DESPITE the major parties both wanting to get Bob Katter out of power, the ALP and the LNP have preferenced him ahead of each other in the seat of Kennedy.
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Labor’s how to vote card has the Greens Valerie Weier at number 2, Mr Katter at three, Family First’s Donna Gallehawk at four with the Liberal National Party’s Jonathan Pavetto last at five.
Meanwhile the LNP’s how to vote card has Ms Gallehawk at two, Mr Katter at three, Labor’s Norm Jacobsen at four and the Greens last at five.
The major parties’ how to vote cards means that if the election is tight Mr Katter is odds on to win by picking up the preferences of Mr Pavetto or Mr Jacobsen as long as he doesn’t finish third in the primary votes behind the LNP and Labor candidates.
If he does finish third it could be good news for Labor’s Norm Jacobsen.
Mr Katter’s own preference flow is two Donna Gallehawk, three Norm Jacobsen, three Jonathan Pavetto and five Valerie Weier.
The Greens’ meanwhile have put Labor number two, Mr Katter number three, the LNP number four and Family First last.
LNP Senator Ian Macdonald said the Greens political party had shown “outright hypocrisy” in their allocation of preferences in the Kennedy electorate.
“For years the Greens have rallied against gun violence and yet their HTV card preferences Katter ahead of the LNP’s Jonathan Pavetto in Kennedy,” Senator Macdonald said.
“How can the Greens carry on with their moral indignation when they blatantly favour candidates whose use of guns and killing people is directly opposite to the Greens rhetoric?”
The How to Vote instructions are put out by party head office rather than a local decision and of course, it is not mandatory for voters to follow it.
In the 2013 federal election the then LNP candidate Noeline Ikin polled almost 10,000 primary votes more than Mr Katter but he got over the line to win the seat after preferences by 3600 votes. A new Courier-Mail poll predicts Mr Katter will win again on a 58-42 preference against the LNP.