Talk of ‘dodgy’ preference and governing deals treats voters like mugs

We are lucky in this country to have two bulwarks against the extremism creeping into other Western democracies: preferential and compulsory voting.

Preferential voting – an instant run-off election in cases where less than 50 per cent plus one is earned – ensures all voices are heard. Even if your preferred candidate doesn’t win, there’s an even chance you had a hand in electing your representative.

Preparations for the previous Brisbane City Council election in 2020.Credit: Jono Searle/Getty Images

In the US, which is dealing with an alarming rise in political extremism, there are growing calls for preferential voting – or “ranked choice” voting, as it is known there –  to be introduced.

At council level, for now at least, preferential voting remains optional, hence Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s “just vote 1” strategy, both for the lord mayoral ballot and those for LNP candidates across Brisbane’s 26 council wards.

But the same day, voters in Inala and Ipswich West will have their say in state byelections – both with compulsory preferential voting. (There’s a separate argument to be made for some consistency there.)

Compulsory voting, meanwhile, protects against the extreme political polarisation, already evident on these shores, metastasising in the halls of Parliament. Here, it’s counterproductive to campaign to just the party base to excite turnout on poll day. Australian elections are won and lost in the middle, not the margins.

Our system is not without its flaws, not least of which is the misconception – fed by political self-interest – that the system can be gamed by political parties. The Brisbane City Council election is the latest case in point.

The campaign is certainly ramping up. Signs are going up in yards, ads are appearing in traditional and social media, and volunteers are annoying motorists at intersections across the city.

And the scare campaigns have started in earnest. At the heart of this negative side of Schrinner’s re-election bid is the very electoral system itself.

Schrinner campaign spokeswoman Fiona Cunningham, the councillor for Coorparoo (and someone, it should be noted, I count as a friend), has been leading the administration’s line of attack, centred around its warnings of a Labor-Greens “coalition of chaos”.

Here, the LNP is using Greens lord mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan – a divisive political figure, to be sure – as its chief line of attack against Labor and its top-of-the-ticket candidate, Tracey Price.

“The fact Labor won’t rule out doing a dodgy vote-preferencing and power-sharing deal with the Greens when they’re led by such a dangerous and destructive individual [Sriranganathan] is a disgrace,” Cunningham said in a recent dispatch to media.

No, it’s not a disgrace. It’s democracy.

Going after preference deals is not a line of attack unique to the Schrinner-led LNP. If history is any guide, you can expect Labor to say similar things about One Nation preferences in the lead-up to October’s state election, for example.

But what these campaigns don’t seem to understand, or at least won’t acknowledge, is that preference deals are not electorally binding. Preference suggestions may well be outlined on how-to-vote cards, but voters are under no obligation to vote according to those party-issued flyers.

Parties don’t distribute preferences, voters do. In the privacy of the ballot box, we are free to distribute our preferences however we see fit.

I have never been handed a how-to-vote card I haven’t ignored.

As for “power-sharing” – that, too, is entirely in the hands of the voters.

Schrinner has warned Labor can’t be voted in without Greens preferences, and vice versa. As I wrote in September, it’s a scare campaign that recent electoral history shows, for many voters, just isn’t that scary.

That’s democracy for you. If a ward’s constituents lean left, they’ll get a left-leaning representative. Is that not a good thing?

The same goes for right-leaning wards, though it’s the nature of Brisbane politics in 2024 that the right-leaning vote is not as fragmented as the left. The Hansons and Katters of the world remain a distinctly regional phenomenon.

Brisbane’s conservatives have a home in the LNP.

In a situation where, cumulatively, Labor and Greens councillors secure most seats in City Hall – a situation that’s far from a sure thing – it will be the will of the people. Those councillors will have a duty to the people of Brisbane to play the cards they were dealt. “Ruling out” coalition deals before the outcome of an election is known tells voters their wishes don’t matter.

Schrinner himself is no stranger to power-sharing. His formative years in City Hall were served with Campbell Newman as lord mayor, and the Labor Party providing most of the civic cabinet, due to its majority in the wards.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but the world didn’t end. And the voters of Brisbane delivered their verdict at the next election in 2010, when the LNP won a majority that has held to this day.

Brisbane voters will be able to deliver their verdict on any hypothetical “coalition of chaos” in 2028.

The will of the voters is sacrosanct and must not be second-guessed.

Ultimately, despite all the talk about “dodgy preference deals”, only one person decides where your vote goes. And that’s you.

So do your homework. Study your ballot before you vote. Decide who best reflects your views and direct your preferences, should you choose to, accordingly.

Whatever you decide, the choice is yours and yours alone and our elected representatives will have to accept our verdict and, if necessary, forge alliances accordingly.