Why a Vote for Green Counts

With Labor and Liberal so similar in key areas, Green is the only option for progressive voters wanting someone to represent their concerns on what sort of Australia we want to live in.

• IF YOU’RE A PROGRESSIVE VOTER voting Green is the only vote that currently represents this and will make the ALP a more compassionate, humanitarian party...
• GREENS FUNDING - Whichever party you vote 1 for gets the funding for next time. By giving your first preference to a major party, you’re helping lock in more of the same policies. By giving it to the Greens, you’re helping to achieve real debate – and reform.
• YOU CAN STILL PREFERENCE LABOR SECOND - If you vote Greens and preference ALP, then you’re telling Labor that they’re not representing the progressive views of voters.By voting 1 for the Greens and preferencing the ALP, your vote is just as strong at keeping Tony Abbott out – but you also, critically, make the ALP less like him.
• GREENS IN GOVERNMENT WILL REPRESENT YOUR VOICE ON KEY ISSUES such as Climate Change, Infrastructure, Mining… The Greens bring a new voice to the debate on key issues such as climate change and refugees and where there’s currently very little policy difference between the major parties.
• GREENS IN GOVERNMENT CAN IMPROVE MAIN PARTY POLICY on your key issues of climate change, congestion, water scarcity, mental health, asylum seeker policy. Look at how Greens in the Senate made the economic stimulus better with a jobs dividend for rural and regional Australia.
• PUTTING LABOR NO. 2 or ANOTHER PARTY ON YOUR VOTING PAPER means this party will get your vote IF the Green candidate doesn’t win.
DID YOU KNOW?
• The Greens have five Senators in the Parliament of Australia, 22 elected representatives in State and Territory Parliaments, more than 100 local councillors and close to 10,000 party members.
• In the 2007 election, the Greens scored more than 9% of the national vote yet got no Lower House seats. Is this democracy?

(thanks to anonymous lefty for quite a few of these points)