Statement on preferences

You may have heard conflicting reports about the Greens preference recommendations in the NSW election. Please pass this email onto your friends and e-contacts to clarify The Greens decisions.

The Greens are preferencing Labor ahead of the Coalition in 24 marginal seats. This does not mean that we are endorsing the Labor government. The Greens will continue to criticise and campaign for better outcomes for NSW communities and the environment. We have not preferenced the Liberals or Nationals ahead of Labor in any seat, nor have we done a deal with the Coalition. Our decision acknowledges that Labor are marginally better than the Coalition on industrial relations, maintaining public services, protecting national parks, lesbian and gay (lgbti) rights and creating marine national parks.

The Legislative Council, or Upper House, is The Greens best chance to see more of our members in parliament. Lee Rhiannon, and our MLCs have worked tirelessly in the Upper House on the issues of climate change, workers' rights and political donations, to name a few.

"With more Greens in parliament we can better hold the Government and the Opposition to account and we can introduce innovative and effective solutions to the key challenges facing the community," Lee Rhiannon.

The Legislative Council provides an important check on the major parties, and ensures constructive debate on legislation before it is passed through parliament. To vote in the best interests of The Greens, we recommend the following order of preferences:

1. The Greens (Group I)
2. Democrats (Group G)
3. Patrice Newell group  (Group F)   
4. McNally group (Group H) 
5. Human Rights Party (Group S) 
6. Socialist Alliance (Group Q)
7. Save Our Suburbs (Group R)

Summary of the Greens preference decisions

1. The Greens have not preferenced the Coalition parties ahead of Labor in any seat. The Greens have never preferenced the Coalition ahead of the Labor party in any NSW state or federal election.

2. The Greens are directing preferences to Labor ahead of the Coalition in 24 marginal seats. In many of these seats we have placed progressive independents before the ALP.

3. In the remaining 9 marginal seats, The Greens are not recommending preferences to either major party.

4. The Greens have not done any preference deal with the Liberals or the Nationals nor are we going to.

5. The Greens reached a preference agreement with the Labor party.

Background

The Greens’ decision recognised that there are major problems with the Labor government’s performance but that they are at least marginally ahead of the Coalition in some key areas including: industrial relations, maintaining public services, protecting national parks, lesbian and gay (lgbti) rights and creating marine national parks.

Both major parties are bad on most issues, including: failure to seriously address global warming by limiting the expansion of coal mining, biasing planning laws to developers, taking corporate donations, building motorways instead of public transport, compromising civil liberties in the ‘law and order’ auction and continued funding of the wealthiest private schools. The vast majority of conservative legislation passes the NSW parliament with the support of both major parties.

The Greens are not endorsing Labor: our preference decisions acknowledge that however bad the Carr/Iemma government has been, Labor is a better than the Coalition on a range of issues. The best solution for the challenges facing NSW is more Greens in the parliament and a large Greens vote.

We urge voters to vote 1 The Greens on March 24 in both the upper house and the lower house and to use their preferences wisely.

Media releases on preferences