Below is a list of all of the Senate Candidates for South
Australia; unfortunately, I have not had time to look into the independents
this year. I have tried for each to list three policies or positions, though
this was not always possible. I’ve done my best to make these the three most
important issues to the party, so you can expect there will be little room for
compromise if elected. This often involves a lot of guesswork. Where it was
particularly speculative, I have explained why I have chosen these three policy
areas. Links are provided to the source of the three policy headings, not necessarily
the policy detail which may come from multiple sources.
A The Great Australian Party (GAP)
The GAP believes, among other things, that the government is
acting ultra vires, and specifically in violation of the constitution. This is
a very serious claim, but I couldn't find any details of what they consider
this violation to be (and perhaps one shouldn't take the politico-legal
analysis to seriously from a party that thinks Australia has a former PM called
"Julie Gillard"). Their other policies are numerous and hard to
whittle down to something concise. Fortunately, they've done this for me.
B Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party (FACN)
Fraser Anning shot from relative obscurity among elected
politicians due to his highly controversial and conservative views. His party's
policy page has only one policy link (Veterans' Policy) but also lists 21
numbered items, topmost on that list being (1) that Australia was founded as a
"as an English speaking, predominantly European Christian
Commonwealth", (2) that immigration needs to prioritise "those best
able to integrate and assimilate" (i.e., presumably, English speaking,
predominantly European Christians) and (3) opposition to same-sex marriage and
abortion. So do not assume this party is a single-issue one simply because
there is only a single policy to expand upon.
Veterans
The party supports marking the drivers' licenses of veterans
or issuing veterans ID cards, military appointments to veterans affairs, military
membership on tribunals for all claims on the department of veterans' affairs,
re-establishment of a defined benefit superannuation scheme for ADF members,
the right of any former serviceperson to demand accommodation at military
facilities and a retirement village for veterans in Townsville.
C Centre Alliance (CA)
The Our Focus page has three main themes: Government
accountability, Taxing multinationals and Australian manufacture. Enjoy the
dot-points.
Government accountability
- ”Establish a national anti-corruption commission and ensure that the SA ICAC can hold meetings in public for maladministration cases.
- Ensure politician entitlements and claims are reported in a timely and transparent way.
- Put in place whistle-blower legislation that protects the informant and compensates them for any loss of income due to their actions. The changes brought about by our team in December 2016 are a big step forward, but these need to rolled out to the corporate and public sectors as per the governments firm commitments.
- Government services (federal, state, local) must be delivered quickly and efficiently and be fully accountable to the public.
- Review duplicated services at a federal, state and local government level and determine the most appropriate entity to deliver these services.
- Citizens should have reasonable and timely access to government information such that they can participate in government decisions making and, if necessary and as appropriate, criticise government and demand change and improvement from government. Freedom of Information laws need to be enhanced to guarantee information is provided within statutory time frames and that review and appeal processes are conducted in a timely fashion. Improved government transparency is a key preventative measure to maladministration, misfeasance and corruption.”
Taxing multinationals
"Centre Alliance also expects corporations to respect the social contract they have with the community. Corporations, particularly multi-nationals, must pay their fair share of taxes. They must treat their customers, and employees, with fairness and dignity. Australians who speak out against corrupt practices deserve to be protected."Australian manufacture
- ”The Government should take steps which will require manufacturers to regularly disclose the percentage and country of origin of specific ingredients to the Department of Industry for publication on its website.
- The Government should undertake an analysis and report on the benefit of an administrative mechanism which will give manufacturers the ability to apply for a ruling on Country of Origin Labelling claims.
- A single federal authority should be formed to accredit the use of all 'Made in Australia' symbols.
- Government departments should be required to procure a much greater proportion of Australian produced and manufactured products and services.
- Have more effective anti-dumping laws to prevent below-cost imported goods flooding the market and destroying Australian jobs in the process.”
D Australian Democrats (DEM)
The DLP is not to be confused with the Australian Labor
Party, or as this party puts it "We are a true Labour Party and base all
our policies on three important questions: Is it good for the family? Is it
good for the worker? And is it good for the community?"
Family
The DLP family policy is based on the beliefs that marriage
should be between a man and a woman, that parents need the right to discipline
their children and solidarity with women who find themselves struggling with an
unintended pregnancy (though the DLP is anti-abortion), the abused, the
dispossessed, and parents separated from their children.
Worker
The party supports a portable leave scheme, so leave
entitlements accrue even when changing jobs; more annual and long service
leave; and reintroduction of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act to resolve
work disputes
Community
In the 2019 policy platform, being a federal election, this
is described as "support the Nation" and includes a national bank to
fund infrastructure, a national fuel reserve for emergency services, defence
and public transport for 12 months, a ban on foreign ownership of agricultural
land, clean coal power stations and renewable energy and review the delayed
French submarine purchase.
E Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON)
One Nation's controversial policies are well known and their
recent scandals involving the US NRA are still fresh. I can't find any guidance
on which of their policies to prioritise on their site, and the list is
alphabetical. I note that in Google, however, special mention is given to
Climate Islam and Education. Whether these are topics One Nation considers
priorities or not, it's the best I have to go on.
Climate Change
Simply put, One Nation has dedicated an entire
"policy" page to climate change scepticism, claiming there is no
global warming, increase in extreme weather events or polar ice cap melt. In
terms of policy, PHON wants to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.
Radical Islamic Terrorism
PHON insists the majority of terrorists are acting in the
name of Islam (which surely depends entirely on your definition of terrorism)
and proposed a 10-point policy including a Trump-style travel ban (their
comparison, not mine), penalties for racism of any sort (as a cause of
alienation and thus radicalisation), and cutting funding to groups like the
Bankstown Poetry Slam which they describe as "a forum for hateful Islamic
ranting"
Higher Education
The full policy text is "Support higher education for
every Australian, at a reasonable cost. Availability should be given to
Australians first, before foreigners. We oppose the privatisation of our
universities. Students requiring assistance with fees should be assessed on an
individual needs basis and not according to their parents’ income and
assets."
F Citizens Electoral Council (CEC)
CEC's header on its 2019 election page lists three policy
areas.
Stop 'bail-in'
Bail-ins, according to the
CEC are situations where banks in debt delete your savings and instead
issue you with shares in the bank without permission. How real this threat is I
won't comment on, but the CEC is outraged at this secret international
conspiracy.
Break up the banks
TO summarise, the CEC wants all banks to be split into
commercial banking (loans and deposits) and investment banking (including insurance,
stock broking, financial advice, wealth management and superannuation) to
separate the public's savings from the volatilities of the investment markets
Rebuild the country
"The CEC advocates a massive public infrastructure
development program for Australia of major nation-building projects in water,
power, and transportation, which will open up all of Australia to economic
development and population. We reject and will scrap public-private
partnerships (PPPs), and use a national bank to publicly fund projects to be
kept in public ownership. This program will address the infrastructure deficit
that has been built up through decades of under-investment, and reindustrialise
the economy by stimulating industries, including steel-making and cement
manufacture."
G Liberal Party of Australia (LIB)
As one of the major parties the Liberals have a very wide-ranging
policy platform. To isolate three talking points, I have referred to their
"our plan" which after championing several past achievements
identified four key areas: tax relief, infrastructure, family services and
border security. Of these, family services was omitted from my summary due to
its broad and loosely defined scope which includes childcare, education, health
and numerous other distinct policy areas that cannot be summarised concisely.
Tax Relief
Ignoring the large portions of the Liberal policy pages
dedicated to establishing Labor as a tax bogeyman, the main points are that the
party will reduce personal income tax, reduce the company tax rate from 30% to
27.5% and eventually to 25%, and they will expand the availability and size of
the instant asset write-off which allows the full deduction of business assets
individually worth under $30,000.
Infrastructure
The list of infrastructure projects on the Liberal website
is too long to effectively summarise, but includes $100 billion in transport
and congestion solutions including road upgrade and expansion, rail expansion
and electrification, public transport and car parking projects, bridge
construction, heavy vehicle accommodation and new airports/airport access.
Border Security
The essential planks of Liberal border protection policy
are: assessing refugee status in offshore centres rather than in Australian
borders, granting temporary protection visas to ensure refugees cannot become
permanent citizens, turning back boats where it is deemed safe to do so,
cancelling visas for criminals and most controversially revoking citizenship of
dual nationals involved in terrorism.
H Sustainable Australia (SA)
The policy page does my job for me. Which I guess is what a
good policy page should do? Priorities are identified as jobs, housing,
planning and environment, and the summaries are directly quoted:
Jobs
"Better invest in education and skills training for
local workers; Re-allocate our scarce economic capital (back into our
factories, farms and small businesses, to re-diversify our economy); A simpler,
fairer tax system; Re-invest in the regions; Fair trade with a level playing
field; Australian ownership and management of utilities, land and resources;
& more."
Housing and Planning
"Tax reform (end CGT/NG concessions); Stop foreign
purchases; Reduce population growth pressures; Increase investment in public
housing; Better bank lending practices; Greater renters’ rights; & more...
Give real power to local communities in planning decisions; Increased developer
charges for land value (rezoning) gains; Better public transport; Preserve or
plant corridors of biodiversity; Prioritise ecological design in housing;
Reduce population growth pressures; & more."
Environment
"Transition to renewable energy; Moratorium on all
fracking; Better manage our water security; Increase conservation management
funding and employment; Enhance biodiversity and native species programs;
Protect animal habitats from housing and farming land clearing; End old growth
forest logging; Minimise factory farming; Reduce waste production; Reduce
population growth pressures (so all of the above isn't undermined); &
more."
I Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party (HEMP)
HEMP is a single-issue party supporting the
decriminalisation of cannabis for use as food, fuel, fibre, medicine, cosmetic
and a recreational drug. It is probably a safe assumption based on previous
alliances and the general focus of this party that they will vote in a
generally left/progressive direction on other matters, but this is always the
risk with single issue parties.
J The Greens (GRN)
According to their policy page, the Greens "champion
big, evidence-driven solutions to the major problems we’re facing now: economic
inequality, increasing cost of living, environmental destruction and climate
change." I think it's fair to say the party's stance on environmental destruction
and climate change are well known, so I have merged them to give a broad
environmental policy here.
Economic inequality
The party supports public ownership and opposed
privatisation, including reversing past privatisations, creating a
non-for-profit bank and not-for-profit renewable energy company, capping power
prices and opposing selling the NBN. The Greens' plans also include increased
funding for temporary and emergency accommodation to combat sleeping on the
streets along with more long-term allocation of money for more rental
properties and tenancy advocacy services as well as phasing out tax incentives
that favour investors over home buyers. Greens policies for economic equality
extend more obliquely to include "closing the gap" with Indigenous
people through treaties, ensuring equality for women in the workplace,
increasing accessibility for disabled people and fully finding the NDIS
Increasing cost of living
The party's not-for-profit companies and caps on power
prices are factors here too, along with rewriting workplace laws and increasing
wages, investment in science and research in preparation for future industries
and support for more than 2 million small businesses.
Environment
The Greens aren't just known for their environmental
policies, they're named for them: opposition to coal seam gas and fracking,
deforestation, gas exploration in the Great Australian Bight; legislation to
protect marine parks, the Barrier Reef, the Murray-Darling; support for
electric vehicles, 100%renewable energy, and coal workers during the phase out
of fossil fuels.
K United Australia Party (UAP)
Despite Palmer's ubiquitous advertising campaign,
particularly online, the policy page is rather sparse. I quote it below:
“Party Officials should not be Lobbyists, thereby taking a
strong position on Paid Political Lobbyists, saving tax payers dollars and
introducing Fair Policies
Revising the current Australian Government’s Refugee Policy
to ensure Australia is protected and refugees are given opportunities for a
better future and lifestyle
Creating Mineral Wealth to continuously contribute to the
welfare of the Australian community. This will be achieved by utilising mineral
resources from Queensland and Western Australia, and incentives from the
Commonwealth of Australia to establish downstream processing in the States of
Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia; and exporting products at a
higher dollar value, thereby creating more revenue, jobs, tax and more
facilities.
Establishing a System where people create wealth in various
parts of the country and for that wealth to flow back to the Community that
generates the wealth. For example, if a particular region creates wealth, a
significant percentage of that wealth should go back to the region.”
L Australian Conservatives (CON)
The Australian Conservatives are reasonably
self-explanatory, but I couldn't find any objective way to pick the three most
important policy areas. I can't even take the top three on their policy page,
because they are ordered alphabetically and don't necessarily reflect their
importance to the party. So I've done it subjectively instead, and I apologise
if my personal bias has influenced me.
Society and Culture
The party recognises Australia's Judeo-Christian heritage;
supports freedom of thought, expression, association and equality; has pride in
the Australian flag and history; believes "traditional marriage" is
the foundation of civil society and champions individual rights and freedoms
Immigration and Citizenship
The Conservatives have vowed to halve immigration, never
resettle refugees, withdraw from the UN Refugee Convention, reform all classes
of visa, eliminate permanent residency and require ten-year residency (with 7
years of tax payment) to become a citizen
Energy
The Conservatives' website still hosts a video titled
"Climate Doomsday Alarmism is a Hoax". It is unsurprising, therefore,
that the party describes itself as "technology agnostic", does not
support renewable energy targets and plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate
Accord. The party also supports nuclear power.
M Shooters, Fishers and Farmers (SFF)
There are a number of policies I could draw from here
regarding foreign affairs, economics, recreation and environment. But it seems
to me the three that deserve priority are the three F's linked to the party's
very identity: Firearms, Fishing and Farming & Land Management.
Firearms
This party wants to relax gun restrictions including a
review of the 1996 gun laws, removing Federal limits on firearm imports, expand
self-defence rights, support for gun manufacturers and funding for 'Shooting
Australia'
Fishing
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the fishing policy concerns
increasing commercial and recreational fishing opportunities, cutting
restrictions and opposing international fishing operations
Farming & Land Management
SFF opposes the current extent of foreign land ownership and
wants to make further foreign investment more difficult. They also want
"right-to-farm" legislation giving absolute rights to farmers for
example to prevent sale of minerals under the owned land, plan to expand live
exports, oppose cheap imports and review the Murray Darling Basin Plan to
recognise farmers' rights.
N Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Liberal Democrats are a libertarian party. This means
minimal government control on social issues (typically 'left') and economics
(typically 'right'). Their policy page divides policies into two streams
(liberty and prosperity) and 'our philosophy' identifies four headings of
principles, but first notes "The Liberal Democrats stand for greater
freedom, smaller government and personal responsibility." These are the
three headings used below.
Freedom
Freedom for the LDP includes legalisation of marijuana and
other drugs less harmful than tobacco; freedom of speech including defamation,
public indecency and intimidation; allowing gun ownership for self-defence, and
not requiring registration of long-arms or prohibiting semiautomatics; and
allowing assisted suicide and most abortions.
Small government
Policy positions include end-dates on legislation,
protection for whistle-blowers, bodies established to review government,
privatise immediately the NBN, ABC, SBS, Postal service, Electricity, Public
Transport, and eventually TAFEs, Universities, Public schools and hospitals.
Personal responsibility
The LDP would enable business owners to allow smoking in
their venues, non-late-term abortion, pornography, sex work, euthanasia, all
personal-use drugs and victimless crimes (including not wearing a seatbelt or
bike helmet, and BASE jumping).
O Australian Labor Party (ALP)
Labor's policy page is obviously comprehensive. So I didn't
look at that. I looked at their campaigns page, which allows you to search
specifically for two themes: education and health. To this I will add climate
change, as that has been a huge focus in the campaign.
Education
Labor will subsidise 700,000 preschool places,
"uncap" universities to provide funding for 200,000 more places, and
waive fees for 100,000 TAFE places including at least 50,000 female students,
20,000 students of disability and aged care and 10,000 students of early
education. They have also set the target of 3% of GDP to be spent on research
and development projects. Spending commitments also include $3.2 m to assist
rural students into tertiary education, $300 m for a University Future Fund and
an extra $14 b for public schools.
Health
One of Labor's earliest major commitments was around cancer
treatment: the party will spend $2.3 b on this, including $125 m in research,
$600 m to fund cancer scans and $433 m to cover consultation costs. Partially
overlapping with this Labor will invest $2.8 b in hospitals, $200 m in
headspace plus to combat mental health issues, develop a National Rural Health
Strategy and regulate drug and alcohol treatment.
Climate Change
The party's target is 50% renewable energy by 2030 and net
zero pollution by 2050. Specific programs include rebates to support 100,000
new solar/battery installations in homes, 10 community power hubs (including wind
farms) and $1 b in projects to support hydrogen power.
P Animal Justice Party (AJP)
Reasonably self-explanatory, and without much for me to add
since the party divides its policies into those for humans, animals and the
environment. Despite the breadth of policies, it's not inaccurate to describe
the AJP as a single-issue party, so their vote on non-animal-related issues is
unreliable.
Animals
"The AJP's proposed reforms for legislation relating to
animals is quite lengthy, but includes:
- Establishing an Independent Office of Animal Welfare with prosecution powers and “a definition of personhood to replace the current property status of animals”.
- Ensuring a “fairer” (presumably lower) burden of proof for prosecuting animal cruelty cases.
- Phasing out all animal farming and industries, but starting with factory farming techniques.
- Banning live export.
- Banning the use of stray animals in research.
- Phasing out funding the use of animals in experimentation, “except where there are net benefits to the animals concerned”.
- Banning horse jump racing, greyhound racing, recreational hunting, game fishing, rodeos and horse-drawn carriage rides.
- Banning the use of animals in circuses and marine theme parks.
- Banning zoos or transitioning them to sanctuaries and conservation parks “which exist solely in the service of animals”.
- Limiting breeding of animals to licensed breeders.
- Phasing out sale of pets except from shelters and rescues.
- Subsidising pet desexing.
- Making desexing a requirement for the sale of pets.
- Making it illegal to prevent pet ownership of tenants.
- Ensuring domestic violence shelters have facilities for animals.
- Supporting non-lethal population control methods for introduced species and threats to native wildlife."
Environment
The AJP supports
transitioning to a vegetarian lifestyle to minimise human impact on animals and
free up land for reforestation. They also support the use of recyclable and
upcycled materials, protect forests and marine habitats from destruction, and
the use of clean energy. The AJP argues that coal seam gas and other sources of
natural gas be reduced and phased out within 20 years, that fossil fuel usage
not increase, that a carbon tax be placed on coal use and agricultural
industries, and that Australia "rapidly transform to a carbon free energy
infrastructure"
Humans
Most of the human policies are health policies, and most of
the health policies are derived from perceived benefits of a vegetarian
lifestyle. They would promote this dietary shift through education, cutting
subsidies to the red and processed meat industries and a "phase out [of]
subsidies to intensive animal industries because they are both cruel and
provide a breeding ground for new diseases which pose large public health
risks". The AJP also advocates for an end to drug research for "diseases
best managed by simple lifestyle choices" and the overuse of antibiotics
which increase the rise of drug-resistant diseases. Other policies include
opposition to gun ownership (based on the use of firearms in pest control),
that domestic violence shelters include shelter for pets, and that work places
should allow animals to be present.
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