Preferential Voting – How to make your vote count?

With less than a week to go until Australia votes for their next Federal Government and with a good number of weeks of campaigning behind me I find the necessity to write this post about the actual voting system. In my reckoning probably 60 -80% of voters DO NOT know how the preferential voting system works, as a result you hear many a comment, that is actually a misnomer. Personally I’d love a dollar for every time someone has asked me where are our preferences going, of course in both houses of Parliament this is completely UP TO YOU if you want it to be? So I thought I’d try and give a simple explanation of the preferential system and why a vote for a new or even a protest party is not a wasted vote but actually allows your vote to effect the final outcome and give it meaning and purpose.

So let’s start by looking at my electorate and hopefully I’ll be able to demonstrate how it all works. Page NSW has six candidates and in this case they are all candidates for a particular party: Nationals, Labor, Palmer United, Greens, Christian Democratic and One Nation. Now on the ballot paper the candidates are listed down the page in an order that is predetermined by a ‘draw’. Basically the names are put in a hat and drawn out one by one which determines their position on the page.  Each voter is instructed to number the ballot paper one to six in their order of preference. Place one for the candidate you would pick first, two for who you would want second, etc on down the order. Once all the votes have been cast and election day is over the counting begins. The ballot papers are put in piles for each candidate who has a one against their name, once they are all counted in this way the candidates are ordered according to how many first or primary votes they have. Now if the top candidate has more than 50% of the primary vote they would of course be declared the winner, however this is very unlikely. Rather all candidates would have less than 50% of the total vote. The candidate who has least primary votes is eliminated and their ballot papers are redistributed to the other candidates based on who their second preference is.

Example: Primary votes after counting are Labor 35%, Nationals 35%, Palmer United 10%, Greens 10%, One Nation 6%, CDP 4%. (we will ignore informal votes in this example)

CDP candidate is eliminated and the 4% that voted CDP are redistributed to the other candidates based on the second preference of the CDP voters.

Example after Redistribution: Labour 35%, Nationals 35% Palmer United 12%, Greens 11%, One Nation 7%

One Nation Candidate is now eliminated and the One Nation voters second preferences redistributed and the CDP third preferences redistributed.

Example after redistribution: Labour 36%, Nationals 35% Palmer United 16% Greens 13%

The Greens candidate is now eliminated and preferences redistributed and so on until we have a winner which is determined by who gets to 50% of the votes first. (again this is ignoring informal votes). Of course as we get to the last 2 or 3 the distribution of preferences will put someone over the line and of course they will know that it is the preferences of a particular group that got them there. Accordingly they should keep the desires of those particular groups in mind as they govern.

WHY VOTING FOR A NEW, ISSUE BASED OR PROTEST PARTY IS A SMART USE OF YOUR VOTE.

Now you might think that voting for Palmer United or another ‘lessor’ party is a waste of your vote but actually the opposite is true. If you just vote Liberal or Labor you never let them know that you are unhappy or dissatisfied with their performance at any level. However if you vote for another party then let your second or third preference be for Lib/Lab then you will let them know that you are looking for change from them on some of their policies, particularly the ones that were the policies of the party to whom you gave your primary vote.

Particularly in this election, when the Liberal/Labor duopoly has delivered such inept and embarrassing government, we have the opportunity to send a clear message of discontent to the duopoly that has existed and let them know in no uncertain terms that we will not let them ignore the wishes of the Australian people any longer.

WHY VOTING PALMER UNITED IS A SMART USE OF YOUR VOTE

Obviously I’m standing for PUP and of course I’d say this but let me tell you why. Firstly we are the only alternative party running a full complement of candidates in every electorate in the country. Secondly we are led by a man (Clive Palmer) eminently qualified economically to steer Australia towards a resurgence of confidence and success. Thirdly we have a full team of competent and passionate people with real life experience who are ready to take the challenge of government. Fourthly we are the only party with a raft of policies that are about stimulus, not just spending or not just austerity (cuts). Fifthly we will not be party driven but constituent driven, we want to represent grass roots voters, not big business or lobbyists.

Use your vote wisely on September 7!

Campaign Launch Speech

Thank you for attending this little campaign launch, it might appear insignificant and one might argue, why bother, you will never make a difference.

I’m reminded of the story of the little boy who is taken to the beach the morning after a great storm. The beach is littered with starfish. He starts picking them up and throwing them back into the sea. An old man also on the beach wanders up to him and says, “don’t bother there are thousands of them all up and down the beach you won’t make a difference.” The little boy responds in a flash, I might not make a difference to them all but I’ll make a difference to this one” as he throws a starfish back into the sea.

I could recite an extensive list of reasons why I shouldn’t be running for Federal Parliament, yet somehow I’m still convinced that it is the right thing to do.

My flyer has the slogan, ‘It’s insanity to keep on doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result’ – I think it was Einstein?

By and large over the last decade that is what we have been doing through the entrenched two party duopoly. As a result we keep getting more of the same – things aren’t improving – infact almost universally people are disillusioned with what should be our finest institution. A few have come and gone trying to inject fresh blood into the political landscape and good job they have for they have paved the way towards what is emerging now.

Palmer United Party has 150 candidates, that is one in EVERY electorate, Senate teams in every state and both territories, there have been 7 million hits on our website, thousands of members across the country; all since April this year.

This is nothing short of a miracle!

The Liberal Party has just 121 candidates , I don’t think, in fact, that they have ever fielded a full team on the park?

A second grade teacher was doing  an exercise with the class, one by one the children came up the front and told the class what job their Father did. All the usual occupations were mentioned until one little boy came up and when asked responded that his Dad was a drug dealer! The teacher quickly moved on but determined at a later moment to find out what was going on. She found the little chap in the playground at recess and quizzed him on his response. No my Dad is not a drug dealer, he’s a politician but I was too ashamed to say so!

This unfortunately is the state of politics in this country, Alfred Deakin and our founding fathers would I’m sure turn in their graves. 

Our constitution was framed with the thought that civic minded people would give up their time and vocations for a term or two, represent their region and lead the country, implementing ideas for the good of all. This has long been forgotten.

The BIG house in Canberra should I believe be a place for the contest of ideas, not  a contest of parties or worse, of personalities, as it has become. Great ideas, world changing ideas live in the minds of people all over this country and I believe the role of elected representatives is to locate, debate and implement these ideas that best reflect our National values and ideals.

I recently read a speech by Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor who addressed Congress as a part of the Millennium series of talks, it’s called the Peril of Indifference and I’d like to read an excerpt.

What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means ‘no difference’. A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil. What are it’s courses and inescapable consequences? Is there a philosophy of indifference conceivable? Can possibly view indifference as a virtue? Is it necessary at times to practise it simply to keep ones sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals?

Of course, indifference can be tempting – more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person’s pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbours re of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction.

In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony. One does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it, you denounce it. You disarm it.

Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning;it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor – never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees – not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we deny our own.

Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century’s wide ranging experiments in good and evil.

This gives me my reason for running, why I have thrown my hat in the ring. I refuse to be indifferent, I refuse to sit on the laurels of my past success, I refuse to be intimidated by my past failures, I refuse to accept that this is as good as it gets and I refuse to believe that one person cannot make a difference, regardless of what the denigrators and naysayers may suggest.

For me Palmer United Party offers the Australian people a viable third alternative with fresh ideas, from real people who are ready to govern. I could list policies here but I ask you to do one simple thing, don’t be indifferent about the future of our great nation, engage in the political process as I have done, our future depends on it!

 

Thank You!

It’s time to be un-Australian!

We Aussies are a funny lot, we have an opinion about everything, even if we know nothing about the situation or person or sporting event that we have an opinion about. We garner our opinions from the news, from our friends and family, from the banter we have heard at the cafe or the hairdresser or from the so called expert, that we all seem to know, who speaks with authority on just about everything. We pick the opinions and ideas that resonate with our basic worldview and if they feel or sound right adopt them as our own. I know this to be true because I have and still do it at some level, particularly about sport.  We all want to participate in the conversation, be validated and heard, so we borrow another’s ideas, call them our own and enter into the banter. It’s just so Australian!

I’ve had a number of conversations since announcing myself as a federal candidate and invariably the subject of my electoral ambitions comes up, I say something like “I’m standing for Clive Palmers new party” and in instances where people do not know much about him they often give that quizzical  one eye brow lifted face that says “oh really”. I then ask if they have actually looked at his website or know anything  about him and why he has started a new political party, at this point the look on their face tells me they haven’t and the conversation shifts direction. My first encouragement to these people is always to have a look for themselves, don’t rely on others, please, please, don’t rely on the mainstream media, I know this is err um, un-Australian but for the sake of Australia we need to change and find things out for ourselves and not just rely on the borrowed opinions of others.

The ‘she’ll be right mate’ attitude is quintessentially Australian and when it is lived out as the optimistic euphemism it was designed to be is a wonderful aspect of the Australian psyche. Taken to extreme, as I believe it has been in regards to political engagement, it borders on a dangerous apathy that is detrimental to our nation and it’s future. At the core of this apathy is the erroneous view that I am only one person and I couldn’t possibly make a difference, but you can, dare I say you must eradicate this thought and awake from your apathy and engage yourself in the political process. If every ONE of us makes and effort to engage we become a force that needs to be reckoned with, the old saying “It has been said that for evil men to accomplish their purpose it is only necessary that good men should do nothing”. (Charles Aked) is salient here.

We cannot sit idly by and let this wonderful nation of Australia fall into disrepair, our parliament is childish, our leaders devoid of loyalty and character and though we detest it, though we are ashamed of how we must look on the international stage, we do nothing about it. This post is first and foremost to get you moving, to get you personally and individually involved in the political process here in Australia. I could care less whether it is in support of my party; your engagement, whether with me or with another, is all I seek. We cannot change something with which we will not engage! The polls tell us overwhelmingly, that as a whole, we are dissatisfied with the state of politics in this country, but our dissatisfaction must morph into action, join something, ask a question of someone, become an instrument of change; together we can work towards a better society, a healthier democracy, a brighter future for our children and grand children.

At Palmer United Party we want our branches to be filled with masses of people all contributing to the policies and laws that we will deliver to the Australian people, you have a voice and we want to give your voice the opportunity to be heard but that can only happen if you engage, become a party member, be un-Australian!

100 pieces of information about me:

1. I was a fussy kid when I was little, only ate meat pies and tinned spaghetti.
2. My greatest achievement in life is raising four amazing children to adulthood. I am immensely proud of all they are and all they have so far achieved.
3. I’m most alive standing on a stage speaking to an audience.
4. I once lost my passport in Uganda, Africa and had to pay bribes to various officials to get out of the country, I was then almost not allowed into Kenya and spent many hours in the ‘terminal’, no one country taking responsibility for me.
5. I had bad asthma as a kid, once when on holidays crossing the Nullabor a Dr in Ceduna told my parents I’d die from it if they continued on across the country. They went anyway, needless to say I didn’t die!
6. I was the vice captain of the Australian Rules football team in Primary School.
7. My first girlfriend was Moira Weller, I think she ‘dropped’ me! Spoke to her a couple of years ago on FB!
8. The first car I owned was an HR Holden I bought for $300. Sold it for $600 after I had painted it.
9. I can still remember the lines I spoke as narrator in the end of year play in the last year of Primary School.
10. My younger sister Samantha and I once had a competition to see who could remember the whole of the Dr Seuss book “One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish” we both succeeded and to this day can recite 5 or 6 pages!
11. My Dad was born in England and moved to Australia when he was 14 years old, my Mum was born in Australia.
12. I have an older  (by 18 months) sister Leanne and a younger sister (8 years) Samantha.
13. My maternal grandmother is still alive and is 96 this year, my paternal grandmother lived to 100; augers well for me I think?
14. I have come close to salt water crocodiles in the wild in the NT in a 12ft dinghy.
15. I was born in Melbourne and lived there for the first 9 years of my life, still my favourite city to visit in Australia.
16. In 2012 we travelled around QLD and NT for 9 months in a camper trailer.
17. A teacher in Yr 12 told me I would be Prime Minister one day! (I’m the closest I have ever been to fulfilling that)
18. I’ve had two Subaru WRX!
19. I worked as a mechanic for several years in the mid 90’s.
20. I once visited a displaced people’s camp in Northern Uganda, very confronting!
21. I’m a passionate Carlton Football Club supporter, though I’ve never been a member.
22. My appendix burst when I was 24 and I got severe peritonitis! Thought I was going to die.
23. I once did a loop the loop in a glider.
24. A few years ago I moved over to Mac and will never go back.
25. For my 40th birthday I went on the Porsche experience at Mt Cotton raceway.
26. I wrote a letter to the PM Bob Hawke in 1983 – I still have his response.
27. Climbing Uluru in 2012 was a fantastic experience, it is the most awesome landform in Australia.
28. I’ve collected a number of biographies about Winston Churchill; he is my favourite historical character.
29. I lived in Perthfor 16 years from the age of 10.
30. I am part way through a Masters Degree in Christian Leadership, not sure I’ll get to finish it in the next little while?
31. I pastored a church in Canberra for 16 years, it was the most satisfying work I have done to date.
32. People, I believe, are the most important commodity in the world.
33. The unbalanced way the media reports on issues is unhelpful in finding answers to our worlds problems.
34. I played lots of basketball as a teenager, didn’t grow very tall which was a bummer.
35. I once worked as a garbage collector on Rottnest Island, off the Perth coast, during Yr 10 school holidays.
36. A number of  years ago I bought a digital SLR and now enjoy photography, I have sold a couple of my photos!
37. Owning a cafe has shown me how hard people in the hospitality industry work.
38. I’d love to fly in a fighter jet one day.
39. My first permanent job after school was in the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac).
40. Did a night dive with manta rays off Hawaii once, it was amazing!
41. I prefer Coke over Pepsi.
42. I quite regularly say random quotes from Monty Python skits and movies.
43. Canberra was my home for 20 years from 1990, I think it is one of the best cities in Australia to live and raise a family.
44. Corn is the food I can’t stand the most, I have twice been to dinners and not pre warned them of my hatred of corn and been served a plate of it, both times I ate it without saying anything.
45. For  about last 10 years I have struggled at times with fybro-myalgia.
46. One of my daughters and her husband lives in Germany.
47. I have 5 grandchildren and one on the way, I love them to bits, but don’t get to see them very often. 😦
48. My HSC (Though we called it UAI in WA) score was 97.
49. I really enjoy cooking and Jamie Oliver is my favourite celebrity chef!
50. I didn’t learn to swim till I was 10, but learn’t to walk when I was 10 months.
51. I had No 5 on my Carlton jumper as a kid, for me it was Syd Jackson, now it belongs to Chris Judd my current day favourite player.
52. I’ve never been to a game of Rugby League.
53. I cried when I stood in Westminster Abbey, the sense of history and the sense of God overwhelmed me.
54. I’m actually quite funny when you get to know me and I probably (read definitely) don’t act my age at home. In fact my wife says she has three children at home!
55. I make a pretty good coffee, most of the time!
56. I’m a touchy feely kind of person!
57. Songs with a story are my favourites!
58. I used to read the Book of Virtues to my kids when they were growing up, I love this anthology of stories and poems.
59. The Sword of Damocles is the story that has impacted me most in regard to leadership and public office.
60. I’m naturally quite idealistic, this is not always a helpful quality.
61. I’m surprised at how good people can be and how bad!
62. I believe I am a good listener.
63. I once, as a 17 year old, steered a launch, full of young people on a youth outing, back to Perth from Rottnest Island, at night, after the skipper became incapacitated.
64. I love fishing but have never been very successful at it.
65. Quantum physics really interests me.
66. I’d love to live in Italy one day and learn Italian.
67. The Okavango Delta in Botswana was one of my favourite holiday experiences.
68. I am on my second marriage and have learnt considerably from the mistakes I made in the first.
69. Parents are there when even your closest friends desert you. My parents are both amazing people and a huge influence in my life.
70. I have had a cup of Kopi Luwak coffee, the real deal, the one that has passed through the intestinal tract of a palm civet.
71. My wife Jennie is the love of my life, she makes me so very happy, we laugh all the time.
72. I’ve learn’t more from my failures than from my successes.
73. Money does not motivate me!
74. I thrive on encouragement!
75. Experiences I believe are more important than possessions.
76. Dreams become reality if you hold on to them, faith can indeed move mountains, I’ve experienced this too many times in my life to not believe it.
77. I’m not one to hold grudges or unforgiveness.
78. I believe we should all be judged on our best moments not our worst, unfortunately the opposite is often true.
79. I have a strong sense of justice and believe it is lacking in our culture and society.
80. Had a gun pulled on me at Entebbe airport in Uganda once by a soldier, he made me get in a car with 3 Africans I didn’t know, I really thought this was the end when a short way into the drive they pulled into a deserted carpark. Needless to say it wasn’t the end, he was just getting a parking ticket. LOL BASOR
81. Once I ate rat, in a village in Northern Uganda, my host didn’t tell me that’s what it was till several days later.
82. When walking through one of the most difficult phases in my life 98% of my ‘friends’ deserted me. This reinforced the truth of the statement “True friends are those that are walking in when everyone else is walking out.” I trust the experience has helped me become a better friend.
83. I believe that mercy is better than judgement and that the truth will always eventually come to light.
84. I try to live by the golden rule, do to others as you would have them do to you, I’m not always successful though.
85. The biggest audience I have spoken to is about 2,500 people.
86. I detest hypocrisy, but we all are at some level, regardless of our best intentions.
87. When all is said and done I’ve found that most people decide or do what is best for them, the truly great are the truly sacrificial souls of this earth.
88. I hope to never stop learning and desire to be open enough to have my ideas and beliefs challenged and the strength to change if I have been found wanting in either.
89. I turn 50 this year and wonder how I ever got that old.
90. I believe in the God of the Bible and salvation through Jesus Christ.
91. I’m confused  as to why it takes so long to prepare and clean up after food and so little time to consume. I’d have it the other way around!
92. We don’t really find out what we believe until it is tested, unfortunately that is often too late for us to overcome the test.
93. I’d rather learn by being taught than by experience, however the latter is usually what occurs.
94. Eating a great meal with interesting people is one of my favourite things to do.
95. I love to debate ideas but without it becoming personal.
96. Got my head stuck in a cupboard!
97. Everyone has a story and I love listening to them.
98. We spend a lifetime trying to find out who we are and being authentic. Authenticity I believe is the key to success.
99. My greatest ‘buzz’ was sky diving, it was just incredible, would do it again in a flash, maybe???
100. Faith, hope and love these are the three most important virtues, but I agree that the greatest is LOVE.

Campaign Brochure

Hey Everyone

This is a link to my new campaign brochure which I’d like to get you to assist me to get to as many inboxes in Page electorate as possible. You can download it and email to those in your contacts lists or send them the link. Using electronic media of course saves the environment and on cost, both of which are extremely important in the current day. Thanks for your help. Please do not print though as there are AEC rules concerning printing that do not allow this to be printed.

 

Steve

DL-flyer-email

Why I’m running for Federal Parliament?

I thought it important to give the voters of Page a rationale for why I’ve put my self up for election. There are some reasons why it is a bad idea and I’m sure my opponents will raise them so best I do it myself.

• I’m new to the area, don’t know many people, don’t know the issues!

True; however it could also be of great benefit, I have no preconceptions about local issues nor do I have affiliations based on history, family or industry and can therefore deliberate ‘without prejudice’ for the people of Page. The issues can be learn’t, quickly I believe, and a fresh set of eyes on them and a big dose of common sense might be just what is needed to get some answers to them. I’m a good listener and will always be open to hear what people are saying.

• Palmer United is a fledgling party and can’t be taken seriously.

I was probably in this category (actually I was also a Liberal Party member) when I first saw the news about Clive Palmer. However instead of only listening to the media I did a bit of research about the man and what he stood for. Yes he is a larger than life character, but he’s built his empire from scratch and he is as ‘true blue’ as you will find. Clive Palmer needs this like the proverbial ‘hole in the head’, but he’s doing it “because it’s the right thing to do“. I liked what he was saying and the policy on the Palmer United website palmerunited.com so much that I thought I’d make contact and in fact indicated I could be prepared to run as a candidate (what was I thinking?). When Clive rang me personally a couple of days later I was ‘sold’ and here I am.

There is no way that Palmer United Party can now be considered ‘minor’, we will field candidates in all 15o lower house seats and senate candidates in every state and territory. Not bad for a party just over 6 weeks old and is really, I believe, a testimony to what Clive Palmer can and will do. We could govern and a Palmer United government would get on with the job and do it quickly, we’ve already shown what we can do.

My reasons for running:

I’ve always been interested in politics and had thought ‘one day’ I might have a go; I joined the Liberal Party when we moved into the area in September last year but that was a bit of a frustrating experience.

The connection with Palmer United was just one of those moments I guess, a confluence of events, what Clive said made sense to me and I thought to myself I can whinge and complain about the current state of politics like many others or I can do something about it; I can be a part of the answer or a part of the problem. So I put up my hand, after gaining the support of my wife and family of course!

I was as surprised, as perhaps many of you are reading this, that Palmer United chose me as there endorsed candidate, but they did and now this journey begins!

Probably the other major contributing factor to my decision was how difficult business is, having just started a new business and having invested our life savings doing so we have found the economic climate makes things quite difficult. There is not a lot of confidence in the market place by and large and many are doing things tough, in business and in life i think.  Small business employs 60 -70% of the workforce in Australia but is largely forgotten by both political parties, I’d like to see that change? I really believe that prospering small business, particularly in regional areas is vital to this nation and will be working as hard as I can for initiatives and policy in that regard.

I know there is an incredible amount to learn and in a really short time, but I’m a quick learner and a good listener, I’ll fight tooth and nail to not become a ‘politician’ but will always strive to be a relatable and responsive representative for the constituents of Page.

Steve Janes