Democratic Democrats for Democracy

Ok, here are a couple of cheap shots at those champions of democracy who refuse sell their beliefs out to the major parties and dare to dream of an almost certainly impossible senate position.

First up, Senator On-Line. link

These guys are one of the larger of the smaller parties. Their platform is pretty interesting. If one of them gets in, then each time they vote on a bill there will be an online poll on their website and the senator will vote in accordance with the result. Senator On-Line, get it?

Rather unfortunate acronym though. SOL, just like their chances of getting up on Saturday, equates to Shit Outta Luck.

Now I know that us Aussies like a bit of the old hunting and fishing now and again, but has your passion for killing animals every driven you to run for parliament? It must have for some, becase we have not one, but three animal-slaughter related parties on the ballot.

The Fishing Party, the Australian Shooters Party and the Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party.

Seems there is a bit of rivalry between the three because the AF&LP went and stole the Fishing Party’s website http://www.fishingparty.com.au. The other got relegated to http://www.thefishingparty.info which contains the hilarious link ‘Do you want to be a candidate – enquire’. Not do you want to join the party, but do you want to be a candidate? The Exclusive Brethren this ain't.

Then there’s the Secular Party of Australia with the intriguing slogan ‘Freedom from Religion’. They’ve teamed up with Australia’s own Dr Death, euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke. Actively campaigning for the death of your supporting voters is an interesting platform to run under. I wonder how often they have to, um, declutter their mailing lists.

Climate change has prompted a couple of new parties. The Conservatives for Climate and Environment party (finally a conservative voice on an issue that requires immediate and unprecedented action) and the Climate Change Coalition which features as a candidate Triple J's Dr Karl (as distinct from TV's Dr Karl, who I'm sure could probably win a lower house seat).

The award for the cheapest website goes to the Non-Custodial Parents Party. Nothing wins my vote faster than MS Word generated, lime green web page complete with unrelated flashing banner ads. Link.

The award for trying to get into the Senate on the back of a Mel Gibson film was a tie between the What Woman Want party and the Mad Max party. Ok, one of those I made up.

Naming seems to be a real problem with these minor parties. With the possible exception of the Socialist Equality Party, they’re all supporters of democracy, yet they still insist in adding that to the name.

This results in the confusing collection of the Liberty & Democracy Party, the Christian Democratic Party, the Democratic Labor Party and of course the Australian Democrats, who I reckon got there first.

And last but not least is Pauline’s United Australia Party. She's at it again. Bless her hate-filled little heart.