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Greens will not preference Justine Elliot

The Greens will not preference the ALP in the seat of Richmond, Greens candidate Joe Ebono announced today. Richmond is not one of the seats involved in the deal announced last week, he said.

“Local Greens feel that Justine Elliot has done nothing for this electorate that justifies advising our voters to give her their second preference,” he said.

Because Richmond is a marginal seat, the preferences of Greens’ voters are critical to the outcome. None of the other three parties can win in their own right. "Voters are sick of the power games and spin from the corporate parties and want politicians with real values to make the laws,” Mr Ebono said.

Open tickets are considered risky because voters are more likely to make a mistake that could deem their vote informal so that it is not counted. Mr Ebono said that voters are more intelligent than politicians acknowledge.

“People only vote informally when they don’t care,” he said.

“The people of Richmond do care, and they now have the opportunity to let the corporate parties know that Australians are not fools and will no longer vote for governments that represent financial interests above those of the voters.”