“It’s possible that the mistaken belief comes from How-to-vote cards, or from parties forming coalitions or alliances in parliament.”

I’m not sure where this belief comes from either, but I distinctly recall an election campaign many years ago from the Liberal Party, which went along the lines of “A vote for Independents/Greens is a vote for Labor.” It was ran late in the campaign before the election and had a definite impact on the election on that occasion, I just can’t remember exactly when it was. I wondered at the time how it was even legal.

My mother believed it too. I was more than happy to explain how it works simply to her, like you have here. But she was suspicious about anything I said and I could tell she just simply didn’t believe me. People talk about the Murdoch/Sky News/Herald Sun/mainstream news brainwashing nowadays… it really began a long time ago.