Palmer may win Greens preferences Clive Palmer may benefit from Greens' preferences in his bid for a seat in Canberra. The Greens could preference coal and iron ore miner Clive Palmer in the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax on the Sunshine Coast, breathing life into his push for the seat. This follows the Greens being frozen out by Labor, who will put Bob Katter's Australian Party ahead of The Greens in key seats. Fairfax has been held by the retiring Alex Somylay for the Liberal Party and then the Liberal National Party since 1990 and Mr Palmer is among nine candidates for the seat, which the LNP holds with a 7 per cent margin. The Greens polled 18 per cent of first preferences at the 2010 federal election, although Mr Somylay, with 49 per cent, almost won on primary votes alone. This year, the conservative vote is split with the LNP's Ted O'Brien standing against Ray Sawyer (KAP), Mike Holt (One Nation) and Angela Meyer (Family First). Some Greens branches argue Mr Palmer's attitude to refugees warrants him being placed ahead of Labor or KAP. "It may happen there," Greens convener Andrew Bartlett confirmed on Tuesday night. Mr Bartlett said the move would not happen in any Labor-held seats. "A lot of branches have a fairly bad taste in the mouth, given the refugee debate and how it has panned out," he said. Mr Palmer wants asylum seekers to fly in to to Australia, be processed at airports and be sent back if they are not legitimate. "It has made a some of them more willing to put a message out, by putting Palmer above them," Mr Bartlett said. Mr Bartlett, the Democrats' former leader in the Senate, said all major parties in the seat supported an expansion of coal mining, but Mr Palmer's refugee policy was closer to that of the Greens. Greens candidate in Fairfax David Knobel could not be contacted on Tuesday night. In the Queensland Senate race, the Greens have preferenced the ALP (37, 38, 39 and 40), before Palmers United Party (45, 46 and 47), Family First (54 and 55) and KAP (56, 57 and 58) with the LNP (59, 60, 61 and 62) last. There are 82 senate candidates in Queensland from 37 parties, along with two independents including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's brother, Greg Rudd.