General News
16 October, 2024
No photos, no interview: Traeger voters cop two paper candidates
One Nation and The Greens have nominated candidates but wouldn't supply photos or contact details.
Paper candidates standing for One Nation and the Queensland Greens in the Traeger election still provide a choice for voters, says renowned ABC election analyst Antony Green.
He told North West Weekly the use of paper candidates has become increasingly prevalent as both major and minor political parties want to be able to boast they are running candidates in every available electorate.
The late nominations by One Nation and the Queensland Greens in the Traeger election race last week has highlighted the debate around “paper candidates”.
A paper candidate is someone placed on a voting ballot for a political party who does not undertake any campaigning and often has little or no relationship with the electorate. With the LNP and Labor facing an improbable struggle to achieve the more than 25 per cent swing required to topple Robbie Katter, both One Nation and the Greens understand their final vote count in Traeger is likely to be negligible.
However, it can be financially beneficial for minor parties to run candidates in certain seats, with current electoral laws “reimbursing” political parties and candidates if they achieve more than four per cent of first preference votes. The 2024 state election payments above the four per cent threshold are $3.33 per vote for candidates and $6.66 per vote for eligible political parties.
It remains to be seen whether either party can win sufficient votes to receive any monies.
The Greens did not qualify for any reimbursement at the 2020 election – receiving just 2.2 per cent of the vote. One Nation did not field a candidate.
Despite this, Mr Green said modern election trends indicated it was increasingly common for minor political parties to want to emulate the major parties by contesting every available seat.
He said standing paper candidates in a safe electorate still provided choice to voters.
“There is criticism that parties don’t run local candidates - but if they cannot get a local to run, the alternative is to either run someone from outside the electorate or to have no one contest the seat,” Mr Green told North West Weekly.
“If the parties do not run a candidate, then you do not have an election – so even if it is finances that makes a party stand a candidate, at least voters still have a choice (of who to vote for).”
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