Hey auspol. It's about that time again: you know, the one where you have to sit around researching about 15 minor parties that sound distantly familiar to figure out what to put as your bottom preferences.
This year I found my way to a couple of blogs which offer brief and unabashedly biased reviews of the minor parties in the federal landscape. These are not new, I'm just late.
Both blogs are written from a relatively progressive-left perspective, at least by Australian standards. Inside the spoiler below is what they say about themselves:
Summaries of bloggers
Blatantly Partisan Party Reviews
I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of a political party. I review from the perspective of a small-g green democratic socialist. I am trained and work as a political historian of Australia and New Zealand. This background guides my reviews, which originated as—and remain—notes to inform my own vote. I do not aim for any false neutrality or objectivity, and I share these remarks in the hope they are useful to others trying to navigate Australia’s plethora of micro-parties. It should be obvious but these are my personal opinions, which should not be construed as representing the views of my employer nor of any other organisation with which I am affiliated.
Something for Cate
I’m Maz. In no particular order I’m left of centre, a grandparent, a writer, trans, pansexual, a mental health lived experience worker, agnostic, supportive of unions, and supporter of the Arts. I’m committed to holding governments and media accountable and, while I can’t promise complete objectivity, I can promise to deliver the same treatment to every party and independent in this election.
I’m Loki. I’ve been in several political parties and never found one left enough for my liking. I’m a bisexual cis male, and likewise agnostic, pro-Union and pro-arts. I try not to approach anything uncritically, whether I agree with it or not. I firmly believe that objectivity is a goal that can be striven for but never actually reached. That said, in that quest I will seek, strive and not yield.
While I obviously recommend you come to your own conclusions about the parties, it can be nice to hear what other voters think of them, especially when it's some shit you never heard of before.
Something for Cate especially includes coverage of unregistered groupings, which are a deep black box of nothing to me most of the time.
Absolutely true, and in service of that point, at least some of the Facebook comments were signed off by someone called "Simon". Probably Simon Gnieslaw, #2 on the Fusion ballot in Victoria.
My issue though remains. Why would someone sign up for a party if they do not trust that party's leadership? That goes extra for smaller parties where you won't be able to fall back on the party establishment rather than its personal leadership as you could for larger parties.
I think it's simply due to personal ambition. That's ultimately the problem with a lot of these micro-parties - they are formed by people who have rejected larger, more established parties because they didn't feel like they had enough influence (or because their efforts to exert influence rocked the boat so much they were essentially expelled). That doesn't necessarily mean ambition to become a career politician and make a lot of money, it could also just be ambition to change Australian politics and pass more ambitious policy. Although the former would explain why I have this generic business undergrad running in my seat. This is why I don't particularly like this idea of writing off entire micro-parties based on controversies or internal drama, because ultimately you might actually still have a local candidate who otherwise aligns with your values who could end up splitting from the party altogether.
At the same time, I think it is very fair to question the narrative Fusion is trying to push about these new, seemingly unsuitable, members and parties working harmoniously with the rest for the greater good. Maybe some of them genuinely believe that, but the much more likely reason is because these people or groups feel they can use Fusion as a springboard to advance their own agenda and/or career.