Political parties

[Salviador]

Now i realise that i may be the only one on this forum that feels this way, but the recent changes in laws seem to me to be excessively limiting our civil liberties (I know I know I'm a bit radical). I was having interesting discussions with a friend recently who has interests that are also being threatened or at least limited by the changing political/social climate on what parties we vote for.

In the last couple of elections i have voted green, because despite not reflecting by beliefs entirely, they represent something i find quite important. However on closer inspection, some of the environmental policies by the greens were based in belief rather than in cold hard scientific facts, and they don't really push the freedom/civil rights envelope that much. i can provide examples if pressed. My friend recommended the shooters party. I have had a brief look over their policies, and whilst I don't necessarily like the idea of everyone walking around potentially armed with a gun, there were some interesting policies they have. In particular # 7 & 8 here:

http://www.shootersparty.org.au/index.php?...2&Itemid=56

Someone once said to me, if the druggies and the gun nuts joined forces, politically they would hold a lot more sway... Pity the drugs make people scared of guns and the guns make people scared of drugs

Is anyone aware of some interesting political parties that are a little different to the ones that we are generally presented with in the mainstream? What do you think of the shooters party?

[apothecary]

The Fishing Party

EDIT: I should note I don't actually endorse this party I just find them extremely amusing.

Edited May 29, 2008 by Sina

[chilli]

...and they don't really push the freedom/civil rights envelope that much

Political parties generally don't, as its often only by infringing rights that they can stay in power.

Pity the drugs make people scared of guns and the guns make people scared of drugs

You obviously don't listen to a lot of hip hop.

[2b]

I voted Democrat for the senate in the last election, but it seems not many others did. Possibly the 'Green' factor divided the votes, and sent the Democrats for a wilderness holiday. As for the shooters party , well as a shooter myself i give them very little time, I gave up my SSAA membership when the handgun buy back came around and really think they are a waste of time. The pro gun organisations have little clout (unlike in the USA) but at least they know what they stand for. It seems that the left and right sides of mainstream politics have little that makes them stand apart so any alternative would make a good start. Also it is worth pointing out that political parties get paid for each vote they get ,so by not voting for a major at least you are denyng them of some funds.

[Fenris]

[Jesus On Peyote]

lol, fenris, adds a little elegance to communism

Does australia have a communist party? or have they been like outlawed or somthing?

We should start a SAB political party

[Amulte]

The Fishing Party

EDIT: I should note I don't actually endorse this party I just find them extremely amusing.

they were always good for a giggle, tho my favorite was the LEFBP - Lower Excise Fuel and Beer Party

[nabraxas]

personally i'd say 'government always wins' rather than 'the government', as 'the government' may change but the principle ov government & the governed never does.

Edited May 30, 2008 by nabraxas

[Yeti101]

Remember remember the 5th of November.....

If we accept that in the near future that we are not going to have 'nobody' governing us, then what is our option? I for one don't know the answer, especially since the Greens watered down their drug reform agenda.

I am not convinced that the answers to our problems necessarily lie with finding the right politician/party to vote for. Rather we could concentrate on getting the existing politicians/parties (who we are not going to dislodge in the near future at least) to make decisions that are more agreeable to us.

[ramon]

You could always start your own party Salviador.

I will vote for you in every election you stand.

[Yeti101]

It's not a bad idea. I've heard that to get elected to the federal Senate you need to get 14.3% of the votes (including preferences) in your state. I don't know what the equivalent is for state upper houses, but you get the idea. With enough money, connections, friends and lots of luck you might get in. But politics is a nasty, dirty business and I don't know if the personal cost would be too high.

[The Dude]

DERP!

Edited June 1, 2008 by The Dude

[Guest xxx]

partys!?LEADERS!? a cardboard cutout image and project so well.

how about ..um...just look at Condaleeeza Rice burner, i dont care about the spelling cause i have no respect for the thing, anyone that is happy in the presence of GWBush deserves a bullet. She is one evil FUKer, just look at her. Seriously, she looks and acts like a negro, sorry, black, sorry, african american chick that was raised by the grand wizard of the KKK and has the attitude to match. Nah im not racist, i just use alot of outdated adjectives.

Yes i do judge most books by the cover, if it looks SHIT and sounds SHIT it prolly is SHIT. I dont have time to dig beneath the surface.

Australia should be proud that the ALP are in POWER!

Rudd has got substance. Just you wait and see. He is going to remould the ALP in his own graven image. He might be an evil little bastard but the man does have a towering intellect, once all the PR side of business is done with we will start to see the real Rudd and his real agenda. You have to remember, this is a man who was anointed by Rupert 'The Kingmaker' Murdoch in NY earlier on last year- you only had to listen to Rudd's press conference (and Howards concession) when he refused to go into details about the private nature of their phone conversation, where both made note of the neat 'arrangement' we have for transfering power in Australia. Yeah, very neat indeed. Every political leader worth his salt knows what happens if you don't tow the line (think the CIA-backed coup against the Whitlam government). As long as the nright interests are being represented then it doesn't matter which party is in power, just as long as the veneer of democracy remains. Really, we're no freer in that sense than communist Russia- we have one party, the business party, and we get to vote for different factions of that one party. Just like Russians used to vote for different factions of the communist party.

it all dont really mean **** in the end.......

enjoy your slavery

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

hahahahaha

haaaaaa

f u c k.

-----------------------------------

EDIT ----And to this site's webmaster: I will never stop trying to wake up the people you try to put back to sleep. The fact that you can continue to ignore the corruption shows that your cognitive thinking abilities have now been co-opted, and you all deserve to be destroyed.

seek justice. I wish I had the tolerance for anti-intellectualism that is a pre-requisite to listen nature; if I did, I would then be able to understand why you guys find victory in helping Govs mean nothing

REALLY WAKE UP! Learn Dialectic and realise that you are just as mentally dominated as those followers of the mainstream media see the truth, not what you wanna see.

Edited June 3, 2008 by xxx

[Yeti101]

This is the Chill Space after all, so just chill, take a deep breath calm down and run that by me again in simpler terms.

[Guest xxx]

As we all know it is compulsory to vote in Australia , not voting entails a fine , I didnt vote , because I refuse to make a fool out of myself ,,Ill do it again next time.

There was no vote to throw away Australia’s electoral system is designed to retain a preferred 2 party system where third party representation is nullified

That’s the charade people actually believe they are making changes and having a say , when in fact Australia is a plutocracy and it is these entities concerns that policy is designed for .

The best slaves are the ones who think they are free, enjoy the charade .

if you voted either Liberal or Labour then you are unwittingly aiding and abetting the suppression of democracy.

There is nothing to vote for as long as the electoral system is designed to extinguish smaller & third party aspirations , we have a system that is designed for the retention of 2 parties that are pro business . We have no say in the administration of Australia as our system of government is simply a manipulative tool of wealthy Industrial corporations and Banks.

It is quite failsafe when you remember the Corporate media drums out constant propaganda concerning who we vote for. Amazingly the people actually believe our press is free from political manipulation when in fact the media are the manipulators of politics on behalf of the Corporate system .

Two party preferred systems do not exist solely in Australia, but appears to be a mainstay in all "democratic" countries.

these election systems are carefully designed to limit third party interference whereby populist and leftwing parties are kept in check . That is function of these restrictive election systems keeping power to influence in check.

My idea for a viable alternative?

Each voter has one single transferable vote in a multi-party popular determinated election , where each political party is accorded representation proportional with the percentage of the vote received. Entrance qualification to Parliament for political parties entails no vote percentage thresholds designed to keep out smaller parties.

The right to vote in a sham election , you just have to visit the Australian Electoral Commision site to see evidence of this sham where we have the "House of Representatives National Two Party Preferred Result" , . Tell me with the 7.64% of the vote that the Greens received how many seats are they allocated ?

http://vtr.aec.gov.au/Default.htm

That’s the election/con job exposed right in front of you , and you cannot see it ! 8% of Australia voted for the Greens and the Greens aren’t allocated any seats , that means almost 1 million Australians have no say in government they have been divested of their democratic right to a say in the administration of their nation .

On Kyoto, Australia is on target to meet its Kyoto obligations, so ratifying it is unlikely to adversely affect Australia. But more importantly, ratifying it seems to sends a message to the rest of the international community.

But...

Signing Kyoto wont mean much when Australia's vast arid wasteland outback will be used for storing Nuclear waste from the US :

“

Australia should be world's nuclear dump, says US expert

There is no doubt that a very major push is on for Australia to accept the world’s nuclear waste. In early June the Federal Council of the Liberal Party unanimously endorsed setting up an international nuclear waste dump in Australia.

”

That was the Liberal party and this policy will be carried on under Labour . Thats one of the prices we must pay for the "Freetrade Deal" with America .

I am also concerned about Rudds commitment to free market capitalism , that invariably means creating a welfare state for the rich 5% . I dont want to wait a while I know what is coming up , New Zealand went through that deregulation phase it wasnt pretty .

That’s the cost of this “Freetrade Deal” , what good is signing Kyoto when on the other hand Australia will become a vast dump ground for extremely toxic waste that will always pose a massive danger to our fragile environment . And Rudd has affirmed this , so what are you prepared to do ?

Have you forgotten what freemarket policies Labourite Bob Hawke introduced in 1983 ? Like handing 80% of our media over to the Murdoch cartel .Rudd has clearly announced he is commited to introducing a freemarket platform and obviously you have not read any of his remarks made to corporate leaders demonstrates that you are indicative of most citizens ignorance in this country .

you have one party... the nazi party.

I already know from history that the Liberals carried on the same policies under Hawkes Labour and Labour under Rudd will carry on with the same policies , same shit different arseholes .

the policies Rudd introduces I and others will probably end up living in the streets .

If they screw up later, we get to decide if they get to keep their job or not?

Nope, you may think you are removing the puppet but the show/agenda still goes on

Our leaders are part of a dynasty they belong to, or are owned, by the "super-rich".

Kevin Rudd is a committed Freemarketeer , Rudd addresses business dinners, the message is that Labor will deliver for the big end of town , yet gullible Australians really believe he will deliver for us all. As for Rudd pulling Australia out of Iraq when Rudd met up with Cheney to profess his undying devotion to the US alliance he backtracked watering down his commitment as Rudd can't insult mass murderers - our great and powerful friends. For the past 30 years Australians have been gullible participants in an elaborate charade to give the nation the veneer of a working democracy . Every election/Con job they affirm the 2 party dictatorship in one sided elections where the results alternate between Liberal and Labor governments carrying out the same agenda to shore up the profits of the rich. Australians for their gullible stupidity deserve everything they get .

This is the Chill Space after all, so just chill, take a deep breath calm down and run that by me again in simpler terms.

As long as 90% of worlds population lives in poverty things aint good in this World .

hopefully others will agree and we can overthrow this oppressive economic system and replace it with some thing that should resemble a better Australia, something true blue, fairer and better.

Edited June 3, 2008 by xxx

[2b]

The fact that it is compulsory to vote in Australia is a very important thing. If the election of our government is left up to what ever group can rally the most supporters as is the case in the US, then we could say we really do live with a government that doesn't represent the views of the majority.

[Yeti101]

I certainly agree that things might be different if people would get used to the idea of not voting for the major parties. That said, in terms of electoral/constitutional reform, I'm not sure what the answer is. Voting systems such as the Quota-Borda system and Cumulative voting have been suggested to me as being able to lessen the tyranny and plutocracy of the majority, because they give the major political parties strong incentive to not earn the disapproval of minorities.

But at this time I see electoral reform as pretty well dead in the country, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Jesus On Peyote]

I didnt vote , because I refuse to make a fool out of myself ,,Ill do it again next time.

I dident vote because i slept though the day, and ill do it again next time!

[baphomet]

I never even enrolled

[CaptAmazing]

I HATE voting because I don't know any policies about any parties and I'm really not that interested. I agree with xxx and will add that most politicians are actually the sons/daughters of generations of politician. They're pulling the long con on all of us, so much so that it's a family business.

[Yawning Man]

I never even enrolled

you lucky mofo . i got told by one of my mates that if you never enrol you don't get fined for not voting. Not sure if it's true or not.

[baphomet]

It's true!

[chilli]

you lucky mofo . i got told by one of my mates that if you never enrol you don't get fined for not voting. Not sure if it's true or not.

Yes its true. I wish I never enrolled but my youth pastor made me feel like I should, so I enrolled and voted for... the Australian Shooting Party!

[incognito]

i was always spun out by the stickers on the backs of assorted vehicles in thecentral west 'ISHOOT AND I VOTE!' with a picture of a dead pig underneath it.

[nabraxas]

I never even enrolled

i got citizenship, just so i can never be kicked out, & we were more or less forced to enroll at the ceremony

i once rang up the electoral commission & said that if mormons, jehovahs etc. are exempt from voting on the strength ov their religious convictions, then i should also be exempt on the strength ov my moral convictions.

the lady sympathised, but said no, however i could always write that on the card they send you asking why you didn't vote.

sure enough after not voting in the next council election i got a card, which i returned saying that i had no intention ov voting for moral reasons & besides i knew nothing ov the nominees or their policies.

i got a reply saying that was a good enough reason.

Edited June 5, 2008 by nabraxas