David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

Hmm. Tragic. So if voters of those parties had only been required to number 1 to 6 on the ballot paper—and perhaps not even that many—do you think they would have gone and put the Liberal Party, Senator Sinodinos, ahead of the Greens?

Almost certainly they would have stopped at No. 6, if they got that far, and they would have voted for other minor parties with which they thought they had common interest. The point about it, of course, is that if you actually went to those party supporters and said to them, 'Who do you support, the Liberal Party or the Greens?' I would be confident in saying that the vast majority of them would have said, 'I would prefer a Liberal got elected if it was the choice between a Liberal and a Greens.' I am is quite certain they would have.

The thing about this, of course, is that these voters of ours, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the voters for Christian Democrats, One Nation, Shooters and Fishers Party, Fishing and Lifestyle Party and the others trusted their parties. They said to their parties: 'You take care of our vote. If you cannot get elected and you cannot get a another party with which we have some common interest to get elected, then at least make sure it goes to someone we hate least.' That is the whole point of not having a vote that exhausts. Your vote ends up helping a party you hate the least, even if it is not the party you love.

I am confident that our voters think they can trust us with their vote. I am confident also that the voters that support Christian Democrats, One Nation, Shooters and Fishers Party and Fishing and Lifestyle Party also trust their parties with their vote. It is entirely possible that Greens voters do not trust that party with their vote and that is why they are so determined to make sure that their voters do not end up having that vote that the party can deal with. Perhaps that is the case, but that has to be the exception. As far as all the other minor parties are concerned that I have ever dealt with, my feeling is that the voters that support those parties or trust those parties with their votes would say, 'If you cannot get elected, make sure my vote goes to someone who I don't hate.'