The Parties Go On

So we are now at Part 4 of this series which received a bit of a siesta over the past few days as time constraints and bad excuses got in the way. I like to think that this would prevent you from getting bored although politics is actually not that boring. I am going to reiterate the fact that if you have not seen some of the scenes in Parliament you have not witnessed one of the best (well at least most entertaining) moments of Politics. Anyway, continuing on with this series let's get straight to it! As there are only 18 parties left I am going to do nine today and another nine on Tuesday. So that will be why this post will be slightly shorter than the other ones in this series.

Let's begin with the Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) is only a small party but with members in all states and territories in Australia. It supports less government control over many aspects of daily family life. It particularly supports a number of policies seeking changes in the areas of family law and child support.

Source: http://www.virginvoters.com.au/parties/non-custodial-parents-party/

The One Nation party is a right-wing political party founded by the infamous Australia Pauline Hanson. It has received much unfavourable coverage earlier this year following an interview one of its candidates gave to Seven News which contained a lot of misinformation. The said candidate has since withdrawn from a political career. It has a long list of objectives I will not name out of the tedious nature of that list.

The Outdoor Recreation Party is a minor party in New South Wales. It represents the outdoor community and interests such as cycling, bushwalking and camping just to name a few. They are committed to less government control over outdoor recreation. They are very opposed to the Greens political party. So much so in fact that in 2013 they added to the end of their party name Stop the Greens.

The Palmer United Party is a new one founded only this year by mining magnate Clive Palmer. Among other things they plan to abolish the contentious Carbon Tax, revise the current refugee policy and create mineral wealth.

Finally, an interestingly named party for this post. Pirate Party Australia represents civil liberty issues. It focuses on copyright reform, internet freedom and ending censorship. It is also a new party having only been registered with the Australian Electoral Commission in January of this year.

Source: http://www.geekinsydney.com/2908/pirate-party-australia-approved/

The Republican Party of Australia is a party concerned with ending Australia's links with the commonwealth and become a republic. Basically it is what it says it is.

The Rise Up Australia Party is a socially conservative political party. It is focused on nationalist and christian conservative issues such as opposing the spread of Islamic doctrine in Australia as well as opposing Same Sex Marriage (if I could vote, I would not vote for them).

The Secular Party of Australia stands for secular humanist ethical principles. They aim to separate Church and State within Australia and promote secularism worldwide. They also stand for other things like human rights and social justice, the maximisation of civil liberties and to defend freedom of expression.

Finally, the Senator Online party has no policies but instead has pledged to conduct online polls for every bill that passes before senate. So in a way they stand for the representation of every Australian in parliament (well at least Senate).

Don't forget to check back on Tuesday for the final part to this series, see you tomorrow!

No Politics Today

So today I decided I would give you all a break from the 'boring' world of politics as it is often referred to as being. Of course, as I may have demonstrated through some of the political parties Australia has to offer, this is not true for all of politics. Such an assumption would be absurd and tantamount to stereotyping. Actually, it is stereotyping. Not all Politics is boring obviously political parties like the Australian Sex Party and the Coke and Bubblers Party contradict this statement. Also, have you seen parliament? It is like a court-room drama with one side fighting against the other and constant bickering. You may have realised that today's post is only a short one and that is, of course, because Thursday nights are a bit of a busy time for me and sometimes I am able to pre-write long posts and times where I have tests and essays coming up I do not have time to do all this. You guys are actually pretty lucky I still manage to reach my daily post quota at times. So yeah, I thought I would give you all a break from Politics today (see that 'smooth' transition back on topic) and so the series will continue in two days and I am pretty sure we are already past half-way through the parties so there should really only be two or three more. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your week, it's Friday tomorrow!

Can't wait for Friday, see you tomorrow!

Party Crazy

This post will continue on from my series on the numerous political parties in Australia. Click here to check out Part 1 and here to check out Part 2. I have gone through 24 parties so far and am still not halfway through. By the end of the next twelve today I will be though. The following list is from the Australian Electoral Commission Website which has the complete list accurate as of the ninth of August 2013 when it was last updated. Here is the link:

http://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/party_registration/Registered_parties/. 

Let's get started straight away.

Source: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/careless-political-words/

Country Liberals is a Northern Territory Political Party affiliated with both the National and Liberal Parties of Australia and contests seats for the coalition in the Northern Territory rather than the National or Liberal Parties.

The Democratic Labor Party aims to stand for workers, fair trade, manufacturing, small businesses and families.

The Drug Law Reform Party exists to raise awareness of the ongoing harm being done to children, families, democratic institutions and society in general by current drug laws.

Family First Party is another of the more outspoken political parties and stands for strong families, strong values and a strong Australia.

The Future Party is one aimed at finding long-term solutions to problems through technology.

The Help End Marijuana Prohibition Party aims to re-legalise and regulate cannabis for personal, medical and industrial use in Australia. If you could not get that from the name then you should have paid more attention in class.

Source: http://www.virginvoters.com.au/parties/future-party/

Katter's Australian Party was one that received some negative attention from the media earlier this year due to their controversial views. Their ideology includes social conservatism, protectionism, developmentalism and Keynesianism.

The Liberal Democratic Party stands for "greater freedom, smaller government and personal responsibility".

The Liberal Party of Australia, alongside the Labor Party, is one of the most predominant parties in Australia. They stand for inalienable rights and freedoms for all peoples (although they do not stand for same-sex marriage, kind of a contradiction there) and it also believes in governments minimising interference in everyday life while also nurturing and encouraging citizens through incentives, rather than limits.

The National Party of Australia traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally.

The Nick Xenophon Group comprises of the independent member of senate Nick Xenophon who aims to stand for people who feel they have no voice in the Government. His website does not provide much useful information. However flashy it may be.

Finally, the No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics is one of the more left-wing parties representing climate sceptics every. They aim to "... expose the fallacy of anthropogenic climate change". Anthropogenic basically means originating from human activity.

That is it for today, check back in two days for the next installment.

Still more to come, see you tomorrow!

So many Parties

Yeah, before I go on I just have to say something. I am talking about politics in this post so when I say party I do not mean dance parties or birthday parties. No, I mean political parties. Did you know that Australia has fifty-four political parties? I mean, come on there are just so much yet still no clear options to vote for. I am just so grateful that I am only registered to vote and not yet old enough to actually vote. It really is a blessing. The following is a list of the fifty-four parties so yeah, let's have a look at what some people have come up with. This is only part one of a new series coming out every second day. This post will contain twelve parties so there will be more in two days.

Source: http://auspolitics.tumblr.com/

The following list is from the Australian Electoral Commission Website which has the complete list accurate as of the 9th of August 2013 when it was last updated. Here is the link: http://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/party_registration/Registered_parties/

The Animal Justice Party stands for Animal rights and the banning of live exports.

The Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated is not a very interesting one with a horrible website. All I managed to glean from this site was their core values of Identity, Independence and Freedom.

The Australian Christians is a self-explanatory one that believes in joining the politics with religion and one without the other is not desirable. (Again, I am no expert so check Xavier's awesome current affairs blog for better and more reliable information).

The Australian Democrats is a very interesting party in terms of their website which is full of colloquialism and the first thing you see as soon as you open the site is a quote from the party founder which reads "Keep the bastards honest". Need I say more?

Australian First Nations Political Party does not actually have a website but rather a Facebook Page which I am not going to search through so instead I turn to Wikipedia. They focus on indigenous Australian sovereignty and Northern Territory statehood. Refer to Xavier's blog for better information.

Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party are pretty laid back and has a site with parts left unfilled and can be seen as using a theme as there are parts that tell them what to write there but there is no writing. Editing is vital. I am not too sure what they really stand for though there are a lot of references to fishing so probably more focused on the related legislation.

The Australian Greens is the party that is more well-known and is pretty much an environmentalist party with a few other policies on the side.

Australian Independents believe in a better democracy where anyone who wants to run for parliament can easily do so to get their voice heard. They are very critical of the current democracy in place.

The Australian Labor Party is the current party in power and, along with the liberal party (see below), are the main two contenders for Parliament although neither is a very good option at the moment.

Source: http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/ha/polley/polley.htm

The Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party is pretty self-explanatory party set up in response to legislation "inflicting on their lifestyle".

The Australian Protectionist Party with protectionist and nationalist parties. They aim to "protect, preserve and defend our identity, heritage and freedoms".

Australian Sex Party is one that is turning a few heads and is actually pretty interesting. Their policies include (but are not limited to) the legalisation (and heavy taxation) of marijuana, same-sex marriage, the legalisation of euthanasia and the abolishment of tax exemptions for religious groups.

So as you can see there is a lot of political parties and in two days come back for some more, see you tomorrow!

New Zealand Legalises Gay Marriage

New Zealand has became the 13th Country in the world, and the first country in the Asia-Pacific, to legalise same-sex marriage. The parliament voted 77 to 44 in favour of the Gay-Marriage bill and now same-sex couples can legally be married in New Zealand. This bill will also allow a same-sex couple to adopt and the couple will have their marriage recognised in other countries.

This is expected to put pressure on surrounding countries to follow in New Zealand's footsteps but Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister of Australia, has expressed her opposition to Marriage Equality and there is little federal movement in this area. So it looks like same-sex couples will be taking more trips to New Zealand to get married which will surely benefit their economy and tourism industry.

It is expected that this change will boost Tourism in New Zealand as well as the economy due to the new market opened up to spend money on Weddings. It was estimated that an extra $700 million dollars will be spent by same-sex couples on their weddings (in total, not individually) which will truly kick-start the New Zealand Economy. Many Australian Same-Sex Couples have also said that they would go on a trip to New Zealand to get married instead of waiting for a similar bill in Australia, which at the current rate could be a long way away. However, same-sex couples will have to wait around 4 months so that The Department of Internal Affairs (handling births, deaths and marriages) can be prepared for the surge of new paperwork.

I support Marriage Equality as I believe that Love is Love no matter who it is between and I believe some Same-Sex couples love each other more than some heterosexual couples and therefore deserve the right to marry who they want, where they want. So I think Australia should follow in New Zealand's footsteps and legalise Same-Sex Marriages.