Griffith Big Bash By-election is Just Not Cricket

There is a cricket team of candidates for the Griffith By-election on 8 February 2014. Nine of the eleven candidates represent registered political parties, but will electors really have any idea about who or what they are voting for in Kevin Rudd’s old House of Representatives seat?

The 2013 Senate results exposed some of the bizarre idiosyncrasies resulting from our compulsory electoral system: we have to vote and we have to allocate preferences to all candidates. 

The party names will be written on the Griffith ballot paper so that should help, shouldn’t it?

Policy Bazaar

If you choose the Bullet Train Party, you'll know what comedian Anthony Ackroyd will be fighting for if he wins. He may have to give up his impersonations of Kevin Rudd. However, it won’t be hard to take the mickey out of himself since he will be required to abstain from voting on any matters except the train. Now that’s taking a lot of taxpayers’ money for very little jam.

At least Family First’s candidate Christopher Williams could follow the example of former senator Steve Fielding who often made up policy on the run. In the absence of a hung parliament, he’ll have to rely on FF’s South Australian senator-elect Bob Day who doubtless will continue the traditional of backroom deals.

The Secular Party has lots of the policies you might expect: no religion in schools, support for an Aussie Republic. It stands for a carbon tax but against emissions trading schemes. Some voters may be surprised to know that they are pro-abortion and strongly favour Australia participating “in all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle, including power generation and waste disposal”. Presumably, these will not be located in Griffith’s backyard.

In order for ‘…new Australian citizens understand that their primary loyalty must be to Australia and its values, not their religion…’ the SPA’s citizenship pledge will be:

I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights, liberties and values I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey.

The list of shared values will be found in an expanded Australian Values Statement. The secularists want “Evidence of compliance with the Australian Values Statement, such as witness statements, …before permanent residence visas and citizenship are granted.’ If you’ve forgotten or never heard about the Statement, you’d better rush to read it before you vote next. It involves ‘a shared identity, a common bond’ that all Aussies accept implicitly, don’t we.

Timothy Lawrence may be regretting the shaky status of his party’s name, which will soon change from the one on the ballot paper to the Sustainable Population Party. The thesaurus doesn’t have them as synonyms. The current name could easily be associated with right-wing anti-immigration parties while ‘sustainable’ has definite green connotations.

Ray Sawyer is wearing the hat for Bob Katter’s Australian Party, having gained only 1.92% as candidate for the seat of Fairfax in 2013. They directed their second preferences to Clive Palmer and his eponymous party, who won that by a nose, but PUP has squibbed this contest.

According to independent Karel Boele, “He supports needs-based education funding and an effective solution to climate instability, for example an ETS. He supports improved discussions and trade with neighbouring countries, and a no offshore processing by Australia policy for refugees.” He is independent. Or is he?  He runs the People Decide platform and will vote on Bills in Parliament directly through the Internet. Now that’s a real pig in a poke. He will vote on each Bill in accordance with the majority of votes. It’s a bit murky as to how he will vote on amendments.

Dealing preferences

The Pirate Party proudly claims to be “the first and only political party in Australia to decide all its candidates and Senate preferences by a party-wide vote”. However, the process in 2013 involved making deals with other parties for preference swaps that were then put to the members for ratification. How many of the party officialdom or membership were aware of the possible ramifications in the Senate is unclear. They responded to a tweet about whether they helped to elect the motoring or sports mob or Palmer's miners to the Senate in 2013:

@Kevin_Rennie if we did, it was unintentional. Motoring at 29, Sports at 25, Palmer at 43. Not exactly high up. :)
— Pirate Party AU (@piratepartyau) January 15, 2014

The Liberal National Party has put its faith in the reverse donkey vote in its preference allocation. Their preferences go from Bill Glasson, bottom to top.

At least one well-known Queensland Lib thinks independent Travis Windsor is worth a look. Could we stand another independent T. Windsor? Could make for some messy googling. He’s splitting his preferences but in each case The Greens are ahead of Labor or the Coalition.

The Greens have Labor ahead of the Coalition but behind five small parties. Anthony Ackroyd is their first choice. That was an easy call, as his party has no other policies to sift through. The Stable Population Party is second. Its policies line up with many of The Greens’ own goals but some commentators have argued that its motives are suspect. Malcolm King is one of them. Last August he argued:

The Stable Population Party (SPP) is using environmental and community groups to 'green wash' its anti-immigration message and split the Greens vote at the Federal election.

Next comes the Pirate Party of Australia, which shares lots of policies with The Greens and their other fancied micro-parties. Nothing illegal of course, PPA’s core business is not piracy, but freeing up copyright. However, they could be labeled copycats on many other issues, as could many of the others. It’s good to see so much agreement with marriage equality, climate change trading schemes, and humane treatment of asylum seekers.

Their other two Greens’ preference choices fit that bill. However, The Greens can’t be jumping for joy over the Secular Party’s nuclear stance. Karel Boele is a policy loose cannon for a different reason, as he’s going to follow direction from voters online. Nevertheless, they’re happy to put him ahead of Labor.

The ALP’s Terri Butler has The Greens second on her how-to-vote card, and then just numbers down the ballot paper. Less informal votes that way. There is no potential controversy as could arise if we had One Nation progeny in this field.

Now if you fancy any of the other candidates, please see what you can discover online. If you don’t know to whom Katter’s mob or any of the others are giving the nod, good luck finding out. Their preferences may well decide the result!  

The policies of the two main contenders are not canvassed here, as the residents of Griffith are no doubt sick of leaflets, phone calls, SMS, and knocks on their doors. There have been suggestions of unethical and perhaps illegal push-polling and anonymous automated calls.

Train travellers are also well serviced by political candidates, if not necessarily by governments. The Bullet Train Party, which is not directing preferences presumably because Thomas the Tank Engine isn’t running, at least has a trainspotting video.

Given the disillusionment with the major parties (including The Greens) and the complexity of the voting system, it’s no wonder that nearly 6% of ballots cast for the House of Representatives in 2013 were informal. In addition, nearly 7% of enrolled voters did not turnout. The Australian Electoral Commission also estimated that more than one million eligible Australians are 'missing' from the electoral roll, approximately 7%. So nearly two in ten did not exercise their right to vote.

So much for compulsion! People are dying around the world for democracy. Some Australians are just lying low.

Presumably, aspiring Members of the House have been visible at the Gabba lately supporting the Brisbane Heat. However, many electors doubtless believe that compulsory, preferential voting is just not cricket.

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Why I am in the Australian Labor Party

Nineteen year-old Brontë Cleary joined the Australian Labor Party recently, more than forty years after I took the pledge. Her story is a positive response to the recent deluge of negative coverage:

Why I joined Labor

After reading Andrew MacLeod’s piece on The Age website about why he left the Labor Party, I found myself reflecting on the reasons I decided to join up in January and, more importantly, why I’m in it for the long haul.

Unlike Andrew she isn’t looking for a new centre-left party:

Today, the Labor Party’s belief in social justice is reflected in countless policies. The recent change to the Sex Discrimination Act will reduce violence against women and children, while the delivery of DisabilityCare will impact a long-marginalised group of Australians.

While there are vocal and – at times – very public debates within the Labor Party on issues like marriage equality and asylum seekers, I know by being a vocal and active member of the Party that I can fight for my personal beliefs and for a stronger Labor Party.

Andrew McLeod argues for the creation of new political parties on the progressive and conservative sides of politics. On the right he’s too late as the Liberal Party has given up any pretence of small-‘l’ liberalism and might as well call itself Conservative. On the left, perhaps he wants to see a re-birth of the Australian Democrats or a more electorally acceptable version of the Greens. Good luck!

Climate Change and Industry Minister Greg Combet addressed the National Press Club on 6 June 2013. His speech The Clean Energy Future - One Year On didn’t get much publicity but it is a gem. It was a mixture of reasoned arguments about the government’s climate policies and an impassioned call to defend the positive record of the last five and a half years:

We will fight to win the election. 

Our economic management has been strong through difficult international times:

• we have solid economic growth, and relatively low inflation and unemployment;

• private investment remains strong; and

• contrary to the Opposition's hysteria, debt to GDP is low. 

We have made hugely beneficial reforms for the economy and the community:

• in education - to improve schools and improve the opportunities for kids from less advantaged circumstances;

• in universities - dramatically increasing the number of places in degree courses, especially for young people from low income families;

• in health - making huge extra investments in healthcare, in extra doctors and nurses, in mental health, in dental health and in aged care;

• in support for families and pensioners - with a record increase in the pension, the child care rebate, a paid parental leave scheme, improved family tax benefits, and better superannuation savings for workers;

• in workplace relations - protecting people's rights at work;

• in supporting people with disabilities;

• in delivering broadband, and massive infrastructure investments;

• in promoting innovation, and supporting people through structural change in the economy.

I could go on - it's a long list. 

They are all things worth fighting for. 

And fight we will.

I’ve been a member of countless ALP branches in Victoria, as well as in the NT and Western Australia. Others can talk better about what the party stands for. The overwhelming majority of the people I’ve met have shared common values and a vision of where we should be headed. There has been plenty of debate, sometimes positive and sometimes wasteful brawling centring on personalities and factionalism.

There have been plenty of issues that have caused division within the party since I first voted. War, conscription, uranium mining, East Timor, the US alliance, State aid to non-government schools are just a few. The current policy failures such as treatment of asylum seekers and same sex marriage will be worked through.

There have always been tensions between the rank-and-file and the party organization, particularly when in government. The power of unions and factions has been hotly debated at least since the 1960s. Ironically, today’s ‘faceless men’ have national profiles. Their relationship with the party is one that urgently needs thrashing out. However, it must be remembered that during some of the darkest days following electoral debacles, the unions have been a key part in Labor’s survival and revival.

After attending Julia Gillard's Community Cabinet on 17 April in Ringwood Victoria, this was part of my response:

Somewhat upexpected was the very warm and loud reception Julia Gillard received from the standing-room only crowd. At times it felt more like one of Gough Whitlam's public meetings, with plenty of true believers in attendance. In addition, the government's DisabilityCare program seemed to have attracted a significant number of the participants. 

The level of civility was also surprising given the depths of public abuse and denigration our political discord has reached recently. Exchanges were good-humoured and without interjections. Great to see that democracy can flourish without descending to some parody of a survivor reality TV program. No testosterone, and no belittling! 

In fact, there was very little spin. Don't take my partisan word for it. Watch the video.

I am very happy to stand and fight the next election alongside people like Julia Gillard, Greg Combet, Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and Victorian State Opposition leader Daniel Andrews. Not to mention the members of my local Black Rock branch, and Brontë Cleary of course.

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Greens Plot Pragmatic Political Path

My latest post for Th!nk4: Climate Change:

As my early post Australia Revisits Carbon Tax indicated, green politics have become the flavour of the year in Australia. With a State election in Victoria due on 27 November, environmental politics have taken on an engrossing importance.

Swings away from the ruling Australian Labor Party are now the order of the day. Tasmania has a minority Labor government backed by the Greens who have two Cabinet ministers. (I’m tickled by the fact that the Greens leader Nick McKim is Attorney General, making him the Minister for prisons amongst other things).

Opinion polls in Victoria show a large swing with the Greens on 16-19% this week. They received 10% at the election 4 years ago. This time they may win Assembly seats and hold the balance of power. Just as interesting is their current politicking:

Federal Greens leader Bob Brown has left open the possibility of his party entering into a power-sharing alliance with the Victorian Coalition if the election produces a hung parliament.

He said in Melbourne yesterday that the Greens had every right to negotiate with either side of politics if it meant getting a better deal for their supporters.
Greens put heat on ALP

Long gone are the days when The Greens were seen as idealistic purists.

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