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Cross Benchers – What Do You Think?
Much has been spoken about the ‘disproportionate power’ wielded by the cross bench MPs in the formation of the current Federal Parliament. I feel this view devalues both the concept of the Australian...
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Newbie parties and the classic mistake
“We’re going to stand candidates in all 150 seats”. How many times have you heard this? New parties, dying parties, wannabe parties seem to love this line. And it’s utterly stupid. It’s not the only...
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Bringing back the Democrats, take 17.
Yes, they have a new logo too. The Australian Democrats just emailed me! We’ll set aside for the moment that as an ex-member, they should have asked me if I wanted to re-opt in to the mailing list, and...
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Voters’ invidious choice between “fight” and “no”
In many ways, politics is the art of differentiation, regardless of whether it’s a battle of philosophies, personalities or policies. Keating prevailed in the unwinnable 1993 federal election by...
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The Old is New Again – The United Australia Party Reborn?
ANZAC Day saw a great many things – football, partisan voices continuing to whine about Leigh Sales, arguments about Catherine Deveny. I deal with all that here, back at my blog, the Preston...
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Will you all take a Clive Chill Pill?
I wasn’t going to do it. Nope, wasn’t going to write about Clive Palmer nonsense because I’d already written about newbie parties and their mistakes, and Palmer has made all of the classics – going to...
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Whither the progressive voter?
As Australia careers towards an Abbott government, a question that routinely occurs to me is: “is it really conservatives voting for this party?” There really is nothing conservative about what the...
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A bribe by any other name
Why do we allow corporate donations to political parties? At all? This is a question that occurs to me every year, surprisingly enough when the AEC release the (by now already dated) data on political...
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Assertions, the Greens and the Black Knight
One of the chief weaknesses of political reporting and blogging in the leadup to the 2013 election is assertions. Assertions that x will happen because of y – and the y is usually based on evidence...
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The lonely progressive
I have a problem, one that I think is shared by others like me, I’m politically homeless. I’m what you might call a progressive, socialist capitalist. I believe in a free market system but I also...
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All Hanson
Pauline is BACK! Well, sort of. Earlier this week she threatened to run for election to the Federal Parliament. As you would no doubt know, this would not be the first time that Ms Hanson had sat in...
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How many House of Representatives votes don’t go to the big-four?
After reading a post by @mrteidt I was left with the question how many of the 13 million or so votes cast in the Federal Election do not make it to the big-four (Labor, Liberal, National, and The...
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A More Democratic Solution Than Antony Green’s for the Farce of...
A couple of days ago, ABC election analyst Antony Green called for rules to make it harder for political parties to be registered in Australia. (The YouTube video is above, or you can click here for a...
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Hate Rudd’s New Asylum-Seeker Policy? Voting Green in the Lower House...
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has just announced a new policy towards asylum-seekers. The Prime Minister reportedly said that no-one entering Australian territory by boat will ever be settled in Australia...
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Small Gods – The Rise Up Australia Party
Our next Small God is in fact a believer in a Big God, the christian God to be exact. There are a number of parties claiming to represent christians in this election, amongst them Fred Niles Christian...
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The Wikileaks Party Lurches To The Right: Preferences Fascists, Mens-righters...
WED AUG 21 2013: Assange’s running-mate has resigned as a Wikileaks Party candidate over this issue. NOTE: After adding 4 updates, this story was getting messy so I have totally re-arranged it and...
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Small Gods – The Australian Sex Party
After getting biblical with the previous Small Gods entry I thought I would go to the other extreme for this one, and dabble in a little bit of sin along the way. Party Information Name: The Australian...
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What Will an Abbott Australia Look Like?
The polling tealeaves seem to be pointing us to an election result that has been three years in the making – the Australia population will be giving Tony Abbott’s Liberal National Coalition the reins....
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Wikileaks Party Announces “Independent Review” of Decision to Preference...
After four days of ridicule since it claimed a decision to preference fascist, pro-gun and anti-feminist candidates in New South Wales was an “administrative error”, the Wikileaks Party has announced...
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WikiLeaks Party Turmoil Revealed – Leslie Cannold Resigns as Julian Assange’s...
Julian Assange’s Wikileaks Party running mate in Victoria, Leslie Cannold, has resigned as a Wikileaks Party candidate, according to a statement in her name published at Crikey.com (pdf file). Cannold...
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