False claims around preferences emerge often as elections approach.
Claims surrounding a supposed "preference deal" between the Liberal National Party and the Greens ahead of next month's Queensland state election have spread online, especially on Twitter.
A number of Labor-leaning Twitter accounts have spread claims, or asked questions, about the Greens preferencing the LNP ahead of Labor.
The claim is completely false.
6 News understands the Queensland Greens have already passed a binding motion internally which ruled out doing any deals with the LNP and One Nation at the 2024 state election.
While the LNP could choose to preference the Greens over Labor in some or all seats, that would not be the same as a deal − it would just be a preference recommendation from the LNP trying to harm their biggest rival, the ALP. There is no evidence of any LNP-Greens preference negotiations.
It's also important to note that candidates are still being announced, and it would be hard for a how-to-vote card to be produced before then.
The Greens announced ahead of the last state election in 2020 that, again, they would not preference the LNP or One Nation and recommended on their how-to-vote cards that voters put them last.
It's also very important to mention that, as always, preferences are decided by the voter. Binding preference deals only exist for the Victorian Legislative Council and Melbourne City Council with group voting tickets, a system that has never once been used in Queensland state elections.
Last month, Labor minister Yvette D'Ath claimed the Greens were "happy to do deals" with the LNP to get more members into parliament.
"The Greens aren’t going to go out and say we did a preference deal so that we can take those seats, but that is the reality," she said.
That is not the reality according to the evidence currently available.
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