all votes count equally. And it's important to emphasise that preferences from Greens voters only go to the ALP if individual voters choose to put the ALP ahead of other parties.
Of course all votes count equally. When a person votes 'above the line' their vote travels through the preference system of their initial vote, regardless of where they may want it to go. The simple fact, however, is that we operate a two-party preferred system and so each vote is most likely to stop at either the ALP or the Coalition.
The only way you can control where you vote goes is by voting below the line - but, it still doesn't change the fact that our political system is two-party preferred; and those two parties are the ALP and the Libs/Nats.
I disagree with the statement that our system is two party preferred (the so-called two party preferred figure cited in polling is not actually built into the electoral system). There are currently five Greens Senators, in addition to over 20 State MPs and more than 100 local Greens councillors across the country, as well as Nationals and independent representatives, who exercise a significant influence at all levels of Australian politics. In Tassie, there is even a Minister in the State government from the Greens.
The fact that two parties, Labor and the Liberals, currently dominate Australian politics doesn't mean the system itself can only accommodate two parties - at the federal level, it already accommodates a number of independent and minor party representatives in the upper house of Parliament. There is no inherent reason why seats in the lower house can't also be held by representatives of several parties, or independent members (Adam Bandt from the Greens may well win Lindsay Tanner's seat of Melbourne at the next election)... Democracy is arguably enhanced by having a wider range of perspectives represented in Parliament, and we don't have to accept a duopoly.
