Anthony Albanese should do what I had to do at the last election and win a seat in his own right without having to rely on Liberal preferences, federal Greens MP Adam Bandt said in a media release.
Mr Bandt's claim is overstated. Mr Bandt did not receive enough first preference votes at the 2013 election to be elected "in his own right" without preferences, and he relied on minor party, independent and Liberal Party preferences to be elected. While the Liberal Party how to vote card preferenced Mr Bandt last, a third of Liberal voters disregarded this and preferenced Mr Bandt ahead of the Labor candidate. There were 53 electorates, or roughly one-third of all electorates, at the 2013 election in which the candidate won on the primary vote alone, meaning that roughly two-thirds of seats were decided on preferences, as Mr Bandt's was. But experts say that the proportion of preferences that Mr Bandt relied on was small relative to his primary vote and that he was the clear winner of the seat. By contrast, there were 15 seats, or 10 per cent of electorates, which returned results which elected a different candidate to the primary vote winner, such as the rural Victorian seat of Indi.
Fact check: Did the Greens win the seat of Melbourne in 2013 in their own right without having to rely on Liberal preferences?
['None']