How our preferences were distributed
Carers Alliance are standing candidates in 5 states;
Western Australia
South Australia
Victoria
New South Wales
Queensland
Carers Alliance’s first major preference (away from us if we do not win a seat) was to the Democrats then split between both Liberal and Labor. This was done in order to ensure that if you vote for us your vote will most likely end up where you would like it to go if a Carers Alliance Senate candidate is not elected. We estimate that half of our supporters vote either Labor or Liberal with a smattering of Greens.
Neither major party had a disability or ageing policy worth preferencing at the time of making our preferences and neither party deserved all preferences. You, the voter can also choose to vote below the line in order of your preferences.
The Greens have a policy but have never sent a bill to the house on our issues. As Labor have directly preferenced Greens, we estimate that the rough percentage of Green voting carers will end up with their vote passed through Labor. This was the most equitable thing we could do given the lack of forward thinking and planning of both major parties.
We are also standing three candidates in NSW in;
Bennelong
Wentworth
Macquarie
Our preferences will flow to the party which makes a commitment to people living with disability, frailty and mental illness and their families.
If no commitment is made our preferences will flow away from the sitting member, whoever that is.
We felt that this was a way that people with disabilities and their families and friends could protest the continued neglect of our policy makers in the only way that they care about – the potential loss of a seat or two or three.
In the 2013 elections we will be looking at fielding candidates in all key marginal seats to stand for election under the same premise. Eventually our politicians will respond to the crisis faced by millions of Australian families because we can, together, force their hands.