Matthew Abraham: If you really want to have your say this federal election, the Senate is the place

The reality is, very few SA voters can do much to influence the outcome of the election. But there is one thing we can all do to make our voices heard. Be a pain the bum on polling day.

It’s annoying when newsreaders fiddle with their pens for the entire bulletin.

Do they find us that boring?

And it was hugely annoying when the ABC chopped short its broadcast of the Pope’s superb Easter Vigil Mass to bring us a repeat of the Cook and the Chef.

But these things only register “mild” on the Annoyance Index compared to my latest frustration – the hunt for the ALP’s 2022 Senate team.

It made The Hunt for Red October look like a picnic.

The search began a couple of weeks back when I spotted an election poster on a Stobie pole on Goodwood Road, outside the Showgrounds. It was a poster of South Australian Labor powerbroker Senator Don Farrell urging us to re-elect him to the Senate. I love election posters, a window into the soul of an election contest.

Don’s been in politics for quite a stretch, but it’s the first time I can recall seeing his genial mug shot on a Stobie.

When the ALP starts putting faces to its faceless men, you know it’s taking the election seriously.

Then I saw one urging us to re-elect Senator Penny Wong. And many more simply urging “Vote Labor in the Senate”. So, out of professional curiosity, I went looking for Labor’s full Senate “ticket” – usually five candidates in the half-Senate election heading our way on May 21.

If the party is going to all the trouble of festooning corflutes across Adelaide for its Senate vote, surely its candidates must be easy to locate.

They weren’t to be found on the state ALP website, nor the federal one.

When I called a “well-placed Labor source” he said he’d been looking for them too, with no luck. He had heard they’d recently been chosen by the factions, so they did exist.

I searched high and low, but drew a big fat blank.

Until last Tuesday. Paydirt. And do you know where they were hiding?

On the Liberal Party’s website. The Liberals not only list their own Senate candidates, they list Labor’s team. Even better, one click downloads the Australian Electoral Commission list of every Senate candidate, and their occupations, for every party, group or independent, for every state and territory. Half-way into the campaign, Labor’s now updated its site. No rush.

Unless you live in the federal seat of Boothby, it’s unlikely your vote will make any difference to who governs this great nation after May 21.

That’s because, on paper, marginal Boothby is the only SA seat in play.

It’s a similar story for millions of voters across Australia.

The major political parties are fighting frenetically for votes in a handful of seats that will decide if the Morrison Government gets another term, or Labor’s Anthony Albanese moves into the Lodge.

For the rest of us, if you really want to have a say, the Senate is where you can play.

How we vote in the Senate is far more important than how we vote in our local seats.

That’s why knowing at least something about who you’re voting for matters.

If you want to give a party free rein to run the country, the choice is simple.

Number the party’s box above the line, and let them deal with it. But if you want to hedge your bets, you need to pay attention.

The AEC has an excellent online “practice voting tool” to make sure your vote counts. Take a break from Wordle and give it a go.

In short, if you vote “above the line” you must number at least six parties or groups.

If you vote “below the line”, you must number at least 12 individual candidates.

I’m a big fan of voting below the line because it gives more control over where your votes go. It’s called being a pain in the bum. Political parties do not like it at all.

Six Senate spots are up for grabs in SA.

Senators Wong and Farrell will win two and Liberal Senators Simon Birmingham and Andrew McLachlan will also be re-elected.

That leaves a mad scramble for the two so-called “Xenophon seats” won by Nick Xenophon’s party in 2016.

Ironically, Nick Xenophon is now trying to win a “Xenophon seat”, the one he threw away in a rush of blood to unsuccessfully contest the 2018 state election.

Who’ll win the last two seats is anyone’s guess but they may decide the balance of power in the Senate. That might just give us a real say in how the country’s run.

So, be a pain in the bum. It’s your democratic duty.