Christian parties battle 'mini-majors' and their own preferencing for Senate success

With the emergence of several, well resourced, smaller parties in 2013 - mini-majors - Christian parties face a daunting task in making an electoral impact.

Parties associated with high-profile names such as Bob Katter, Clive Palmer and Julian Assange are all seeking to take some ground from the established voting base of the major parties while also drawing in those who may not normally vote Liberal, Labor or Greens but don't see any real alternatives.

Christian parties have the same goals and while they don't have high-profile national figures to head them (Fred Nile perhaps being an exception) they hope their association with the Christian faith will bring electoral success.

We can broadly classify the following parties as seeking to represent or attract Christian voters: Australian Christians,  Christian Democratic Party, Democratic Labor Party, Family First and Rise Up Australia.

It is unlikely that any Christian party candidate will go close to winning in the House of Representatives as usually their resources are so slim it is difficult to compete. Still a vote for one of these candidates can bring electoral influence as larger parties will always respect the ballot box.

Everything you need to know about voting, policies, candidates and preferences

As we enter the final week of the 2010 federal election campaign many voters are still trying to make up their mind who to vote for or even who the candidates are in their electorate or state.

And while we are being inundated with mindless campaign advertising, there are some great online resources for doing personal research.

For some voters, the main concern is to discover the policies of the various parties on the issues that matter to them, and there is a wealth of material available.

Read Peter Hallett and Australian Christian Voter's full election resources rundown exclusively in the online Sight Magazine.

Disendorsed Liberal now a Senate candidate

Disendorsed former Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of Chifley, David Barker, is now running for the Senate and has attacked the Christian Democratic Party and Family First preference arrangements.

Mr Barker was disendorsed by the Liberals last month after posting anti-Muslim comments on Facebook.

Now running as a 'Christian independent', Mr Barker said the allocation of preferences by the Christian Democratic Party has increased the danger of a Greens senator being elected in NSW.

Fielding's task harder after Green preference deal

The re-election of Family First Senator Stephen Fielding has become a much more difficult prospect following the deal today of a tight preference swap between Labor and the Greens.

Senator Fielding was elected in 2004 when a preference deal with Labor saw him clinch the sixth senate seat with about two per cent of the primary vote.

Back in 2007 he warned Kevin Rudd not to do a preference deal with the Greens because their policies were anti-family but with the removal of Rudd, and his more open engagement with Christians, the preference deal has slipped away from Family First.

Greens leaders Senator Bob Brown described the election of Senator Fielding with just two per cent of the vote as 'peverse' but also said he recommended Green voters ignore official preferences and vote beneath the line to set their own preferences.

On Q & A, Liberal deputy leader, Fiona Bishop criticised the Greens for making a deal with Labor even before their climate change policy had been released. She said it made a mockery of their commitment to environmental issues.