Why the Animal Justice Party is Clearly a Right Wing Party in Disguise

I have been doing my tactical voting analysis for the states and territories in the 2013 Federal Election, and there has been a clear trend for minor left-wing parties to preference other minor parties—including minor right-wing parties—before their votes ever flow back to their clear ideological neighbour, The Australian Greens.

The Animal Justice Party has taken this too far in every Senate election they are contesting, handing their Group Voting Ticket preferences to their ideological opposites and adding real risk of electing conservative crossbenchers on the back of progressive animal-welfare votes.

This could have been easily avoided: by only doing preference swaps with micro-parties that have zero realistic chance of snowballed election, while steering clear of right-wing contenders near the final quota cutoff.

NSW

The Animal Justice Party has preferenced One Nation (specifically Pauline Hanson) ahead of the Greens. This materially improves One Nation's chances in a tight race against the third Liberal candidate, Arthur Sinodinos.

VIC

The Animal Justice Party has preferenced Family First before the Greens. While Family First already had a strong preference-harvesting network in Victoria, progressive micro-party tickets flowing to them have effectively sealed the deal.

QLD

The Animal Justice Party has preferenced Family First ahead of the Greens—and this is amplified massively by the Animal Justice Party drawing the Group A (first column) spot on the Queensland ballot paper. Group Voting Tickets were lodged after the ballot draw was known, meaning it was foreseeable that their Group A donkey/top-of-ballot vote would flow straight into Family First.

TAS & NT

Fortunately, the Animal Justice Party is not on the ballot in Tasmania or the Northern Territory.

WA

In Western Australia, Family First is preferenced ahead of the WikiLeaks Party on the Animal Justice ticket—another ideologically baffling deal.

SA

In South Australia, after Nick Xenophon's running mate, the Animal Justice Party ticket flows directly to the No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics ahead of the Greens.

ACT

Perhaps the most publicized (though least likely to alter the seat result) decision was preferencing the Liberal candidate in the ACT ahead of the Greens candidate over local kangaroo culling disputes—risking handing the Coalition an extra Senate seat nationally.

Too many voters enter the polling booth thinking, "I like the Greens, but Animal Justice is the specific issue I care about most," and mark 1 above the line for Animal Justice—unwittingly casting an effective preference vote for right-wing Senate candidates.