Minor parties sidelined
MORE than 5000 votes will be up for grabs in the Braddon byelection because two key minor parties are not standing candidates after their registration lapsed.
The Australian Recreational Fishers party and the Renewable Energy Alliance received more than 5000 number one votes between them in 2016.
Labor’s Justine Keay won Braddon on preferences despite polling 25,898 primary votes against Liberal Brett Whiteley’s 26,841. Ms Keay received 63 per cent of preferences from the 3701 Australian Recreational Fishers party votes to get across the line 33,759 to Mr Whiteley’s 30,913 total votes.
Ms Keay and Mr Whiteley are again facing off in the byelection, which is being held after Ms Keay resigned because of her failure to renounce her British citizenship before nomination in the 2016 election.
A representative of the Fishers party Kevin Harkins said the party was now unregistered so there would be no candidate.
Renewable Energy party spokesman Jack Gilding said the party was not active after failing to gather 500 signatures for registration.
The party’s candidate, Clinton Rice, attracted 1343 votes in 2016 with 66 per cent flowing to Ms Keay.
Greens candidate Scott Jordan said he would not stand but the party was in the process of preselecting a candidate. Ms Keay received 86 per cent of the preferences from Mr Jordan’s 4358 votes in 2016.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said she would not be standing a candidate.
The Liberal Democrats, the party of NSW senator David Le- yonhjelm, said no decision had been made about standing candidates in any of the five upcoming by-elections. The candidate last time, Joshua Boag, received 1380 votes which flowed 62 per cent to Mr Whiteley.
The Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group) said no candidates had approached the party about standing. Last time Graham Hodge’s 1151 votes flowed 69 per cent to Mr Whiteley.
Polling analyst Kevin Bonham said there was a vacuum in the minor party area. “I think the preferences from the people who voted for the fishers will most likely end up in the same place [Ms Keay] in most cases,” he said. “A noticeable thing about those parties was that they polled high in the reps [lower house election] but not very high in the Senate so they were not people really committed to those parties.”