Tag: federal election (Page 3 of 9)

Victorian Senate Group X: The Mystery Republicans

August 29, 2013 / Catherine / 4 Comments

This is a bit interesting. I can’t actually find any webpage for a political party called The Australian Republicans, which is going to make it a bit tricky to explore their policies in detail. I have, however, found the lead candidate for Victoria, Peter Consandine, on the executive of a site for The Republican Party of Australia, which I’m going to presume is either the same party or a very closely-related group. I’ve also found him writing about an Australian Republic on The Drum. In lieu of better options, I will use these two resources to try to glean a sense of The Australian Republicans’ policies – if anyone reading this has better information, please do let me know. I’m happy to come back and revise this post.

Edited to add – aha! I’ve now discovered that the first of these sites does appear to be the main one, so I’ll let you read the article on The Drum yourselves, and just comment on the rest.

It turns out that the Australian Republicans also don’t have a group voting ticket. I’m beginning to think that they are trying to make my life difficult on purpose, and will start blathering on about the Royal Baby any minute now out of sheer frustration. But setting aside petty acrimony, let’s see what the other parties think of them instead.

Victorian Senate Group V: Mad as a Katter?

August 28, 2013 / Catherine / 6 Comments

I actually shouldn’t get too carried away making jokes about Katter’s Australian Party, because I haven’t even looked at their website yet – and the last vote compass thingie I filled in actually had me showing up as 40% Katter’s Australian Party, so I could well end up being the one who looks silly here. Which wouldn’t be the first time.

Besides, the whole Kat in the Hat thing is just irresistible really.

Victorian Senate Group U: Stopping the Seamier Side of Coal and Gas

August 27, 2013 / Catherine / 1 Comment

At first glance, it seems pretty plain what the Stop CSG Party is going to be about. Actually, that’s not true, because I had to look up CSG, not having seen the abbreviation before. It turns out that it stands for Coal Seam Gas mining, and that a lot of people think that this is a very bad thing.

Coal Seam Gas Mining turns out to be one of the things that I know absolutely nothing about, so since the odds are that it will turn out to be relevant to this particular political party, I thought I’d better have a quick look online and find out. According to the Internet, coal seam gas is another way of saying coalbed methane, which is apparently a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. If this is still clear as mud to you, you aren’t alone. Apparently, this is one of the flammable gases found in coalmines that can lead to explosions and other exceedingly undesirable effects when one is mining coal. It is, obviously, used as an energy source.

If you ask Asia Pacific LNG, they will tell you that it produces 90% of Queensland’s gas needs and 15% of its electricity generation, and that it is a ‘key transition fuel, helping to lower our carbon emissions’. However, opponents to coal seam gas are concerned at the amount of water required in drilling for the gas, and that CSG mining produces a large amount of waste water which is salty and contain toxic and radioactive elements, which may contaminate the water table. This sounds less good.

The Stop CSG Party, as you might guess, falls into the latter camp. Let’s start by looking at their group voting ticket.

Victorian Senate Group T: Joseph Toscano and Beth Matthews – Anarchic independents

August 27, 2013 / Catherine / 12 Comments

Joseph Toscano and Beth Matthews are running as Grouped Independents, which is to say, they don’t have an official political party, but they do have a Group Voting Ticket, so you can vote for them above the line. Because they have no official party, they also have no party website, so this post will be based on what I can find out about them and their politics from Google. I will link to my sources as I go.

Victorian Senate Group S: It’s not easy being Green!

August 26, 2013 / Catherine / 10 Comments

Well, it’s not easy writing up their policies, at any rate, because for all the public perception of The Greens as a single-issue party, there’s an awful lot more to their policy platform than the environment.

I’m going to start with a brief conflict of interest statement. First, while I’m not a member of the Greens – or of any other political party, actually – I will be handing out How-To-Vote Cards for them at this election, and probably scrutineering for them as well. So you can take it as read that I do, on the whole approve of their platform. I’m not a party member because I am, at least in theory, a swinging voter – I really do prefer to look at all the parties and make a choice every election about which party most reflects my beliefs about how our society should be run. Being a party member sort of obliges you to vote for that party, I think! It so happens that for the last few elections, the Greens have been the closest to my beliefs of the parties that actually run candidates in my electorate, so I choose to help them out.

(Having said that, I do tend to vote for even tinier parties in the Senate if they appeal to me, and then send my preferences to the Greens. This is probably something I’m not supposed to say in public, but it does happen to be true. Quite apart from anything else, I rather like the Democrats, and view them as an endangered species, worthy of my Greenie vote. Conserve idealistic-but-doomed political parties, I say!)

Victorian Senate Group R: When is an Independent not an Independent?

August 26, 2013 / Catherine / 3 Comments

An independent is someone who isn’t a member of a political party, right? Well, not always, because the Australian Independents are now a registered party with the AEC, and are thus distinguishable from the other three sets of independents on the Victorian Senate Ballot.

A brief look at their policy page suggests a lefty social justice-oriented party with a very broad range of interests, but their Group Voting Ticket has a few surprises on it. First preference goes to the Australian Democrats, but then we move straight on to the Christian Bloc, with Australian Christian, Rise Up Australia, Family First and the DLP. I think we know where this lot are coming from – have I found an actual leftist Christian political party at last? The DLP is followed by the Australin Sex Party, which they must absolutely love, and Australian Voice, and then we have a mix of small parties from both sides of the right-left divide, though Drug Law Reform and HEMP are both placed solidly in the early 30s. Do I detect a yen for harm mimimisation policies? One Nation is the next somewhat viable party to get a preference but the absolute bottom of the ticket is actually Labor, with the Coalition above it, and the Greens being the first of the three major parties. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen a party put Greens, Liberal and Labor in that order. Or at least, the first time at this election.

Victorian Senate Group Q: In which Australian Voice is disappointingly not about singing at all

August 25, 2013 / Catherine / 1 Comment

The Australian Voice Party is another party that is new, at least on the Victorian Election scene. After careful investigation of their website, I am forced to conclude that it is neither a political party for opera singers nor one for speech pathologists. It has nothing to do with the TV show of a very similar name. There will be no auditions, no power chords, no Eurovision key changes, and nobody being sent home. It’s all very disappointing.

OK, I’m done. Let us reluctantly leave the wild fanatsies of my overactive imagination for the admittedly duller, but probably more relevant, world of politics.

On second thoughts, let’s not. My little dreamworld is much more fun…

Victorian Senate Group P: In Which Australia is Built

August 25, 2013 / Catherine / 4 Comments

The Building Australia party was, if I recall correctly, a brand new party at the 2010 election, and was formed by members of the building industry and building design profession. Their website proudly informs me that they support housing affordability, sustainable development, cutting unnecessary red tape, protecting the building infustry, and better health infrastructure.

And then it asks me whether I do, too.

Victorian Senate Group O: Shooters and Fishers and Freedom, Oh My!

August 24, 2013 / Catherine / 7 Comments

And now we come to the Shooters and Fishers Party, not to be confused with the Fishing and Lifestyle Party. Who knew that fishing could spark so much political interest? If you count the Country Alliance, and I really think you should, that makes three parties so far that love fishing so much that they want to go to the Senate to protect their rights to it.

But if they are in the Senate, when will they find the time to fish?

Victorian Senate Group N: Fishing as a Lifestyle Choice

August 24, 2013 / Catherine / 1 Comment

Or are some people just born fishers? It’s hard to say, really, but the important thing to remember about the Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party is that it is totally different from the Shooters and Fishers Party. And that they like fishing.

Actually, I don’t know how different they are, I’m just amused that they turn up next to each other on Victoria’s Senate Ballot Paper.

It’s all a bit fishy, really.

And I’m going to stop right now with the fish puns, because I can think of ever so many and I’ll never get to the policies if I start down that road.