Next up on the ticket is the Coalition, comprising the  Liberal Party and the Nationals.

After some consideration, I am electing not to write a full post about the Coalition.  My reason for this is simple: most people are aware of exactly who the Coalition is, and far more knowledgeable people than I are analysing their policies in newspapers, in blogs, and on the television.  And, frankly, both the Coalition and Labor get an entire series of debates in which to tell us about their policies.  It’s not difficult to find information about them (though I will say, past experience has taught me that the Liberal Party are really quite thorough about hiding their policies on their website).

The purpose of this series is to assist people in figuring out who all the tiny parties are.  You don’t need me to tell you what I think of the Coalition’s policy.  In fact, you probably don’t want me to.

On the same principle, I will also not be writing a full post about the Labor Party when I reach them.  Fair is fair.  If I find myself with too much time on my hands before the election I may come back and have another pass at this (especially for the Nationals, who really don’t get their share of coverage), but for now, I’m just going to briefly discuss the Coalition’s senate ticket and then move on.  (I think we all know that HEMP is going to be far more entertaining anyway…).

The Liberal Party is providing two tickets in Victoria.  Unsurprisingly, they are very similar.  The main difference is that ticket one sends their preferences first to Family First and then to the DLP, and ticket two reverses this order.  After that, they move on two the Australian Christian Party, Country Alliance, and the two parties that like fishing.  We have a nod to the No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics, and then move on to Katter’s Australian Party, Palmer United, the Sex Party and the Liberal Democratic Party, before reaching the Australian Democrats.  I don’t imagine much is going to get past this point.  The ALP occupies slots 69 – 74, the Greens are at 82-87, and the much coveted last three slots go to a pair of independents, Joe Toscano and Beth Matthews, followed by One Nation and last of all the Citizens Electoral Council.

No real surprises here.  They are basically favouring the two more mainstream of the right-wing Christian parties (being quite even-handed between the Catholics and the Protestants, in fact), running down a list of right-wing small parties in order of increasing insanity, favouring ALP over the Greens as promised, and staying as far away from the really rabid right wing as possible, because it’s not a good look, and, to be blunt, they are going to get those preferences whether they show support or not.

It’s actually a pretty honest ticket – it does more or less what you’d expect of it if you’ve been paying any attention to politics at all.  Not my cup of tea, but there’s nothing truly horrendous there and no political weirdness.  If you’re the sort of person who votes Liberal in its current incarnation, you could pretty much vote above the line with a clear conscience – your vote is highly unlikely to enable anything you aren’t already living with, politically speaking.