Australia / Israel Review

Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz & Anthony Orkin

Also running in this election are a plethora of minor parties – some of them single-issue lists; some of them attempting to provide a voice for under-represented constituencies; some of them quirky; some of them built around a well-known local identity. However, others represent voices of political extremism. Below is AIR’ s guide to what some of the more worrying political acronyms on the ballot papers stand for.

Australia First Party (AFN)

The AFN is run by Jim Saleam, a high profile extreme right-wing activist with a criminal record. The AFN believes that “Australia is a client state, ruled by a traitor class which is integrated into a transnational network of globalist elites and their economic and political structures” and that this “traitor class” governs Australia “as a resources quarry cowed by thought-policing and a secret political police.”

AFN proposes a heavily protectionist trade policy, coupled with severe limiting of immigration, the abolition of multiculturalism, and “policies that strengthen and protect the traditional family.”

Running in: Senate (NSW, QLD); Deakin (VIC); Port Adelaide (SA); Chifley, Cook, Lindsay, Newcastle, Riverina, Macquarie, and Calare (NSW).

Australian Protectionist Party (APP)

The APP is an offshoot of the Australia First Party, founded by Darrin Hodges after he was expelled from the latter.

The APP declares itself generally opposed to “the destructiveness of Multiculturalism and Political Correctness”. The APP also believes in zero net migration – ie immigrants would only be permitted to replace people who emigrate – and would allow immigrants only from “culturally compatible” (read: Western) countries.

Running in: Senate (NSW and QLD); Swan, and Freemantle (WA); Corangamite (VIC).

Australian Stable Population Party (SPP)

The SPP is a one-issue party and that issue is population. It traces most of the world’s problems – poverty, hunger, war, etc – to over-population, and supports limiting Australia’s population to around 25 million. To this end, the SPP supports a zero net migration policy. Unlike other parties in favour of zero net migration, the SPP comes from a far-left, not far-right, perspective, and supports racial equality and multiculturalism amongst the migrants permitted into Australia.

Running in: Senate (all States); Denison (TAS); Brisbane, and Griffith (QLD); Lalor, Melbourne, and Melbourne Ports (VIC); Berowra, Eden-Monaro, Lindsay, and Warringah (NSW).
 
Citizens Electoral Council of Australia (CEC)

The CEC is part of the international LaRouche movement – the cult-like movement of American “political economist” Lyndon LaRouche, best known for his neo-Marxist economics and his over-arching conspiracy theory that the Queen of England is the head of a clandestine “Anglo-Dutch liberal” oligarchy which secretly controls the world’s drug trade and political economy through such methods as keeping humanity occupied by “controlled wars”.

Running in: Senate (VIC, NT); 7 seats in QLD; 6 in WA; both NT seats; 2 in VIC; 7 in NSW.

One Nation (ON)

Despite losing her House of Representatives seat in 1998 after having served a single term in Parliament, Pauline Hanson has habitually contested Federal and State elections on a platform of destroying Australian multiculturalism and opposing non-discriminatory immigration polices. The election campaign in 2004 was not enough to prevent Hanson from concurrently competing in “Dancing with the Stars”, in which she was substantially more successful.

Hanson also subsequently advanced to the penultimate challenge in 2011’s “Celebrity Apprentice Australia” – which may have been the impetus behind One Nation’s current push for a publicly funded apprenticeship scheme. One Nation’s other policies include: zero net migration; abolishing multiculturalism, “multi-racialism” and all anti-racial discrimination laws; a tough stance on refugees; and legalising voluntary euthanasia.
Hanson has become adept at making preference deals with minor parties, with One Nation consistently crossing the 4% electoral threshold and securing public funding for her party.

Running in: Senate (all states except TAS); 4 seats in QLD; 11 seats in NSW.
 
Rise Up Australia Party (RUA)

RUA is the political party led by Reverend Daniel Nalliah of “Catch the Fire Ministries”, best known for his controversial anti-Muslim rhetoric. RUA’s six main policy areas are: “burka/face veil” (they want it banned); education; energy (they reject anthropogenic climate change and support coal-fired power plants); freedom of speech (they oppose racial hatred laws); Israel (they are pro); and same-sex-marriage (they are against). The RUA is pro-immigration, but anti-multiculturalism.

Running in: Senate (all States and Territories); 77 seats across Australia.

Socialist Alliance (SAL)

Founded in 2001, the SAL was initially an amalgam of eight distinct Marxist factions, but has since developed into an opaque mess consisting of dozens of informal factions, each propounding a marginally different version of how to bring-about the socialist revolution. Because of this factionalism, the SAL, unlike the SEP, is an issues-based party. Those issues include a campaign to bring all banks, mining and energy companies under public control and run them as not-for-profit enterprises.

On foreign policy, the SAL’s platform is to: “Bring back all military forces from Afghanistan… isolate apartheid Israel; end ANZUS… boost development and climate change aid to poor countries.”

Running in: Senate (NSW); Griffith (QLD); Fremantle (WA); Corio, and Wills (VIC); Adelaide (SA); Sydney, and Newcastle (NSW).
 
Socialist Equality Party (SEP)

The SEP is the Australian branch of the International Committee of the Fourth International, which has been advocating the Trotskyist vision of global revolution since 1935.

In foreign policy, the SEP believes in repudiating the ANZUS treaty and expelling the American military/security establishment from Australian soil. They also see Israel as an outpost of the American Empire which exists mostly to oppress Palestinian workers. Domestically, the SEP want to expropriate all private corporations, then hand them over to the workers.

Running in: Senate (All states except TAS).
 
The Wikileaks Party (WKP)

The only Australian political party currently being run from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, the Wikileaks Party is the official party of celebrity computer hacker-cum-activist Julian Assange. In case he was unable to personally take up a seat in the Senate due to his being holed-up in the Embassy to avoid facing sexual assault charges in Sweden, Assange appointed Melbourne-based academic and author Leslie Cannold as his proxy. However, Cannold later resigned from the party, citing a lack of transparency and other issues.

While it does not have many specific policies, Wikileaks purports to stand for accountability and transparency in governance. Otherwise, Wikileaks is broadly civil libertarian – advocating open borders, weak counterterrorism powers, and no media regulation whatsoever.

Running in: Senate (NSW, VIC, WA).