Good Morning John,
One of your callers asked about Pauline Hansin’s distribution of preferences. Well the short answer is that they’re not going anywhere.
The longer answer is that the NSW upper house preferences work differently to federal senate preferences in that candidates can not choose how an above the line vote’s preferences are distributed. In NSW, the above the line vote only goes directly to the candidate or party to whom the voter placed the number in the box.
If your caller wishes to vote for Ms. Hanson, she can either do so above the line and have her vote go only to Ms. Hanson, or she can vote below the line and distribute her preferences to whomever she likes. Ms. Hanson will have no control over the flow of her preferences.
I hope this helps.
By the way, you said last week that Tom Wards might be retiring and that you would check this with him this week. What did he say? Is he retiring? If he is, I know that he will be greatly missed from your show by many people.
Have a wonderful day.
Regards, Samuel Gordon-Stewart Canberra