I meant to do this earlier in the week, oh well. Now it's halfway through polling day in the eastern states.

In broad terms, I am advocating an above-the-line vote in the Senate in each state for The Greens. They, and the Democrats, have demonstrated their value as minorities in the Senate holding the balance of power. The Democrats, while looking good on their policy documents, have imploded over the past couple of years, perhaps fatally.

In the House of Representatives, I am advocating a vote for the Australian Labor Party, with certain exceptions as follows:

New South Wales:
Bennelong: Andrew Wilkie (Greens) (sitting member: John Winston Howard)
Blaxland: Marlene Marquez-Obeid (Greens) (sitting member: Michael Hatton, ALP. This was Paul Keating's seat from 1969 to 1996)
Bradfield: Robert Goodwill (Greens) (sitting member: Brendon Nelson. The Labor candidate, Neil Neelam, is a 20 year-old uni student)
Calare: Peter Andren (Independent, and the sitting member)
Cunningham: Michael Organ (Greens, and the sitting member)
Shortland: Bob Phillips (Greens) (sitting member: Jill Hall, ALP. Disclosure: Bob Phillips was English/History master at Swansea High School when I was a student there 1971-76)
Throsby: Trevor Jones (Greens) (sitting member: Jennie George, ALP - the former ACTU president who has become invisible since entering parliament in 1998)
Wentworth: Mithra Cox (Greens) (sitting member: Peter King, disendorsed Liberal running as an independent. If Lindy Morrison (Democrats) had been willing to admit in her CV on the party's website that she had been drummer for the Go-Betweens she would have been my choice. Sigh... was there anything I could do?)

Queensland:
Fairfax: David Norris (Greens) (sitting member: Alex Somlyay, Liberal. The ALP candidate is Ivan Molloy).

Tasmania:
Braddon: Michelle Foale (Greens) (sitting member: Sid Sidebottom, ALP)

Victoria:
Higgins: Robert Trafficante (Greens) (sitting member: Peter Costello)
Hotham: Kiera Perrott (Greens) (sitting member: Simon Crean, who should have retired while the going was good)
Indi: Jenny O'Connor (Greens) (sitting member: Sophie Panopoulos, Liberal)