Gerry Georgatos, the number one Senate candidate for the Wikileaks Party in Western Australia, has said that the Wikileaks Party’s New South Wales preferences fiasco was a “poor judgement call” and not an administrative error.
“It was not an administrative error, it was a poor judgement call. I’m not [going to come out] here and bullshit the audience,” he told the Indymedia programme (24 minutes into the programme) on Perth’s RTR yesterday. His statement appears to contradicts the official position given by the Wikileaks Party that the preferences were an “administrative error”.
In New South Wales, the Wikileaks Party preferenced the Shooters and Fishers and far-right Australia First party above the Greens – in direct contradiction to the decisions made by the National Council. The fiasco, in addition to the Western Australian preferences, saw Leslie Cannold, four National Council members and several volunteers left the party.
In response to those leaving the party, Georgatos said that he has contacted them to get them back and said that the party should not be “held hostage to their mistakes” and be “above these things”.
“If we blow this opportunity away – what’s everybody want, to blow the opportunity of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Wikileaks senators into the Senate? This is madness,” Georgatos told the programme. He also told the programme that he was disappointed by the move but did not leave the party.
“This isn’t… the time to desert the ship.”
Georgatos also defended his move to preference the Nationals ahead of the Greens, saying that he has done the ‘maths’ and says that the Greens will take the fifth Senate seat and that the Wikileaks Party and the Nationals are battling it out for the sixth spot. This is contrary to many seasoned election analysts who say that the Nationals pose a threat to the Greens retaking that sixth Senate seat.