November 10, 2017
by Anne Miller
How the parties suggest voters allocate their preferences at the upcoming State Election became a bit clearer on Friday … and the Greens are not the winners.
Both Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and the LNP plan to put the Greens last on their How To Vote cards.
PHON has gone one step further, with party leader Pauline Hanson saying whoever the sitting member is would be placed second last on their cards.
This would mean that in Nanango electorate – if PHON follows what Ms Hanson said on Friday – One Nation would be preferencing Labor ahead of the LNP and Greens: One Nation 1, Labor 2, LNP 3 and Greens 4.
ALP Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has repeatedly stated the Labor Party will be putting One Nation last on their cards, and it can be assumed they would preference the Greens ahead of the LNP in most seats.
This would mean Labor’s How To Vote cards in Nanango should read: ALP 1, Greens 2, LNP 3 and One Nation 4.
The Greens have already announced that they will put One Nation last and the LNP second last, which means their How To Vote cards in Nanango will read: Greens 1, ALP 2, LNP 3 and One Nation 4.
The only real question mark is what will the LNP do? It was reported on Friday that the LNP will preference One Nation over the ALP in most seats where the three parties are running. If this holds true for Nanango, the LNP How To Vote card would read: LNP 1, One Nation 2, ALP 3 and Greens 4.
None of this is fully confirmed and, of course, the ultimate decision on preferences is made by individual voters, not political parties.
However, preferences will be very important this election, not only because of the tight margins between the two main parties, but because all voters must number all squares.
After years of optional preferential voting where electors just had to “vote 1”, at this election voters must number every square.
