I vote pretty similarly at both the state and federal level. At most elections there has been only one left wing option on the lower house ballot that somewhat aligns with my beliefs - The Greens. They are consistently on the ballot everywhere and are an easy first preference, There has never been a left wing independent candidate in my area, but in recent elections there has sometimes been an Animal Justice Party candidate who I will preference above The Greens. I don’t necessarily think they have superior policy positions, but they are an alternative and I think competition within a a political sphere can help bring new ideas or challenge/reframe existing ones. I am concerned that The Greens are becoming a monolithic catch all for anyone further left than Labor, and I feel like it is pushing their voters into a bubble where they are never challenged by anyone they would consider listening to.

In the upper house I rarely preference The Greens first since there are usually many more small, left wing alternatives that I can prioritise. For example, at the last federal election I believe I numbered the Fusion Party first (or very high) because they have a much broader range of policy areas than The Greens as a result of being a merger of several different micro-parties. Like they have a whole section about intellectual property, copyright and civil/digital liberties through the Pirate Party.

Before any election I’ll always take a look at who is running and skim read their public policy statements/positions to determine who is worthy of my vote. I usually do this about a week before the election day since some smaller parties and independents can be quite unorganised and only get information online at the last minute. Because of the way I vote, my options often change from election to election so keeping myself updated is very important.

it doesn’t seem to make a difference beyond undoing the last governments work… Maybe you see something I don’t.

It depends how you vote/who you vote for, but in my case I am making a difference (or attempting to) by boosting the numbers of lesser known candidates, encouraging them to run again in the future. If they can gain enough first preference votes they are also eligible for election funding, which helps to cover their campaign costs and gives them a better platform to build on. There is also always a secondary goal of preventing a Liberal/Coalition government, which I achieve/try to achieve through preferencing. I think it’s easy to get fixated on who wins/loses and feel like nothing changes but there is a lot of nuance in our system that can you can use to help you feel like you’re contributing, even if your favourite candidate/party didn’t win.