Why preferential voting matters

I was surprised yesterday when one of my friends admitted that they weren't aware of the advantage of voting first for a minor party and preferencing a major party. She was just going to vote for the ALP first.

Preferential voting works as follows:

• You put a minor party (eg, Greens) first. Another party (eg, ALP) second.

• If the party that you placed first gets more than 4% of the primary vote, they get funding of roughly $2 per vote ($2.40?). If your first choice does not win the majority (50% + 1) of the vote, your vote is then transferred to your next preference (second count). And so on until a candidate receives the majority vote.

So, by voting for a minor party first, even if you know they won't win the majority, helps them by (hopefully) giving them funding for part of their campaign, and sends the message to the major parties that the smaller parties and their policies cannot be discounted.

Don't waste your vote!

John Howard: "the world will not end tomorrow"

Great news! Our Prime Minister continues to sit on his hands.

CLIMATE CHANGE is a serious challenge, but the world will not end tomorrow because of it, says John Howard. It's so reassuring. Hope he's read the IPCC report. Perhaps it will make good retirement reading next week.

A sample from the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report

Table SPM.2. Examples of some projected regional impacts

Australia and New Zealand

• By 2020, significant loss of biodiversity is projected to occur in some ecologically rich sites including the Great Barrier Reef and Queensland Wet Tropics;

• By 2030, water security problems are projected to intensify in southern and eastern Australia and, in New Zealand, in Northland and some eastern regions;

• By 2030, production from agriculture and forestry is projected to decline over much of southern and eastern Australia, and over parts of eastern New Zealand, due to increased drought and fire. However, in New Zealand, initial benefits are projected in some other regions.;

• By 2050, ongoing coastal development and population growth in some areas of Australia and New Zealand are projected to exacerbate risks from sea level rise and increases in the severity and frequency of storms and coastal flooding.

Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
(16 November 2007)

Please visit the IPCC website for the full details. This is not the time for blinkered sceptics like our PM!

Original post at: Labor View from Broome