RAY FORMA of North Fremantle provides Fremantle voters with what he calls a “real how-to-vote guide”. The senate’s current numbers are 39 Coalition/right-of-centre micro-parties and independents and 35 Labor/Greens. The April 5 WA senate election will add six senators to the mix. On September’s figures, that would be four Coalition/right-of-centre senators and two Labor/Greens senators (taking the senate to 43 to 37). However, with the Abbott government now six months old and having weathered some controversy, some believe the Coalition is likely to lose the third seat it gained and the right-of-centre micro-parties may also miss out. Depending on how strong the ALP and Greens vote is, there’s even talk the election may return two Labor senators, one Green, one HEMP party senator and just two Coalition senators (meaning 41 to 39). Whatever the outcome, the Coalition and the right-of-centre micro-parties and independents will between them hold the balance of power in the senate, by as little as two votes or as much as six, but there will be little need for the Abbott government to negotiate with either Labor or the Greens to pass legislation. At the end of the day it’s up to you.
ON Saturday April 5 you have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to vote in the extraordinary WA Senate election. Here are some hints to help ensure your vote has the effect you expect. Don’t let the pollies and the micro-parties lead you by the nose.
If you only mark a “1” above the line, the party you vote for will control all of your preferences, and there is a good probability your vote will help elect a senator you probably don’t want. If at all possible, vote below the line. Too difficult and dangerous, you say?
Not if you vote below the line and also mark a “1” in one of the above-the-line squares. The standard statement the booth attendant will give you to only vote one way is a furphy to make easier the counters’ lives. Your below-the-line vote takes priority but if you muck it up, your vote will revert to the above-the-line option.
When you vote below the line keep the following in mind:
For those parties you favour it’s best to number the candidates sequentially from top to bottom. The reason is technically complex, dealing with allocation of quotas. However, if there is a candidate in the party list you particularly don’t like, skip them and come back later to give them a much lower number.
Once you have given numbers to all the parties you favour, number the remaining parties from least to most disliked, but randomise your numbering of candidates inside each party list.
You should end up at No 77, but if you get close your vote should still be formal. You are usually allowed two mistakes where you either double up or skip a number.
You are also allowed to leave the last 10 per cent of candidates blank, but that’s dangerous. In this election that means you could risk leaving your last seven candidates blank, but you’re at the mercy of officials and scrutineers who may not realise a ballot is valid even without all the squares numbered.
If you end up with a number more than two away from 77 go to the booth officials and ask for a new paper.
If you have time it’s well worth downloading a copy of the ballot paper from a website such as senate.io/senate/2014/wa/pdf?compact=1.
Print it out and fill it in at your leisure and take it with you to the polling booth to copy from.
To discover the policies of the parties, start with a website such as belowtheline.org.au/state/wa.html. This page has links to the websites of all the parties and most of the candidates. This should allow you to find out pertinent facts, such as the names of the ten candidates who don’t even live in WA.
If you are very keen look at the group voting tickets of the parties at aec.gov.au/wa-senate/gvt.htm. This is how you find out how a party you choose above the line will control your preferences.
You may be surprised at how some of the major parties allocate their above-the-line preferences, and this may encourage you even more to make the effort to vote below the line.