Record numbers plan to vote for independent candidates or micro-parties, poll finds

VOTERS are fed up with the major parties with a record number saying they will support other candidates.

Nick Xenophon is seen at during a media event at the Consumer Action Law Centre in Melbourne on Friday. Picture: Julian Smith

VOTERS seem to be fed up with the major parties with a record number saying they are looking to support other candidates.

The latest Newspoll published in The Australiantoday held bad news for both the Coalition and Labor, with a record 15 per cent of voters saying they plan to support independent candidates or a micro-party in the election.

There has been a three-point jump in backing for other candidates in the past two weeks, and this vote is now at its highest level (during a formal election campaign) in the poll’s 31-year history.

The poll of 1867 voters also showed the government’s primary vote dropped one point to 40 per cent, while Labor’s primary vote also fell one point to 35 per cent.

Backing for the Greens has also dropped one point, with its vote reaching a six-month low of 10 per cent.

But if the Greens vote is combined with support for independents and micro parties, it shows a quarter of voters won’t vote for one of the major parties.

Senator Nick Xenophon, who is leading the micro party vote, said he thought the boring election was taking its toll on voters.

He said there was a sense of disillusionment in the community.

“This is almost a Seinfeld election, it’s an election about not much at all,” Senator Xenophon told ABC this morning.

Senator Xenophon said people were worried about jobs, and he thought voters were disconnected and disenchanted.

The Nick Xenophon Team, is polling 3 per cent nationally, according to today’s Newspoll. In South Australia its support is as high as 22 per cent.

The micro party could take two Senate spots and possibly a lower house seat.

The Newspoll found Family First also had national support of 3 per cent, with the Palmer United Party at 1 per cent, One Nation at 1 per cent and ­others adding up to a combined 7 per cent.

But despite the rise of the independent vote, Senator Xenophon thought it was highly unlikely there would be a hung parliament, as it would involve the government losing 15 seats.

It was also difficult to tell yet whether his party would hold the balance of power in the Senate.

‘DON’T VOTE FOR CHAOS’

Meanwhile both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are toughening their warnings against minor parties as the election campaign reached the halfway point, with both sides yet to breakthrough with voters.

The Prime Minister slammed the Greens, independents and the Nick Xenophon Team, declaring a vote for anyone but the Coalition is a vote for chaos.

“A vote for anyone other than my Coalition team is a vote for chaos,” he told a group of Liberal supporters in Adelaide on Saturday.

“Every single vote for Nick Xenophon, the independents, the Greens or Labor, brings us closer to Bill Shorten and the Greens running Australia. So now is not the time for a protest vote or a wasted vote.”

Meanwhile, Mr Shorten accused the Liberals and Greens in Victoria of continuing to plot a preferences deal that would damage Labor’s prospects in seats such as Batman and Bruce.

However, the Greens have posted on their website a vow that they will “never preference the Liberals above Labor”.

The party’s only lower house MP Adam Bandt has accused Labor and the Liberals of working on a preference deal to stop the Greens in seats such as Batman and Wills in Melbourne and Grayndler and Sydney.

“If the Greens are unhappy, perhaps they should buy a mirror and look into that to see what the real problem is,” Mr Shorten said.

He said the Greens had been “pretty naughty” over the past three years, citing instances where Greens Senators sided with the government, including changes to Senate voting arrangements and political donations.

Originally published as Record numbers plan to vote for independent candidates or micro-parties, poll finds