God before green

Support for the Greens has grown in Australia over the last four years, and they are losing their reputation as a single issue party. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the ideology of the Greens is somewhat similar to the Democrats. After all, they seem to have similar positions on policy issues such as health, education, defence, refugees, the environment and even economics.

So imagine my surprise to find that the Democrats' NSW Senate preferences are (to select a few prominent parties):

4. Family First (anti-abortion, anti-gay, "conservative family values" party backed by the wealthy Assemblies of God churches, which contain lots of voters, and moreover, lots of bodies to hand out how-to-vote cards on polling day)
12. Christian Democratic Party (the awful awful Fred Nile - possibly more conservative than Family First)
13. No GST (a creation of David Oldfield and David Ettridge - formerly of One Nation)
17. The Greens
21. 50% Liberal/National, 50% Labor

Ah well, you might say, that's politics, and I'm sure the Greens
have made similarly ideologically bankrupt preferences. No:

7. Democrats
10. Labor
13. Liberal
19. No GST
21. Family First
25. Christian Democratic
Party

Note - Family First have made some amazing preference deals this election with major and minor parties alike. So take an extra minute and vote below the line!