To Troy Rollo and others:

This time the focus MUST be making sure that John Howard is out of government for good - literally. As leader of the Opposition he can do little harm and will give it up to Abbott or Costello, and we will be rid of him.

Even though we have preferential voting, the end result is a first-past-the-post system. I would be wary of many independents splitting the vote, and a handful of votes could make the difference in many seats. If there are a number of Independents and you do want to vote for them - make very sure where their preferences are going. I wouldn't be surprised if a number of 'front' candidates were put up by Liberal - so be very careful where your vote might end up.

BTW if about 4000 people in Bennelong DID change their vote, John W might miss out anyway!!

NHJ! (HA): The crucial thing is that we make the tiny but real packet of power which is our vote work for us as much as possible. And we can have our cake (vote for the independent / small party of our choice) and eat it to (give the ALP our preference). Apart from increasing the paperwork, the votes in between these two votes aren't gonna do anything. The first vote distributes our money and the latter vote ensures our preferred major party, if any, gets our little shove toward power without giving them our money.

I have seen both major parties use the call that small political forces might 'split their vote' and hence inadvertantly be a vote for the worse alternative. Labour, with regard to The Greens, for example, have cried that a vote for them will just help the Liberals in. The Nationals cried the same to One-Nation voters. It's just not true in our system, as long as we don't exhaust our preference but give it to the major party of our choice.

Incidentally, this problem is utterly present in the US system, where they do not have preferential voting and hence, taking your vote from say, the Democrats, and voting 1. Greens is actually helping the Republicans get a lead. It is why the electoral road to change is so difficult in the US and why here we have very real opportunities to make progressive inroads into parliament. So, for my money, vote Green or independent.

But Troy's cautions are also crucial. Make sure you know your independent because the major parties will indeed field a variety of front-independents from which to harvest preferences. As citizens, we should endeavour in my opinion to not need the advice of some how-to-vote card to decide how we're gonna distribute preferences. Know who they are, put a bit of thought into it. Look for a good candidate to give your $1.20 and then preference the major party most likely to unseat the government candidate. Know the candidate's names because how-to-vote cards often don't list the parties under the names. And if in doubt, just vote Green.