1848 has been called the year of the Revolution of the Intellectuals: 2016 was the year of the Revolution of the Proletariat. Much to the dismay of the intellectuals.
As recently noted on The BFD, 2016, the year of Trump and Brexit, was the first clear sign that the centuries-old political divide of left/right has been broken. Instead, the divide now is between the elites (left and right) and the masses (left and right). In Australia, the paradigm shift has seen voters desert the major parties, left and right, for a host of minor parties and independents.
But political parties, the ruling elite of the two-party duopolies especially, are sclerotic beasts. Even as the political landscape is shifting under their feet, they’re determinedly clinging to their power and privileges – the left every bit as much as the right.
Which explains the electoral law changes passed with little fanfare, indeed almost in secrecy, in Australia this week.
[T]he Morrison government has introduced a Party Registration Integrity Bill to the Commonwealth parliament. The bill would let established parties veto the use of words like “Liberal”, “Labor” or “Democrats” in the names of newer, rival parties. It will also make it harder to register – or keep registered – parties, by tripling the number of members required to 1,500, unless the party has an MP[…] Labor waived the Coalition’s cowardly electoral laws.
Of course they did. Because it’s not about right versus left any more. This is the elite jealously guarding their privilege.
The legislation is simply designed to protect the badly frayed political duopoly. If the private sector tried something similar — Coles and Woolies, Myer and David Jones — corporate watchdogs would be all over them.
But we’re dealing with politicians here, whose lodestone is self-interest.
The first shock to the elite duopoly came in 2013, when voters sent a veritable rainbow of independents and minor parties to the Senate. From conservatives like Family First, to libertarians like the Liberal Democrats, to single interest parties like the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party.
The major parties were horrified. How dare these upstarts and oiks upset a cosy two-party system which had essentially shared power for nearly a century? The first response by the elites was to change the Senate voting system on the eve of the 2016 election, abolishing group voting tickets and making voting preferential. The changes were designed to nobble minor parties and independents by limiting their options for preference-trading.
But even that wasn’t enough, clearly.
Pushing the dubious argument that the changes will “reduce confusion” is to treat Australian voters as ignorant chumps who are unable to distinguish between the Liberals, the now-defunct Democrats, or the Liberal Democrats. It also ignores the historic fact the Australian Labor Party and the Democratic Labor Party co-existed with a clear demarcation between their voter blocs for decades.
Heck, even the Judean People’s Front and the People’s Front of Judea were absolutely clear on who was who.
Raising the bar of party registration is the other elitist protection racket.
Anyone can form a political group. But to have your group’s name on the ballot paper, and control public funding for garnering 4% of the vote, you need to register as a “party”.
Spectator Australia
To do that, aspirant parties must now register at least 1,500 members, instead of the old bar of 500. This will at least disenfranchise regional minor parties, while wealthy opportunists like Clive Palmer will only have to offer a token membership fee to recruit a quota.
What this is all really about is the two elite parties protecting their turf. If Labor and the Liberals have to accommodate the Greens and the Nationals respectively, well, they’ll grit their teeth, lie back and think of a majority.
But 46 registered parties in a national election? It’s almost like the plebs think they deserve a choice.
Freedom of choice is what the voters want; freedom to choose between a giant douche and a turd sandwich is all the elites are deigning to offer them. And they’ll police the language of political choice as vigorously as they have to, to keep it that way.
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