Julian Assange's WikiLeaks party has blamed an "administrative error" for its preferences going to rightwing parties including Australia First and the Shooters and Fishers ahead of the Greens on its New South Wales Senate ticket.

Amid a storm of criticism on Twitter, the WikiLeaks party released a statement on Sunday that said it was not aligned with any other political group and would prefer not to allocate preferences at all.

"In allocating preferences between 53 other parties or groups in NSW some administrative errors occurred, as has been the case with some other parties," the WikiLeaks statement said.

"The overall decision as to preferences was a democratically made decision of the full national council of the party. According to the national council decision, the Shooters and Fishers and the Australia First party should have been below Greens, Labor, Liberal.

" As we said, we aren't aligned with anyone and the only policies we promote are our own. We will support and oppose the policies of other parties or groups according to our stated principles."

Australia First's policies include "passive resistance" against refugees, multiculturalism and foreign ownership. The Shooters and Fishers party is running on a platform to increase access to public land and waters for recreational shooters and fishers, as well as reduce Australia's foreign aid budget.

WikiLeaks is running Senate candidates in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. Assange is number one on the WikiLeaks Victorian Senate ticket, even though he is still in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid the risk of extradition to the US from Sweden. Assange is followed by ethicist Leslie Cannold and academic Binoy Kampmark.

The party's New South Wales candidates are human rights lawyer Kellie Trantor and former diplomat Alison Broinowski. In Western Australia journalist Gerry Georgatos and economist Suresh Rajan are running.