The Wire

The Family First Party has fielded a huge number of lower house candidates in the coming election even though they are newcomers to the Federal scene. They’ve been grilled inensively by the media in the past few days as to how linked they are to church groups. And they’ve also been courted by both major parties keen to know where they will send their preferences. They made the announcement today that they will be preferencing the Coalition though the party’s Peter Robins says there are some candidates that they will require to pledge their position on certain issues before the preferences are handed over. Political commentator Clem McIntyre says they are an unknown quantity which is why both parties are paying them so much attention.