If you started a Political Party, what would it be called, and represent?

[griffin]

Us here in Australia are entering "election season" again, with several state and federal elections in the next 12-18 months, which will see a ramping up of politicians on media outlets, with promises, and b*tching about other politicians, leading up to the start of official election campaigns.

With most political parties these days (here and abroad) trying to be as far from political centre(#) as possible, in order to differentiate themselves from their main opponents, it means most (regular) people/voters are pawns of major parties instead of being targeted or represented by them... prompting sudden support for idealistic people and parties (like Palmer United Party, Xenophon Team, One Nation), which can disappear just as quickly if they don't have rational objectives or party leaders.

So it had me thinking, a bit like a school assignment, if you had to create a political party...
- what would you call it,
- what primary demographic or ideology would it prioritise with its policies (*),
- what would be the 5-10 major policies your party would take to the election.

(*) some examples of the primary demographics or ideologies of some of our major parties...
- Labor - Unions
- Liberal - Businesses
- Nationals - Farmers
- Greens - Environment
(a lot of minor parties are obvious just by their name)

(#) left-wing/centrist/right-wing is the overall position of political parties, based on how conservative or radical most of their policies are - for more reading about the political spectrum, go here.

This topic isn't for debating or criticising existing political parties or politicians, so please avoid it unless noting something as an example is absolutely necessary to make a point with your posting.

(BTW, if you want to post up something that isn't serious, please note it, even if it might seem obvious to you and most others that it isn't serious.)

[Raider]

The Australian Common Sense Party. Name speaks for itself and is something clearly lacking at the moment... naturally a mostly centrist party targetting a demographic under 45.

[Trent]

The "We Think More Than An Election Cycle Ahead" party.

Centrist in nature. Every policy decision grounded in research and supported fact. I would allow lobbyists but transcripts of their meetings with politicians would be made public record after 6 months. No cronyism. No living the high life off the public purse.

[1AZRAEL1]

I'd create the Social Justice Warriors party. But not as you think. I'd form up an army of sword wielding fighters to crack skulls and bathe in the blood of our enemies. Who will be chosen to be cracked are the ones who can't show respect for one another and have a selfish behaviour

[BigTransformerTrev]

The Australian Common Sense Party. Name speaks for itself and is something clearly lacking at the moment... naturally a mostly centrist party targetting a demographic under 45.

I think I wrote somewhere a few years ago I wanted to start a party and name it that as well - great minds eh

Since that's taken - The Big Angry Trev Party - policies contained within the link

[Autocon]

I seriously want to run for PM! If trump can do it....

Some of my policies...

Enclosure laws
- Enclosures would be determined on
- - size of animal
- - number of animals
- - natural habitat of animals.
The purpose being to outlaw tiny fish tanks for fighting fish. They need bigger tanks. No birds in small cages. Larger animals requiring more space. No farm animals in cramped conditions. Affecting everyone from zoos circus farmers households.

Tax on the rich
- They keep taxing the poor and not themselves. Corporate tax included. Any business not paying their fare share of tax will be excluded from operating in Aus. Companies giving themselves loans will no longer be included when determine tax.

Descrimination Policy
- Getting real in regards to business, companies, religion, organisations etc

Gay Marriage
- Making it legal OR
- Removing the world marriage altogether for the religous to use for themselves, and creating a new word in the constituion / legal matters.

Euthenasia to be legal. If we can be humane towards animals we can surley do the same for us humans.

End double dipping for pollies.
- You may retire on the minister pension but if you work, you loose the pension. Also reduce the pension from 300,000 per year to 100,000 per year.

I have many ideas! Vote for my Party in the next elecation

[griffin]

When I was thinking about this a few years ago, when the rotation of Prime Ministers was leading into it's third in three years (just before the 2013 election), which has since led to both sides losing support to new minor parties or people like Palmer and Hanson who gain a short-lived protest vote, but neither of them had policies that were to benefit ordinary Australians.
I saw that even though people were losing faith in the two major parties that were on either ends of the political spectrum, no one* was setting up a national Centrist party to capitalise on the disenchanted voters who have had enough of the "left-right point scoring at the voter's expense" (not getting anything meaningful done because both sides were too busy playing politics, to worry about tackling what the people really need - which is fixing the Australian economy so that we aren't paying off debts to foreign countries and can instead use that money on Australians instead, fixing the tax system to give struggling working families and people tax relief (including preventing tollroads that shouldn't exist if State Governments were able to manage their budgets properly), reducing the cost of living (including the high cost of electricity thanks to deregulation and privatisation - we already paid for the infrastructure with our taxes and now we have to pay for it again from the new private owners who raise prices to get their money back), putting the brakes on skyrocketing house and land costs to help people get into the market instead of prioritising those who already have a house or can afford multiple investment properties that renters will never be able to afford, remaining more neutral in global affairs so that we aren't dragged into conflicts the US provokes or starts, environmental policies for our kids to inherit a future with less contaminations and natural disasters without going too extreme to send individual people and the country broke before anything meaningful happens, and fixing up the electoral system to have set 4 or 5 year terms that align all the states and federal elections to one day to give us a break from campaigning and false promises, and have the voting process involve voting on major policies rather than just politicians and their parties, so that we get real representation of what we need and want, rather than being stuck with a basket of policies that we don't want (like this same-sex marriage issue - the government claims it was an election promise that people voted for, but they didn't get into power because of that policy... it was way down the list of things people were voting them in for). That way, you can have a "referendum" on major policies at each election at no extra expense to the normal election process, and you can get people more engaged in the election if they can actually get to voice their support for what they want, and know that who ever gets into power has to adhere to it even if it isn't their policy (like the same-sex marriage issue).

* Xenaphon has a some-what centrist party, and it has proven very popular in South Australia, but fails to gain traction in other states... so far. Unfortunately, the media often don't take him seriously, particularly if certain media owners are friends or donors of Liberal or Labor.

Some of the party names I had thought up at the time have since become unusable, either because of their usage overseas, it is already registered here, or someone notorious in Australia using it.
The comments in brackets are why the name either can't be used, or probably shouldn't be used.
- The Australian Independence Party (the similar name is now famous/infamous in the UK with UKIP being similar to our One Nation with very radical policies - it gained a lot of short-lived support due to the protest vote, but has lost almost all of its support)
- The Australian People's Party (opponents could use the scare campaign of it being a communist party, even though it actually would be putting people before big business and rich party lobbyists... and unfortunately, the wife of a well-known crime boss has taken on that name for her political ambitions)
- The New Workers Party (again, it would sound very "red" and communist, but the point would have been to highlight that everyone works in some way to earn their money or raise a family, not just the blue collar "working class", so everyone needs to be supported equally no matter their job... and it would help poach disgruntled Labor voters, in the same way that Palmer and Hanson are (mostly) poaching disgruntle Liberal voters - although, it could also see the name challenged for being too similar to the existing "Australian Worker's Party")
- Australia First Party (already registered in NSW with very limited support because it is a very far right party... so adopting that name or a similar name could see a mistaken identity of its purpose)
- Australian Alliance Party (name is currently available, and even though it sounds positive, it would be hard to convey what it would be an alliance of, particularly if the main focus would be to show party solidarity when the major parties can't)

It is worth noting that the Australian Democrats is now no longer registered (as of 2015), after being the third biggest party at one stage during the 80s and 90s. It would be a good name to have, but it would have a lot of baggage from the older generations remembering how that party imploded after aligning itself with Labor (when it promoted itself as neutral to "keep the bastards honest").

A party name is such a big thing, as it is the "face" that the media and marketing will use, so it needs to easily identify what you stand for if you are a new player on the stage, and needs to be easy to remember or say by having a short catchy name or acronym/abbreviation (like ALP or Libs or UKIP).

[canofwhoopass_87]

About 3 years ago I attended a small dinner with a group of young community leaders with the late Right Hon. Malcolm Fraser in the CBD regarding a new political party. The ideas, policies, reformist nature are not too dissimilar from what many of you have expressed below

https://www.crikey.com.au/2015/03/26...litical-party/

Sadly, the concept died with him. He truly is one of the last "noble" politicians from the old era.

[kup]

'A Fair Australia for All' Party.

Policy would be about nation building. Updating infrastructure, objectively looking at immigration policies (immigration is generally good if all cultures integrate to work together for a better future). Roads and speed rail across the state and hopefully one day, the nation.

[Raider]

'A Fair Australia for All' Party.

Policy would be about nation building. Updating infrastructure, objectively looking at immigration policies (immigration is generally good if all cultures integrate to work together for a better future). Roads and speed rail across the state and hopefully one day, the nation.

The only problem is that you cannot appease everyone all the time.