Preferencing Process

Pirate Party Australia has completed its preferencing for the 2014 WA Senate election. All group voting tickets (GVT) have been published on the Australian Electoral Commission’s website.

In keeping with the Pirate Party’s commitment to transparency and participatory democracy, last election the Party pioneered a form of preferencing unprecedented in Australian politics. We continued to use that process for this election.

After publishing the statements publicly, the members of Pirate Party Australia ranked all 56 registered parties according to how they should be preferenced.

A rundown of the process is as follows:

• Party members were given a ballot listing the parties to be preferenced in an order predetermined by the Party’s Election Committee to be a good general order of preferences based on the Committee’s research. They were given three days to respond to the ballot.
• The Committee used the preferencing order prior to the closing of the ballot in order to determine how to best go about negotiating preferences with other parties in order to get them to reciprocate the preference order determined by our members.
• As soon as the GVT ballot closed, the deals ballot was put to our members.
• 24 hours later, the deal results were determined and the other parties were informed.
• The Election Committee met as soon as possible after receiving the Group Voting Tickets for each state and democratically determined any changes necessary to the GVT that were not possible to determine in advance.
  • The minutes of that meeting can be found here.
• These results are now being published in this statement.

An example of the digital ballot that the members of the Party used to determine their preference order can be found here!

Member-determined Preference Order

The member determined preference order can be found below:

(1) Pirate Party Australia
(2) Australian Greens
(3) Secular Party of Australia
(4) Australian Sex Party
(5) Drug Law Reform Australia
(6) Voluntary Euthanasia Party
(7) Stop CSG Party
(8) Senator Online (Internet Voting Bills/Issues)
(9) The Wikileaks Party
(10) Australian Independents
(11) Future Party
(12) Bullet Train For Australia
(13) Liberal Democratic Party
(14) Nick Xenophon Group
(15) Australian Democrats
(16) Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party
(17) Animal Justice Party
(18) Australia's First Nations Political Party
(19) #Sustainable Population Party
(20) Carers Alliance
(21) Coke in the Bubblers Party
(22) Mutual Party (was Bank Reform Party)
(23) Building Australia Party
(24) Socialist Alliance
(25) Australian Voice Party
(26) Socialist Equality Party
(27) The 23 Million
(28) 21st Century Australia
(29) Australian Labor Party (ALP)
(30) Republican Party of Australia
(31) Democratic Labour Party (DLP)
(32) Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party
(33) Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting)
(34) Single Parents' Party
(35) Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party
(36) Uniting Australia Party
(37) Country Alliance
(38) National Party of Australia
(39) Shooters and Fishers Party
(40) Katter's Australian Party
(41) Natural Medicine Party
(42) Palmer United Party
(43) Australian Sports Party
(44) Liberal Party of Australia
(45) Outdoor Recreation Party (Stop The Greens)
(46) Smokers Rights Party
(47) Australian Sovereignty Party
(48) Australian Protectionist Party
(49) Freedom and Prosperity Party (was No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics)
(50) Australian Christians
(51) Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)
(52) Family First Party
(53) Citizens Electoral Council of Australia
(54) Rise Up Australia Party
(55) One Nation
(56) Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated

Member-determined Preference Deals

In line with the preference order determined by the membership, the Election Committee attempted to forge deals with other parties that would result in the reciprocation of preferences as closely as possible to the decision made by the members. These deals were then put to a majority vote of the membership before they would be put in place.

The deals as put to the members that were agreed to are as follows:

Sports Party Deal

Sports Party offers:

• Pirates in front of the Coalition, ALP and Greens
• Placing Scott Ludlam ahead of Coalition and ALP

We offer in exchange:

• 9th place to Sports
• 10th place to Sex

Deal not upheld

The GVT for the Sports Party shows the Liberal Party ahead of both the Pirate Party and the Greens.

Adjusted Preference Order

Preference order when deals and non-running parties are taken into account:

(1) Pirate Party Australia
(2) Australian Greens
(3) Secular Party of Australia
(6) Voluntary Euthanasia Party
(9) The Wikileaks Party
(43) Australian Sports Party
(4) Australian Sex Party
(13) Liberal Democratic Party
(15) Australian Democrats
(16) Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party
(17) Animal Justice Party
(19) #Sustainable Population Party
(22) Mutual Party (was Bank Reform Party)
(23) Building Australia Party
(24) Socialist Alliance
(25) Australian Voice Party
(XX) INDEPENDENT GROUP - WOOLF Russell
(29) Australian Labor Party (ALP)
(30) Republican Party of Australia
(31) Democratic Labour Party (DLP)
(32) Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party
(35) Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party
(38) National Party of Australia
(39) Shooters and Fishers Party
(40) Katter's Australian Party
(42) Palmer United Party
(44) Liberal Party of Australia
(45) Outdoor Recreation Party (Stop The Greens)
(46) Smokers Rights Party
(49) Freedom and Prosperity Party (was No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics)
(50) Australian Christians
(52) Family First Party
(54) Rise Up Australia Party

How other parties have ordered their preferences

All parties have submitted their preferencing order to the Australian Electoral Commission and can be viewed here.

Voting below the line

The Pirate Party wholeheartedly recommends that if you wish to vote below the line in this election, to assist you in limiting your chance of accidentally voting informally:

• Place a 1 above the line for the Pirate Party. In the case where your below the line is considered informal, the above the line will take precedence and your vote will still be counted.
• Use a service such as belowtheline.org.au or senate.io to prepare your below the line ballot in advance. (These websites are not endorsed by the Party and you should consider your privacy before entering any information into these websites)

Raw Results and Datasets

These will be published soon!