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The Forum > Article Comments > The success of the micro-parties in 2013 > Comments

The success of the micro-parties in 2013 : Comments

By James Page, published 15/1/2014

In some ways, the internet has democratized political campaigning, in that the internet has diminished the fundamental advantage that major political parties enjoy.

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The success of micro-parties reflects the entitlement and corruption of the major parties. Ordinary people are not proud of their lifetime voting alternatives, whether Labor or Liberal. The supposed alternatives in the former Democrats and Greens have demonstrated uselessness and lunacy. Its time to try something new, and while microparties are not ideal, they are a great way to take power away from the vampires that form Government.
Posted by ChrisPer, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 3:20:03 PM
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ChrisPer
I disagree. The "success" of the micro parties owes almost nothing to their capacity to win the support of the Australian electorate, and almost everything to the perversities of the electoral system, especially the requirement to either fill every box “below the line” or to vote a party ticket in its entirety.

I fail to see anything good in an outcome that elects senators from the Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party (with 17,083 out of 3,381,529 first-round votes in Victoria) and Australian Sports Party (2,976 out of 1,310,278 first-round votes in WA)
Posted by Rhian, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 3:26:31 PM
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This last election I gave my first ever political donations - a barely doable amount to a non-delusional major party, and four times the doable amount as direct donation and as payments in support of my one-issue microparty.

And because I was in a 'safe' seat for a major I deliberately voted against the major, against my lifetime habit of voting for one responsible major party. I am now proud to be a swinging voter, able to vote to punish either party, and send donations to punish or reward parties for policies that affect me.
Posted by ChrisPer, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 3:31:50 PM
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Rhian, I already agreed that the microparties are not ideal. Australia has had a Stupid Party that looked harmful, yet shrank when the interests that supported them were superseded by majors policies.

You will note however that the major parties still split power in every state and Federally. No Italian-style clown car coalition (bar one) has taken power anywhere.

Our political/government class could become as corrupt as the USA with its earmarks, special intersts, vote-rigging and suborning Federal agencies in the service of party politics. We have to use the power to dismiss members of the political class when they fail to be accountable. If we can do it with voting we are spared the inconvenience of revolution or terrorist actions.

We have had genuinely corrupt governments in several States in the 1970s and 80s. We have had terrible ones carried away by ideology and sectional interests.

In Western Australia and NSW a microparty has got members into the State upper houses. The result appears to be the majors are winding back their hostility on the issue now proven important to voters, and are now slowly moving to correct ongoing and aggressive injustice.
Posted by ChrisPer, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 3:51:56 PM
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ChrisPer
My problem with the micro parties is not necessarily disagreement with the policies they espouse, than the fact they don’t represent the electorate. “Joke” parties have a long and useful history of focusing protest and sometimes well-deserved ridicule at the pretensions of the political establishment. Minor parties like the Greens and One Nation give genuine expression to minority views that aren’t represented by the mainstream parties. Most micro parties do none of this. The determination of which one (if any) gets over the line into the Senate is almost completely random, driven entirely by the mutual antipathy of the major parties and the peculiar preference deals of the others, with nothing to do with electoral preferences. It would be simpler, cheaper, and no less fair to draw names from a hat.

The chances that election of the Sports Party will help to correct “ongoing and aggressive injustice” are, I fear, pretty small.

I’d support something along the lines of proportional representation that allocated seats roughly according to the electorate’s preferences
Posted by Rhian, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 4:34:29 PM
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Rhian, it sounds reasonable if you wnat power to always go to the existign major parties. What would your proportional allocation have given at the recent federal election? An extra Liberal or Labor senator in NSW or WA? Another Greens Senator? What would this mean for politics in Australia?

The circular preference deals among the minor parties meant that the Sports Party joker represents a lot more people than their first round preferences, that all chose not to vote for a major party candidate. I can imagine the majors working on all sorts of mutually beneficial deals to take that power from the voters. eg the limits on donations in NSW that were so effective a couple of years ago in cutting down the revenue of some minor parties that came from associations, while union funds and corporate donations were less affected. Tony Abbott's quarter million dollar legal slush-fund that got Pauline Hanson jailed is exactly the kind of tactic we can expect.
Posted by ChrisPer, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 4:51:47 PM
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ChrisPer
It’s hard to determine what PR would deliver because most of us vote in light of the electoral system we have. I might give 1st preference to a minor party in the lower house, knowing that the only thing that really matters is whether I preference Lib over Lab or vice versa. Or, I might put Lib or Lab 1st even though I prefer a different party, knowing that the minor party won’t get up anyway.

Assuming that PR applied in both houses at the last election, and that everyone’s first preference was really their first preference, then in NSW for example the lower house would have of a total 48 seats:

Pty ___Now ___ PR
Lib ___23 ____ 18
Lab ___18 ____ 17
Nat ___07 ____ 05
Grn ___00 ____ 04
PUP __00 ____ 02
CDP __00 ____ 01
Other__00 ____ 01

It’s unlikely that any party would have an overall majority in its own right under most PR systems – they would have to form coalitions
Posted by Rhian, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 6:04:40 PM
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