Fred Nile

The preference deals are done and dusted and now, as voters make their way to pre-polling, we’re getting a glimpse of some of the deals done between the parties in order to boost their chances of getting elected — or to just keep some buddies on side.

Liberals: Christian Democrats, Family First, Labor and the Greens

Perhaps it’s not so odd for the conservative party to preference the radical Christian parties in Australia, but it’s an odd look for the Liberals, who are running several gay candidates at this election. The party founded by Australia’s homophobe-in-chief, Fred Nile, is second on the Liberals’ how-to-vote (HTV) cards in New South Wales, ACT, NT and Tasmania, third in Queensland, and fourth in WA. This leads to some interesting HTVs for the House of Representatives, including the gay Liberal candidate for Sydney preferencing a candidate who would seek to limit his rights over the Greens and Labor candidates.

Nile is a bit like Alan Jones: while he has power in New South Wales, a lot of the rest of Australia don’t seem to get it. The deal for preferences is largely designed to keep Nile onside in New South Wales, where Nile and the other CDP MP in the state decide the fate of the Liberal state government’s legislation.

Where Nile’s party doesn’t get second preferences, the Liberals tend to go to either the ex-CDP party Australian Christians or Family First, and have done so in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. The gay candidate for Brisbane is preferencing Family First ahead of Labor’s Pat O’Neill and the Greens’ Kirsten Lovejoy.

One of the “we’re not racist, but …” parties, Australian Liberty Alliance, is absolutely fuming that it missed out on key Liberal party preferences in Queensland. The party is preferencing LNP candidates highly, but the favour was not returned, with the ALA candidate in Bowman appearing behind both Labor and the Greens on the LNP’s how-to-vote card.

Labor and Derryn Hinch and Sex Party and Lib Dems

Shame, shame, shame. Derryn Hinch’s ascension to the Senate appears almost likely. He has managed to not only get the donkey vote slot in Victoria, he has also secured third place on Labor’s HTVs in the state, behind the Sex Party. He’s also No. 6 on the Coalition’s HTV. Lest anyone fear Labor is doing deals with the Greens, the Greens rank fifth on Labor’s Senate ticket in Victoria.

[A campaign Winnebago and You’re the Voice on the bagpipes: on the hustings with Derryn Hinch]

The Liberal Democrats — which didn’t win the top spot on the NSW Senate ballot this time but still rank D, well ahead of the Coalition at F, Labor at N, and Greens at AL — somehow managed to get Labor’s No. 6 on its NSW Senate HTV card.

Perhaps a nod to her popularity in the state, and a view to keep her on side, Labor has placed Jacqui Lambie’s party at No. 2 on its HTV cards in Tasmania.

Greens and Fred Nile

Much hay had been made of the Greens preferencing a Christian Democrat above an indigenous gay Liberal candidate in Sydney. It’s not so much a deal as a bad look for the Greens. It is an own-goal for a party that has spent a lot of time facing criticism over preferences in this campaign, but will ultimately have little impact on the outcome. The criticism was enough, however, to force the Greens to reverse the decision. Still, the Liberal is preferencing the Christian Democrat before both the Greens and Labor candidates.

It’s not the only place Fred Nile’s party ranks above the Liberals on the Greens how-to-vote, with the CDP candidate ranking higher than far-right Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic in the very marginal seat of Bass in Tasmania. Given Nikolic’s desire to suspend civil liberties and rush through lots of national security legislation, perhaps this won’t be as big of an issue for Greens voters as it was in Sydney.

[Civil liberties be damned: meet the new chair of Parliament’s national security committee]

Independent MP for Kennedy Bob Katter has faced criticism for posting an ad where he pretends to shoot LNP and Labor people just days after the Orlando shooting massacre. He also walked out of an interview with Triple J’s Hack over questions as to whether he still believed there were no gay people in his electorate — despite a gay man running as the LNP candidate against him. The Greens, oddly, have preferenced Katter over the LNP candidate.