STATE ELECTION 2022 PT.1 Six months since the federal election and I'm back to doing this again. I still feel like a mug putting all this effort into democracy when it's guaranteed to only make me more frustrated with the eventual outcome, but at least I feel less of a mug than all the crazy people who actually go out and join a micro-party in the expectation of helping to make a change. This has made me pretty bitter already apparantly. Anyhow whereas with the federal election I was almost equally repulsed by both the major parties, the current state Labour government in Victoria is a party that I've come to loath exceptionally. I can't fathom how they got re-elected last time, let alone how they might still now after all the incompetence that they've shown during the pandemic, and the constant stream of scandals about the misuse of public funds for political purposes. But this isn't about them, or the Liberal party. Again my purpose here is to look into all the micro parties that you never normally hear about, study their policies, and maybe even find some that aren't certifiably crazy. Of course many also ran in the federal election, and probably haven't changed much in only six months, so I'll mostly focus on the ones that I didn't have time to cover before. Still ideally I'd look at all of them again from the state-policy perspective rather than a federal one. So I invite you to join me on my ride through this rollercoaster of political fantasies. Again I've started too late, not able to summon the willpower for this until the last week before election day (Sat. 26th of November). But I'll see how far I get. =============================================================================== 2022 State Election: =============================================================================== Victorian Socialists https://www.victoriansocialists.org.au/ * Though a fairly new party (started in 2018), their economic views are tradionally socialist. Very heavy on public ownership of all major utilities, as well as things like a state bank "that puts people before profit". * They unashamedly label capitalism as the enemy, and want to tax the hell out of the richest companies and individuals. * Outside of economics, they seem to broadly take a far left stance on ethical issues. They're very into equallity, animal welfare, and even legalisation of drugs. * Zero-carbon economy by 2035, helped principally by the state taking ownership of many big polluting industries. They don't like nuclear, but big on wind and solar as well as electric vehicles. They're fairly true to their name, combining socialist economic policies with popular far left attitudes. They're so far left that the way they talk about the Victorian Labor party makes it sound right-wing. One might think that Labor adopting the policy to reintroduce a state-owned electricity company would be winning over this side of the electorate, but those at the heart of this party have clearly long since lost faith in Labor, and of course capitalism itself. However I find the overtone of "socialism saves everything" unconvincing, and the far left ethical policies aren't to my taste either. ----------------------- Shooters, Fishers & Farmers Party https://www.vicshootersfishersandfarmers.org.au/ * Generally rural focused and right wing. The victorian party seems to be making a solid effort to represent their three stated interests equally in policies. * It sounds like they're now united against the animal rights policies of the far left parties, in all the ways you'd expect based on the name. * I'm keen on their policies around focusing local government scope to "rates, roads and rubbish". Improving roads is also something they're taking on as themselves, which I approve of. Not much specific info on that though. * Not keen on the influence of the "green movement" in the energy industry, and apparantly not very fussed about climate change. They seem to aim for relying on gas and clean coal during a gradual transition to nuclear. * Pro-firearms, of course. I like their rural focus, though their policies aren't that well rounded and a bit too right wing for me. There's a fair bit of combative sentiment against the left wing parties which oppose them on ethical issues, and I'm with them on many of these but would appreciate a less confrontational attitude. ----------------------- Health Australia Party https://www.healthaustraliaparty.com.au/ * The name sounds like they're digging at frustrations around the state of the health services, but they've actually expanded 'health' to cover 'healthy' people, economy, environment, democracy, and society. * besides "healthy people" most of their policies on other types of health take the middle ground and have only a few more radical flares. They do aim to set up a national community bank, as one more radical move. * On the "healthy people" topic they actually go down the alternative medicine path. They basically want herbal medicines to be given equal footing with drugs, including supporting anti-vaccination. * They're against water floridation. * They support legalising medicinal (and maybe also not-so-medicinal) cannabis. * They're into the 5G conspiracy theories and have a list of policies about stricter regulation of RF radiation which don't sound helpful to me. * They're similary scared of pesticides, though I'm not convinced that their plans for transitioning away from them are very sound. * They want to end Australia's military presence overseas except in peace keeping missions, but also to set up a "swiss-style" optional system of national service for men and women under 21. The aim seems to be as much about giving unemployed young people more options as it is about defence, which seems nice but may cost a lot. * They're into the health of animals as well, and want to set up an independent office of animal welfare. It's not my sort of thing. * Many of those are more like federal policies, but they didn't run in the federal election!? It turns out they were another victim of the AEC's member number requirements, so I guess they've just kept all the national policies in for the hell of it: https://www.healthaustraliaparty.com.au/federal-election-2022/ On the health stuff they're a bit fringe, and clearly playing to the anti-vaccer crowd. On other matters they're determined to say something, but don't really have much to say, except on a few specific points where someone seems to have had a brainwave. Best to leave them alone, to munch on their homeopathic hobble beans or whatever such nonsense they're into. ----------------------- Family First https://familyfirstparty.org.au/ * Well they were always Christian, and now their born again to boot. After disappearing before the last election, with their chairman apprarantly taking over the Country Alliance, and not for the better in my opinion, now they've formed again. Not that you'd know this from their website, where it all looks like, err, happy families. * They've always mainly represented issues with a religious conservative bent, but by now they seem to be thoroughly pissed off at gay rights stuff in particular. * To some degree I agree that at lot of this 'diversity' stuff has gone down a self-serving radit hole at this point, but at the same time I'm only really sick of hearing about it. I don't care to enforce the will of 'God' on what people get up to in private. * They're not much fussed about climate change, they just want cheap power by burning whatever it takes. * General christian values stuff: They don't like gambling, prostitution, abortion, euthanasia, and illegal drugs. A pretty stuffy bunch, basically. * They do value a small government, which has its attraction to me. All this equality stuff in the media is starting to grate on me, and I'm sure my childhood was confusing enough without people leaving me to question my own gender, but it's not enough for me to throw in with these religious conservatives. As someone who leans vaguely center-right, they represent an ethical right-wing that I'm trying to lean away from at the same time. ----------------------- Freedom Party https://freedomparty.net.au/ * A new party, which seems to have been formed by anti-lockdown loud mouths who hate Daniel Andrews. I'm with them on the Dan Andrews front, but not so much just for the lockdowns in particular. * They're subtly against renewable energy, saying they'll "end subsidies to inefficient energy industries" while they'll "Halt closing down of Victoria's power stations". * They want to boost investment in regional Victoria through tax incentives, which is nice. But I prefer reducing population as a solution to Melbourne's unsustainable growth rather than spreading the problem around the state. * They want more lenient firearms laws, and have a lot of specific policies on this. Not a free-for-all though, much of it has some merit. * I do like their approach of using third party audits to investigate government departments "deemed to be outside of approved spending targets and limits". * They're into "holistic and complementary medicines", which sounds like something for the anti-vaccers amongst the anti-lockdown crowd. They're here for the Dan Andrews haters who don't like the Liberal party either. I'm in that camp, but without enough of a right-wing bent to find myself at home with this party. Their confrontational approach also isn't to my taste.