Question: Where are One Nation’s preferences going this election? Answer: Wherever YOU out them!

A great thread below from @actualAlexJames (X) explaining how preferences work. In short, mark One Nation 1 and then decide where you want your preferences to go.

Transcript

I must have heard it a hundred times now “Don’t vote for One Nation because they give their preferences to Labor!” or “watch out who you vote for, Katters gave their preferences to such and such!”. This is a myth and is simply untrue. Let me explain why.

As we all know Australian voting is not the typical first past the post voting style that a stereotypical democracy would have, instead, we have a preferential voting system. This means that in Australia, an elected official is not decided simply by getting more votes than the others in a typical sense. Instead, it’s a form of instant runoff voting.

You have to number each candidate based on how much you would prefer them to be in office. Imagining that there are only three choices, If you vote 1 for PHON, then 2 for LNP, then 3 for labor, that would mean that if the LNP and the labor candidate received more votes than the PHON candidate, then your vote will be redistributed to LNP. By the end of the election. Your vote will have been a vote for LNP. Add in more candidates and the process is the same until it is between only two candidates to decide the winner.

Therefore, your vote will end up exactly where you decided for it to go based off of the total votes of your electorate. But in the end, you decided possibilities of where your vote actually goes.

“But One Nation gave their preferences to Labor last election!”

This type of statement is just blatantly untrue, but here’s why people fall for this idea. I read an article sent to me by someone who was trying to convince me of this and it helped me to understand where this myth comes from. Essentially what it boils down to is media misrepresentation. Which by the way, is another reason why the misinformation disinformation bill, which would allow for this misinformation to continue, is so incredibly dangerous.

The media article essentially used wordplay to paint the picture that One Nation gave their preferences to labor. As in your vote. What actually happened, at least sneakily implied by this article, is One Nation put labor above LNP on their “how to vote card”. This is a card that is given to pretty much every voter at the voting booths where the volunteers are. Usually, people chuck this out because they are annoyed that they have to vote.

This card is the representation of what that party giving you the card would prefer you to vote for. It is a recommendation only. One Nation “preferencing” labor in that electorate would have been a form of strategy used because they had high reservations when it came to the LNP candidate. Essentially the LNP candidate would have been seen by One Nation in that area at that time as being worse than the Labor one for their interests.

They did not actually give Labor any votes.

They did not send your vote to Labor.

They would have only recommended that their supporters preference labor higher than usual in that area. Only the voter has control over that, you don’t have to listen to them, you don’t have to follow a “how to vote card”.

All votes are decided by the voter. NOT by any party. Your vote will end up where it does based on your numbering decisions.

Politics is a ruthless game. And politicians, parties, the government, the media, and influencers will strategize according to their own interests in order to get the outcome they want. This is not always as simple as a politician wanting to get elected. It may even mean running a candidate that they don’t want elected in a certain area in order to lessen or strengthen another for example.

Also, the media would love, I’m sure, to continue the myth that parties decide preferences simply so people lose trust in the party that they typically associate with the fake practice.

No one controls your vote. Your decision will not be changed by any party. Only the voter can decide preferences. This idea of parties giving away your preferences is a myth. Bookmark this post and share it so you can show others when you see them spreading this myth.