How to vote as a critical thinker

The best way to start out is by figuring out what you fundamentally believe in a clear way. General ideas are a good start, but the following quiz can help clarify these for you.

Now that you have a clear idea on your fundamental beliefs, the next step is to figure out how they align to political party policies. You need to ask what you’d like to see happen in Australia.

Vote compasses like this one are a good (if imperfect) method for seeing who you’re likely to want to vote for.

Each electoral division has its own issues and their own personalities. You can visit the Australian Electoral Commission to see which division you’re in, and who is running for office.

Blogs like The Tally Room can give more information about the candidates, as well as provide direct links to their personal websites.

Now you know what parties are running in your division, it’s time to see what they’re up to these days in terms of policy priorities. Keep in mind that those priorities doesn’t guarantee that you’ll agree with their conclusions. Use the vote compass from Step 2 to see if your goals align with theirs.

Here’s some links to the three most popular parties in Australia:

The Liberal Party

The Labor Party

The Greens

From Step 3, you’ll have access to some of the information about the candidates. Now that you know what their party’s goals are, what are their personal aims?

There’s no one correct set of credentials to be a member of parliament. However, it’s useful to think about the type of person they are. Do you want someone who has spent their life in public service? Someone who has run a profitable business? Someone who is civically-minded? Do they even have any ideas of their own?

A candidate who is untrustworthy should get our last preference. It doesn’t matter if they share our values or are offering policies we like – if they aren’t credible, they can’t be trusted to represent our best interests.

Every division has a person who is currently holding the seat. If they’re seeking re-election, it’s time to see what they’ve done.

You can check the official record at Hansard for what they’ve said and done.

Another useful site is They Vote For You, which gives an indication of which issues they care about. They might not be voting on issues the way they said they would – if that’s the case, it might be time for them to go!

In Australia, we never throw away a vote. The Australian Electoral Commission pays out funding to each party that gets more than 4% of the vote, meaning that small parties can influence elections and share their issues in a democratic section.

If no one wins a majority in the first count, the candidate with the fewest votes is excluded and their vote preferences are redistributed. Every vote matters.