As we enter the final stretch ahead of the May 3 election, we’re taking a look at local candidate’s preferences and the party policies of the top picks to ensure you are informed.

Postal voting has begun, and early voting centres across the Mid North Coast are open. Whenever you choose to vote, you must number all boxes.

There has been a lot of talk about the power of preferences this year, so we wanted to explain how the system works and how to get the most out of your vote.

Over the past fortnight, candidates and sitting MPs running for federal seats have been releasing their “How to Vote” cards. It’s important to note these are simply a guide to how a candidate would like you to number your preferences, from most favoured to least favoured. 

These are merely suggestions, and you can order the candidates as you wish.

So, how does preferential voting work?

When you approach the ballot box this election with your House of Representatives voting card, the process is relatively straightforward. 

Simply number each candidate in the order of who you want to be your local federal MP for the next three years - from most preferred to least preferred.

When polling closes volunteers and party scrutineers set about the painstaking process of counting votes. Multiple counts can take place as the full suite of candidates is whittled down, one by one, to a final victor. 

The first vote count is on first preferences. If one candidate receives more than 50 percent of first preference votes, they are elected. However, with votes split between major parties, minor parties and Independents, it is only in very safe seats where this occurs.

In tight electoral races, like we’re seeing in Cowper, preferences hold a lot of power.

What happens to my second and third votes, and so on?

If no candidate receives a majority of first preference votes, the next round of counting begins. 

The candidate who receives the least number of first preference votes is excluded, and their second preference votes are distributed to the remaining candidates.

If no candidate reaches more than 50 percent with these added preference votes, the next round of counting begins, on the excluded candidate’s third preferences. This process is repeated until a candidate receives an absolute majority.

How do preference deals work for candidates?

Preferences may play a key role on May 3 as Labor and the Coalition continue to lose their stranglehold on Australian politics.

At the 2019 federal election, Labor and the Coalition attracted 74.78 percent of first preference votes. In the 2022 election it fell to 68.27 percent.

Many races saw candidates who received the most first preference votes overtaken by other candidates due  to preferences.

How are some of the local candidates distributing their preferences in Cowper?

Cowper covers an area from Coffs Harbour to Port Macquarie. There are 11 candidates, and for the purposes of this story we will look at preference suggestions from current MP Pat Conaghan (National Party), Independent Caz Heise, One Nation’s Chris Walsh, Labor’s Greg Vigors and the Green’s Wendy Firefly. 

Pat Conaghan, MP for Cowper

Conaghan’s “How to Vote” card is toeing the Coalition party line, giving the second preference to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation candidate Chris Walsh, followed by the Libertarian and then Family First candidates.

One Nation does not believe in man-made global warming and wants Australia to withdraw from the United Nations Paris Agreement, stating cutting carbon emissions will cut jobs. On its website it states: “We are the only political party to question climate science”. 

It is a “pro-life” party.

The party has a policy to deport 75,000 illegal migrants and cut immigration by over 570,000 people.

The party says it supports Australian forestry and expanding the plantation forestry estate.

➡️ View all One Nation policies here

The Libertarian Party – Conaghan’s third preference – has a policy to raise the income tax-free threshold for individuals to $50,000 and reduce company tax rate to zero.

The party wants to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Renewable Energy Target, including net zero goals, and eliminate carbon emissions-based regulations for all new construction projects.

It believes the current school system wrongly prioritises political correctness and ideological agendas. 

Libertarians want to repeal section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it unlawful to “offend, insult or humiliate” based on race, colour or national or ethnic origin.

➡️ View the full 2025 election promises from the Libertarian Party here.

Conaghan’s fourth preference, Family First, says it wants all Australians to “rally around the shared Judeo-Christian values” and states “multiculturalism has failed”.

Family First believes that LGBTIQA+ gender fluid ideology is harmful to children and wants to remove related material from all school and early childhood curriculum.

It wants to incentivise monogamous, heterosexual marriage and encourages the nuclear family.

The party also wants to pause net zero policies, pursue nuclear energy, increase gas supply and keep coal-fired power stations open.

The Mid North Coaster asked Conaghan why he had given his key preferences to these partiers. A spokesperson for the MP for Cowper declined to comment.

In a Facebook post on April 16, Conaghan wrote alongside his “How to Vote” card: “It’s time to get the country back on track — and that starts with a majority Coalition government. No more Greens. No more Teals. No more backroom deals.”

➡️ View the Family First Party policies here.

Caz Heise, independent candidate for Cowper

Independent candidate for Cowper Caz Heise is not making suggestions on how to vote, and says she has not made any deals with major parties or candidates.

“I believe that being independent means not being aligned with any political party or prioritising one candidate over another,” Heise told the Mid North Coaster. “For that reason, I will not be directing preferences or making deals with any party or candidate. I also believe that our democracy works best when everyone gets to choose the order of their own ballot.”

Greg Vigors, Labor candidate for Cowper

Labor’s candidate for Cowper, Greg Vigors has put Independent Caz Heise as his second preference, followed by Green Wendy Firefly and then Megan Mathew from the Legalise Cannabis Party.

The Legalise Cannabis Party believes cannabis should be treated in a similar way to alcohol and tobacco in terms of labelling and advertising but not subject to the ever-increasing levels of tax paid by consumers on these products. 

Its policy includes an immediate moratorium on all arrests of cannabis consumers, reforms allowing consumers to grow cannabis in their gardens or indoors, and a reform of drug driving laws where impairment, not presence, is tested, among other items.

The party has a three-staged plan for legal regulation of cannabis starting with personal adult use, to social clubs and then commercial distribution. 

Chris Walsh, One Nation candidate for Cowper

One Nation’s Chris Walsh told the Mid North Coaster his second preference is Peter Jackel of the Family First party, followed by Libertarian candidate Paul Templeton and in the fourth spot Trumpet of Patriot’s candidate Geoffrey Shannon. 

Like American president Trump’s administration, the Trumpet of Patriots party wants to introduce a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). On the website, the party says: “In the USA, government waste and corruption is finally being exposed”.

The party does not support renewable energies or Net Zero goals. It wants to exit the Paris Agreement and repeal the ban on nuclear energy.

The party believes “having multiple flags divides the country”. The party does not support Welcome to Country stating: “You do not need to be welcomed to your own country”. It believes in one “Australian culture” and one Australian flag.

Trumpet of Patriots policies prioritises cuts to immigration numbers.

Walsh has put current Cowper MP, the Nationals Pat Conaghan as his fifth preference.

Wendy Firefly, Greens candidate for Cowper

The Greens candidate for Cowper, Wendy Firefly, has also put Independent Caz Heise as second preference, followed by Fusion’s Geoffrey Marlow then Megan Mathew from the Legalise Cannabis Party. Fifth preference is Cowper’s other Independent candidate Zeke Daley and in sixth spot is Labor’s Greg Vigors.

The Fusion Party not only wants to stop global warming it wants to reverse and repair it with immediate cooling of the earth. It believes in reducing emission to zero, but also sees the need to remove excess greenhouse gases - the party has a policy to transition to negative emissions over ten years. Fusion wants to rapidly phase out fossil fuels and increase renewable energy capacity.

The party believes in secularism stating “A government must not be allowed to enforce beliefs on its citizens, and one's spiritual beliefs should be kept away from the laws that govern every person in society”.

The party believes in a transparent government and wants to see real-time disclosure of political donations, protect for Whistleblowers and activists and to create an anti-corruption commission at the federal level.

➡️ See all Fusion Party policies here.

Remember, the How To Vote or preferences cards are just suggestions that you don’t have to follow – they tell you how that candidate would like you to vote. 

You do, however,  have to put numbers in all boxes – your vote only counts if you number every box from 1 to 11 in Cowper.