Election ’22
The latest polls show that the LNP vote in south-east Queensland has collapsed. The LNP vote has gone down by more than 11%. The Greens vote, on the other hand, in Brisbane is neck and neck with that of the ALP. Yet we don’t have a Green in the house of representatives from any seats in south-east Queensland or anywhere else in Australia excepting in the seat of Melbourne where Adam Bandt, the leader of the Greens, did manage to capture a safe Labor seat some years ago.
Preferential system of voting denies Greens voters representatives in the Australian parliament. To overcome this systemic issue, the Greens say vote for us and, if we don’t win, we will give our preferences to Labor. If the ALP make second place on the primary vote, then they will win the seat on Greens preferences, thus denying the Tories a seat.
At the margin, a Greens vote is not wasted but from a democratic point of view, it is. This is because the people don’t get who they want to represent them. There are very few exceptions in the lower houses of parliament in either federal or state elections. A proportional system like that in the federal senate would change this. The Greens would capture nearly one-in-five seats based on current voting trends.
Here the AEC describes how the Senate proportional voting system works. Judge for yourself if it is fair. – Ian Curr Ed., 14 May 2022.