Voters buck party tickets to pick senators of their choice

Voters are using the new Senate system in unprecedented numbers to protest factional picks within the major parties.

Voters are using the new Senate system in unprecedented numbers to protest against factional selections within the major parties, to defying voting directives and to embarrass sitting Senators.

Liberal and Labor have been hit hard in the 2016 election by voters leapfrogging preselected Senators to vote further down the tickets in protest against factional deals pushing popular people into “unwinnable” spots.

Taking advantage of the new voting system that makes it easier to vote below the line on the Senate ballot paper, more than 10 per cent of Tasmanian voters defied Liberal and Labor how-to-vote cards, and in NSW the seventh-placed Coalition member has received 10 times more votes than some sitting ministers.

As Senate counting continues and first Senate places are declared — one each for the ALP and Liberals in the Northern Territory — it is clear the Liberals have lost conservative votes to the Nationals and minor parties and their official tickets were widely snubbed.

In NSW, a popular conservative Liberal, former general Jim Molan, was pushed to the unwinnable 7th position on the Coalition Senate ticket below four ministers, a National and a first-time Liberal candidate. In a factional deal endorsed by the state Liberal executive, Liberal ministers Marise Payne, Arthur Sinodinos and Connie Fierravanti-Wells and Nationals Fiona Nash and John Williams, then Liberal Hollie Hughes, were all put above Mr Molan on the ticket.

But votes counted so far show the effect of a campaign to defy the Liberal Party how-to-vote card has delivered Mr Molan 6173 first-preference votes, three times the vote of Senator Sinodinos and 10 times the votes of Senator Fierravanti-Wells and Ms Hughes.

Mr Molan still is unlikely to be elected and last night told The Australian he was attempting to “democratise the Liberal Party from within”. He said: “This does show those who want to vote individually will do so.”

The NSW count also shows conservative voters cherry-picked Nationals senators. Senator Nash has gained 3203 first-preference votes so far, more than double Senator Sinodinos’ vote, although he was higher on the ticket. The Nationals Senator Williams has gained more votes than the combined total of Ms Hughes and Senator Fierravanti-Wells.

Queensland saw deliberate voting for Liberal National Party senators who are deemed Nationals in Canberra, over Liberals.

But the biggest rebuff for the party directives came in Tasmania where Labor senator Lisa Singh could retain her seat — though dumped by her party to the usually unwinnable No 6 spot on the ticket — after receiving 20,654 below-the-line votes so far. Her personal vote is five times that of Anne Urquhart, No. 1 on the ALP ticket, and more than double the personal votes for the rest of the Tasmanian Labor team.

The smaller overall Tasmanian Senate ballot paper and a familiarity with the Hare-Clark voting system has encouraged below-the-line protests on both sides.

The Liberals’ former tourism minister Richard Colbeck — demoted to No. 5 on the party’s ticket after a preselection clash with Tasmanian conservative powerbroker Eric Abetz — has received at least 13,355 personal votes, almost half a Senate quota, in his own right.