Tag: federal election (Page 4 of 9)

Victorian Senate Group M: Sssssssmoking!

August 24, 2013 / Catherine / 5 Comments

You have to give this much to the Australian Smokers’ Rights Party: they know what they want, and their party does what it says on the box. The unmarked box, of course. Or perhaps the box with the photos of extremely pathological tarry lungs.

I think that metaphor got away from me…

This is going to be a pretty short post, as the Australian Smokers’ Rights Party are quite straightforward in their vision and their aims, and I don’t think you need my help to figure out what they stand for. They also don’t have a Group Voting Ticket in the Senate, so it’s difficult to tell who they like, but honestly, their agenda is so very clear, it’s almost unnecessary to go there.

Victorian Senate Group L: Stabilising the Population

August 24, 2013 / Catherine / 34 Comments

Was our population about to fall off the table, do you think? Sorry, couldn’t help myself. I am approaching the Stable Population Party with neither expectations nor prejudice. With a name like that, they could be all about environmental issues and population control, or they could be all xenophobia, all the time, stopping the boats and making me excessively cross while they do so.

Which will it be? Only time – and their alarmingly green and gold website (now there’s a bad omen) will tell.

Victorian Senate Group K: Reforming Banks

August 24, 2013 / Catherine / 3 Comments

I have been informed by a friend of mine that I have to like the Bank Reform Party, because said friend has been teaching voice production to one of its founders and candidates, and he thinks that their policies are very sensible. I actually find it hard to get incredibly excited about banks – I have stated in many, many places that I don’t really understand economics, but it is always mildly interesting to have a connection to a political party. Especially a really tenuous one, actually.

The Bank Reform Party is “a new, non-aligned political party seeking to reform and increase the competitiveness of the Australian economy.”

They are so new that they actually have two websites – the pre-AEC-registration website here, and the official one listed above. This caused me some concern initially – after all the fun and games during our recent council election with people pretending to be from parties that they were not, I was a bit worried that one of the sites was trolling the other, but they seem to be the same people with the same policies. Anyway, I’m mentioning this only to note that I am writing up the policies of this party based on the newer of the two websites, so that if it turns out that one of the sites is an elaborate hoax after all, you will know where I got the information from.

Victorian Senate Group J: Sceptical about Climates, and also, apparently, about Science

August 23, 2013 / Catherine / 5 Comments

From scepticism about religion to scepticism of an entirely different stripe – meet the No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics Party!

This party is the gift that keeps on giving, really. The problem is, there are so many cheap shots that it’s hard to know where to start. But for the record, I’d just like to state that I, for one, am entirely convinced that we have a climate. Call me gullible, but there it is.

Victorian Senate Group I: Let’s get Secular!

August 23, 2013 / Catherine / 8 Comments

So, we’ve seen various shades of Christian Right, a couple of flavours of patriotism ranging from the mildly xenophobic to the outright racist, some libertarians, and, of course, our good friends over in the world of legalised drugs. Now for something completely different, we have the Secular Party.

I have to admit, this lot make me uncomfortable, which is interesting, because so do all the Christian parties. The right wing Christians make me wince because they seem to be at their loudest when promoting the most un-loving and un-compassionate policies they have, and I want to keep saying, look, we aren’t all like that. But the secularists also make me uncomfortable, because while I absolutely do think that religion has no place in government, I find it frustrating when people assume that I must be either stupid or complicit in my own oppression. (I’m actually not particularly oppressed by my religion, thank you.) It’s possible that I have been spending too much time reading the words of internet atheists, who seem to be an entirely different breed to the totally lovely atheists I know in real life.

Victorian Senate Group H: Allying with the Country

August 23, 2013 / Catherine / 7 Comments

Moving along the ballot paper we now reach the Country Alliance, which at first glance looks a lot like the Nationals, only with more firearms, fishing and firewood, and an emphasis on outdoor activities. My old school in Adelaide would have loved this stuff, I reckon.

Victorian Senate Group G: Putting the Family First

August 22, 2013 / Catherine / 1 Comment

Moving along the ticket we find ourselves back in right-wing Christian land, albeit in a somewhat calmer and less racist incarnation. Yes indeed, it’s time to meet Family First! Incidentally, what’s with all the right-wing Christian political parties on the ballot this year? I count four, and that’s just based on the ones I recognise – there may be more hidden in small parties I haven’t read up on yet. As a left-wing Christian I find this rather disheartening…

(but for heavens’ sake, let’s not start another, left-wing Christian party to the mix. Religion doesn’t belong in politics, to my mind… and in some ways, that could be a summary of this entire post, but I digress)

It is worth noting that while one cannot strictly do a donkey vote of the senate above the line (if you do number all the groups above the line in order, the AEC will simply ignore all the numbers other than 1, and your vote will follow that party’s ticket), anyone who decided, for some obscure reason, to donkey vote below the line would be likely to have their vote end up either at the Liberal Party or here with Family First – between the two, there are unlikely to be many fractions left after that point. So donkeyish voting in the senate will be electing someone from the right wing of politics.

Also, a quick disclaimer – I currently have a horrible lurgy and am doped up to the gills on Codral, so this post may be sillier than usual, and while I will do my best to avoid typos, there may be some transposed words, so apologies in advance for any errors – feel free to point out corrections in the comments.

Victorian Senate Group F: Help End Marijuana Prohibition – the party with the acronym that speaks for itself

August 22, 2013 / Catherine / 10 Comments

Oh, I like this party already. It’s not so much that I care one way or another about Marijuana – I do think it’s a bit silly to criminalise it, but I’ve never been especially interested in it myself – but you have to love a party that was clearly founded by people who were going, hey, we want to legalise marijuana, so what should we call our political party? I know, let’s call it HEMP! Now, what can we make that actually stand for…

Acronyms. Just say no.

The other thing that I love about this party is that it is a ‘genuine grassroots party’. Grass. Get it?

Yeah, I’m easily amused. And this, incidentally, is exactly why I don’t have any interest in drugs – I’m silly enough without any chemical aids.

Victorian Senate Group E: Liberals / Nationals in Brief

August 21, 2013 / Catherine / 7 Comments

Next up on the ticket is the Coalition, comprising the Liberal Party and the Nationals.

After some consideration, I am electing not to write a full post about the Coalition. My reason for this is simple: most people are aware of exactly who the Coalition is, and far more knowledgeable people than I are analysing their policies in newspapers, in blogs, and on the television. And, frankly, both the Coalition and Labor get an entire series of debates in which to tell us about their policies. It’s not difficult to find information about them (though I will say, past experience has taught me that the Liberal Party are really quite thorough about hiding their policies on their website).

The purpose of this series is to assist people in figuring out who all the tiny parties are. You don’t need me to tell you what I think of the Coalition’s policy. In fact, you probably don’t want me to.

On the same principle, I will also not be writing a full post about the Labor Party when I reach them. Fair is fair. If I find myself with too much time on my hands before the election I may come back and have another pass at this (especially for the Nationals, who really don’t get their share of coverage), but for now, I’m just going to briefly discuss the Coalition’s senate ticket and then move on. (I think we all know that HEMP is going to be far more entertaining anyway…).

Victorian Senate Group D: Senator Online, and probably Tweeting during Question Time

August 21, 2013 / Catherine / 0 Comments

Senator Online bills itself as ‘Australia’s New and National Online Political Party’, and adds “I care about our future. Now I can vote directly on laws that affect us.”

We’ll get to that bit later, but in the meantime, I have to share with you my joy about their Senate ticket. Remember how I was speculating on how far down the ticket one could get without hitting a major party? Well, it seems that Senator Online was wondering that, too, because their ticket wanders merrily through a list of tiny and slightly mad parties, leaning somewhat to the right but starting with the Bullet Train for Australia and the Animal Justice Party (both of which this perverse blogger is looking forward to *immensely*, it must be confessed), before finally reaching the Greens at 82 on the ballot paper (a mere 9 places after ‘Stop the Greens’, which suggests an ironic sense of humour), then moving on to Labour, Liberal and the Nationals last.