hopefully, Labors & Greens compulsory preference system and 'how to vote us back in to finish fucking the country', cards will be a thing of the past, as Libs plan to introduce 'optional' preferential voting. Ie, simply place the number 1 next to the party you want to lead our nation.

You got proof of that somewhere?

[kevin457]

Hopefully, Labors & Greens compulsory preference system and 'how to vote us back in to finish fucking the country', cards will be a thing of the past, as Libs plan to introduce 'optional' preferential voting. Ie, simply place the number 1 next to the party you want to lead our nation.

You got proof of that somewhere?

Yes.

Liberals push voting changes as Bronwyn Bishop supports shift to optional preferential system

SENIOR Liberals are pushing for changes to electoral laws that they believe would damage Labor and the Greens at the ballot box.

Influential party figures want to move to optional preferential voting if they win this year's election. They believe that if electors do not have to allocate preferences, old-school Labor true believers and many Greens supporters would simply put a "one" next to their preferred party, denying the other party the benefits of preference flows.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nationa ... 6550754365

A Howard government wanted to introduce voluntary voting full stop, however I think this more modern Liberal party approach is a good compromise.

The preference system is not only dodgy, but it's confusing.

An interesting read...

THE ALBERT LANGER FIASCO

In 1996, Victorian activist Albert Langer was jailed for telling people how to vote. Langer was a member of the Neither! campaign, which argued quite rightly that voters should not have to direct their preferences to parties with which they did not agree. Langer stated that voters could legally vote 1 for a party of their choice, and then put a 2 in each of the other boxes, thereby stopping their preferences from flowing on to the major parties when they didn't want them to. This was particularly aimed at supporters of minor parties, who might not want to see their votes ultimately go to Labor or the Liberals, as it usually does for all votes in the House of Representatives.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) was not very happy with this campaign. While it argued that Langer had the right to vote this way, he should not have encouraged others to do so. The Victorian Supreme Court ultimately agreed and then ordered that Langer be jailed for contempt of court when he continued his campaign, after being ordered to stop. When Langer was sent to prison, Amnesty International declared him Australia's first prisoner of conscience for more than twenty years and called for his release. In the end, Albert Langer only served three weeks of a ten week term because the Federal Court ruled the Victorian Supreme Court's sentence had been too severe.

The idiotic thing about the AEC position was that it acknowledged that people had a legal right to vote in this way, but that Langer had no right to tell anybody about this.

http://www.hotheads.com.au/voting.htm

The question is.... if we were to vote the way Albert Langer suggested today, would our vote be valid?

This is, if we were to place the number 1 next to our preferred candidate then the number 2 next to the remaining candidates.

http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/ ... 96/96CIB14

I personally would like to see compulsory preference voting abolished and the more simplified and democratic direct elect method introduced.

Australia’s preferential voting system is relatively unusual. Most countries use some form of first-past-the-post or proportional voting.

[kevin457]

To counter such tactics and advocacy of voting informally, the ALP government formulated section 329A of the Electoral Act. It was enacted in December 1992. Section 329A made it an offence to encourage, during the election period, voters to fill in House of Representatives ballot papers other than in accordance with the method set out in section 240 of the Act. The offence was punishable by 6 months' imprisonment or a discretionary pecuniary penalty.

Whilst Albert Langer also known as Albert Dent was born in London to a wealthy Jewish family, he's Maoist and anti-Zionist.
His communist leanings don't sit well with me personally, however I agree with his stance re- compulsory preference voting here in Australia, because fundamentally, it's undemocratic.
Labor are opposed to liberty and anyone seen to be encouraging independent thought will be punished.
As has been demonstrated.
Labor as a modern progressive party?
Hardly.
We will obey or suffer the consequences of our insolence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Langer

And here we have the Greens point blank informing voters that should they attempt to exercise their democratic rite to not preference any candidate other than the candidate of their choice, their vote will be rendered invalid."If you leave any boxes blank, your vote doesn't count."

http://greens.org.au/understanding-preferences

The red faction within the Greens party has spoken.

[mantra]

Labor appears to have climbed back into bed with the Greens, for the purpose of increasing their chances of being re-elected. It's a you scratch my back and I'll knife yours arrangement, it's just the Greens wont get with the program until after the election, when they realise the nature of the over promising under delivering beast.

I hadn't noticed that the Greens had been getting cosy with Labor. For the last few months they've distanced themselves by their condemnation of Labor policies. Still they've also climbed a bit in the polls, but they are not the same party they were prior to becoming part of the government. Bob Brown left because he didn't like what he saw.

Labor knows they have lost the election, their objective now is to simply win as many seats possible, and if this means climbing in bed with another minor party to unseat a Green, so be it.

Hopefully, Labors & Greens compulsory preference system and 'how to vote us back in to finish fucking the country', cards will be a thing of the past, as Libs plan to introduce 'optional' preferential voting. Ie, simply place the number 1 next to the party you want to lead our nation.

You might be wrong. It wouldn't surprise me if the Greens wanted to direct preferences towards the LNP as they have wanted to in the past - but been rejected. They need to remain independent of both major parties.

Why should we be forced to vote for candidates we don't support ?

I totally agree, but it is our duty to our country to at least choose the party we consider will cause the least amount of damage.

In preferencing candidates from 1 to 5, we are still inadvertently handing those we might not have otherwise voted for our votes by way of trickle-down preferences.
The vote you cast without having cast a vote.
Whats more... if you fail to preference other candidates , ie, only place the number 1 next to your preferred candidate, the your vote wont be counted under the current dodgy system.

We need electoral reform to make the system better reflect the wishes of our nations people, not the wishes of those who count the votes and corrupt the electoral process from start to finish to suit themselves.

I've been complaining about it for years. It certainly needs to be streamlined and our votes computerised.

[Rorschach]

You might be wrong. It wouldn't surprise me if the Greens wanted to direct preferences towards the LNP as they have wanted to in the past - but been rejected. They need to remain independent of both major parties.

Oh now that is a doozy... you gotta back that claim up with something.

We all know from the last fiasco and Green comments over the last 6 years they are not interested in a Coalition government. Not LNP mantra. The LNP are a Qld party. https://lnp.org.au/about-us/

As for Optional preferential voting I've been on about it for ages... in fact it was part of the One nation electoral reform policies over a decade ago. Nice to see the Libs catching up and changing their minds... just a tad slow eh.

[mantra]

You might be wrong. It wouldn't surprise me if the Greens wanted to direct preferences towards the LNP as they have wanted to in the past - but been rejected. They need to remain independent of both major parties.

Oh now that is a doozy... you gotta back that claim up with something.

It was quite a few years ago - probably in the first couple of terms of the Coalition in the late 90's early 2000.

We all know from the last fiasco and Green comments over the last 6 years they are not interested in a Coalition government. Not LNP mantra. The LNP are a Qld party. https://lnp.org.au/about-us/

I admit to my confusion here. I always referred to them as the Coalition, until they started winning in the states again.

As for Optional preferential voting I've been on about it for ages... in fact it was part of the One nation electoral reform policies over a decade ago. Nice to see the Libs catching up and changing their minds... just a tad slow eh.

It is a cunning way of a party managing to win a seat while another party loses even though they have more first preferences in that seat than the winning party. The manual voting system makes it too easy to cheat for those who are that way inclined.

[Rorschach]

Nothing cunning about it it is true democracy.
Why should your vote go to someone you don't want it to?

As for Pinko Bob wanting to support the Coalition... sorry that will never float.

As for computers... I suggest you watch a movie... "Man of the Year"

[Jovial_Monk]

I love this “Labor fucking the country” shit from Lib fanbois. 3xAAA, low unemployment, interest and inflation does not sound like the country is “fucked.”