NSW upper house voting guide for the pragmatic progressive
The local candidates get most of the attention in the leadup to an election, but the Legislative Council (NSW Parliament’s upper house) also warrants some scrutiny, so here’s a quick primer on the other lot we get to vote for on 25 March.
By going in prepared you can arm yourself with all the knowledge you need to ensure your vote isn’t one of many that will be unwittingly exhausted and wasted, and that you don’t get tricked by a sneaky group with a pleasant sounding name.
There is a rare, real opportunity for the balance of power in the upper house to shift to the side of progressives at this election.
There is a rare, real opportunity for the balance of power in the upper house to shift to the side of progressives at this election. The last thing any of us needs is some bigoted wack job scraping in by just a handful of votes after much of the progressive vote was exhausted. Since you’re there casting your vote anyway, it would be a crying shame to waste it!
Members of the Legislative Council are elected for eight-year terms, and half of the seats are decided each election cycle. So this time around we will be choosing the replacements for MLCs elected in 2015, and those we elect will be around for a long time to come.
It’s a proportional representation system with a rather small quota, which opens the door for groups to secure a seat with a pretty small percentage of the vote. It’s also an optional preferential system, and there are quite a few groups to choose from, which will lead to many exhausted votes. Unless you are diligent with your preferences, the danger of a wasted vote is very real.
The winners of the first 18 or so of the 21 available seats up for grabs are pretty predictable. Where things get interesting is those last few seats. There is no way to predict who will edge ahead in the race for those last few spots. What is certain is that it will be distributed preferences that decide the result.
The only way for your vote to count at that key final preference distribution is if you’ve included enough preferences to cover the last actual two groups left in the race. There is no way to predict which group of awful monsters might be up against which not-so-shit group for that precious last spot, so roll up your sleeves and preference all the way. Don’t get lazy or complacent and vote just for your favourites. Keep going for as long as it takes, put every single piece of political deadweight after anyone who is even moderately less shit.
Now that you’re resolved to not waste your vote, you need good intel on the groups. You’ve come to the right place! Herewith is The Echo’s NSW upper house voting guide for the pragmatic progressive. Naturally opinion on the precise order and what exactly constitutes being ‘not shit’ or ‘shit’ will differ. So feel free to disagree and rearrange this list as you see fit. Please, just inform yourself, and go in with a plan.
We recommend that you put all of the ‘not shit’ groups in your preferred order ahead of the ‘too out there’ groups, and keep going through the ‘shit’ groups until you can no longer distinguish the least vestige of humanity.
For those of you who want to vote below the line and for the ungrouped candidates, we applaud your enthusiasm! But for all practical purposes, voting comprehensively for the above the line groups is enough to ensure that your vote will not be exhausted.
Ziggi Browning,
Echo production manager
• The below guide can also be downloaded as a PDF.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
