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Article in The Australian misses the mark multiple times when it comes to preferences in Griffith

The 'Greenslide' in Queensland saw The Greens pick up 3 seats in the state.

An article written by Gerard Henderson in The Australian has missed the mark on a number of claims regarding preferences in the Queensland seat of Griffith, which the Greens picked up.


Before the May 21 election, the seat was held by Labor MP Terri Butler - but is now in the hands of Max Chandler-Mather.


The article states that "Butler scored 29 per cent of the primary vote" - true - and adds that "she was defeated by the Greens’ Max Chandler-Mather, who received 34.6 per cent" - also true.


"In other words, Chandler-Mather made it to parliament on Liberal preferences; Liberal National Party candidate Olivia Roberts had a primary vote of 30.9 per cent."

Nope.

Terri Butler was - as stated by Henderson - in third place, meaning first preferences for the ALP were the ones being distributed, not LNP.


On a two-party preferred basis, the LNP sits at 39.7% & the Greens at 60.3% - showing it was almost certainly preferences from ALP voters that secured the win for The Greens.

The article also mentions Butler being part of Labor's "right-wing faction."


This is also false - Butler is part of Labor Left.


There are several other false claims throughout the article.

One is that "Labor nearly suffered a similar fate in the seat of Macnamara - where Josh Burns narrowly succeeded despite the Liberals preferencing the Greens" - they did not.


Henderson says has has "never understood why the Liberal Party preferences the Greens over Labor in metropolitan seats" - they don't.


"Most of the Greens who succeeded did so with the support of the Liberals" - that's untrue, given Ryan & Brisbane were won by the Greens from the LNP, and Adam Bandt is set to pass the 50% mark on first preferences alone in his seat of Melbourne.


We note that even if he doesn't (as of publication he's on 49.8%), preferences likely flowed to him from people who voted for parties like the Victorian Socialists & Animal Justice Party.


Check out the latest impartial coverage of the 2022 Federal Election here.


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