WikiLeaks to run in Vic, NSW and WA

15

julian-assange

blog Thought you wouldn’t be able to vote for Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks political party because you don’t live in Victoria? Worry not. Come the September Federal Election, voters in NSW and Western Australia will also be able to back the transparency horse, according to an extensive press conference the party’s Victorian headquarters held over the weekend. A decent account of proceedings comes from this article published by Agence France-Presse on Google. A sample paragraph:

“Whistleblowing group WikiLeaks unveiled plans Saturday to field candidates in at least three states in Australia’s elections and said it would be “embarrassing” if Julian Assange won but could not take his seat … The WikiLeaks Party said more than 500 people had already signed up as members”

Given that ABC election analyst Antony Green (who we tend to trust on these matters) continues to publicly state that he believes Assange has “no chance” of winning a Senate seat in Victoria, we suspect Assange is going to be out of luck come September. What your writer is personally more interested in is whether the WikiLeaks Party can survive a first election failure and continue to build momentum in Australia as a legitimate political movement. Similar movements such as the Pirate Party, which have been around for a lot longer, have struggled in Australia. Doubtless the WikiLeaks Party is only riding high right now in national interest because of Assange’s fraught personal circumstances. It will be fascinating to see how long it can stick around.

Image credit: Snapperjack, Creative Commons

15 COMMENTS

  1. I respect Antony on most things, but suspect he is going a long way out on a limb by his standards.

    Preference deals depend on a number of things, in particular, how hostilities shape up in Victoria between the Greens and the ALP. In the by-election for melbourne last year the ALP was particularly hostile towards the Greens (and coped a backlash from its members). If the Greens bear a grudge they may well seek to do a deal with Wikileaks to slow the preference flow to ALP.

    On the other hand, given the Authoritarian nature of the major parties, they will likely preference greens ahead of Wikileaks, so the greens dont have to be too defensive to wikileaks.

    It will all come down to margins, and if Antony can thinks he can predect that (things like DLP winning with 1.9%) then he has lost the plot.

    • +1

      Given the fact that Assange will likely get quite a large primary vote based on his own personal brand and the fact that Australians ‘want him home’ and not extradited to the US, I think Antony Green is underestimating the potential for Assange here.

  2. What is needed in Australia is a broad libertarian centrist party that doesn’t give itself a stupid name.
    A party that supports:
    – workers rights like the socialist parties do.
    – environmentalism like the Greens do.
    – sexual liberation like the Sex Party does.
    – digital freedom like the Pirate party does.
    – government transparency like the Wikileaks party does.
    – and end to the drug war and the legalisation of cannabis like most of the above parties do.
    – Understands business and economics and can take a practical route on these issues.
    AND HAS A SENSIBLE NAME

      • In saying that, it didn’t stop me from becoming a member of the WikiLeaks party :-P

    • The “Pirate Party” isn’t a sensible name?

      My question could go along for the other parties too, but the newer party names do try to reflect to a decent degree of what ideologies they represent. There is perhaps 1 party whose name doesn’t (Dirty Wolves Party).

      The big problem with the Wikileaks Party is that they are still yet to publicly display their policies/platform. Information that HAS been witnessed so far is for the most part too narrow and limited.

    • I would accept a sort of alliance of all of those parties, in fact I think this would be preferable to one dominant party. Perhaps they need a sensible name for their alliance.

  3. I wish they would field a candidate in Queensland – give us someone sensible to vote for to “keep the bastards honest” if that is possible. I think the senate should not be a house of party politics but all independents

  4. Pity they are not putting forward someone in Queensland as they would surely get my vote!

  5. Transparency! Unless you’re accused of a crime. Then you can hide in an embassy until it goes away.

    • Except he hasnĀ“t been accused of a crime, they want to extradite him for re-questioning not to lay charges.

      Also, he had already turned himself into the Police when he first heard they wanted to question him, and after questioning him, they released him without charge, only deciding they had more questions once the Police became aware he was a person of interest to the USA Government. He has always maintained that he will answer any FURTHER questions the Police may have of him, but for some mysterious reason the Police seem more interested in extradition than obtaining even one single answer to their precious questions.

      Comments like yours make me wish even more that they were fielding a candidate in SA.

Comments are closed.