Pirate Party Australia has completed its initial member ballot for our preference orders for the 2016 federal election.
These results will inform the parties and voting order we suggest on our How to Vote materials and will influence any possible deals made with other parties.
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 have continued to use that process for subsequent elections and this election.
We sent all full members of the party an electronic ballot in which they could rank all registered parties* in order of how they should be preferenced. The ballot allowed for equal rankings and to leave parties with no vote to rank them equal last.
Should any party offer us deals that result in changing this order we are able to run subsequent ballots state by state to approve any such deals.
A final decision on how many parties we list on our How to Vote materials will be made soon.
The resulting order of party preferences are as follows:
Rankings
- Pirate Party Australia
- Australian Greens
- Australian Sex Party
- Science Party
- Australian Labor Party (ALP)
- Renewable Energy Party
- Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party
- Secular Party of Australia
- Nick Xenophon Team
- Drug Law Reform Party
- Voluntary Euthanasia Party
- Australian Progressives
- Online Direct Democracy – (Empowering the People!)
- The Arts Party
- VOTEFLUX.ORG | Upgrade Democracy!
- Australian Equality Party (Marriage)
- Bullet Train For Australia
- The Australian Mental Health Party
- Socialist Alliance
- Animal Justice Party
- #Sustainable Australia
- Australian Cyclists Party
- Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party
- Socialist Equality Party
- Glenn Lazarus Team
- 21st Century Australia
- Health Australia Party
- Consumer Rights & No-Tolls
- Australian Defence Veterans Party
- Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting)
- Australian Country Party
- Liberal Democratic Party
- Mature Australia Party
- Seniors United Party of Australia
- Liberal Party of Australia
- Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party
- Jacqui Lambie Network
- Australian Antipaedophile Party
- Citizens Electoral Council of Australia
- Smokers Rights Party
- CountryMinded
- Australian Recreational Fishers Party
- Democratic Labour Party (DLP)
- Katter’s Australian Party
- Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party
- Palmer United Party
- John Madigan’s Manufacturing and Farming Party
- Rise Up Australia Party
- Outdoor Recreation Party (Stop The Greens)
- Australian Liberty Alliance
- Country Liberals (Northern Territory)
- National Party of Australia
- Pauline Hanson’s One Nation
- Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated
- Australian Christians
- Family First Party
- Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)
The ballot results file in .json format can be found here.
Previous results and a ballots are as follows:
- Canning By-Election HTV preference statement
- Preferencing Statement for WA Senate Election 2014
- Preferencing Statement for Federal Election 2013
The Griffith by-election relied on the 2013 Federal Election order
* Note: We used the all registered parties list from the AEC to determine preference order for all parties because nominations had not yet closed, so it was unclear who was running where. And also because the House of Reps seat of Bennelong will require us to determine an order placing between parties that normally would not rate highly enough to get anywhere on a 1-6 Senate How to Vote. This is why the list includes all parties.
I voted 1 Pirate Party for the Senate in the last Federal Election after carefully reading the policies of all Senate candidates (I hadn’t heard of the Pirate Party previously). I especially like the policies of tax reform, recognition of First Peoples in the Australian Constitution, forward planning for digital disruption, education policy, humane treatment of refugees, transparency in Government, more say for citizens in Government (referenda), protection of the environment and re-thinking laws on euthanasia and illegal drugs. The freedom of speech is a grey area – in principle I agree with free speech, but abuse of this freedom can bring down civilised society. Copyright is also a grey area – we need to value intellectual property like physical property in order to promote investment in this area. I think that poor protection of intellectual property is one reason for the heavy investment in residential housing, banks, mines, etc in Australia relative to investment in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the arts.
free speech is a right. Don’t doubt it.