Whatever your political leanings, as of the 1st July, there will be no more Australian Democrat Senators in the Australian parliament. The Senate elections from the November 2007 Federal Election will take effect, which means a complete changing of the guard in the Senate chamber.For those of you unfamiliar with this particular political party, it has changed the Australian political landscape since its foundation.
Australia is a two party political system, by and large; The Australian Labor Party and The Liberal Party of Australia. These two parties have had terriers at their ankles, namely the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), which split from the Labor Party in 1955 over communism. However, no political party has had such a profound impact on the way in which Australians have thought politically, and the direction of those thoughts.
Don Chipp, the party’s founder, began the party back in 1977. The basis of this party, and its motto was ‘to keep the bastards honest.’ Chipp believed that the other two political parties had been sitting in parliament without proper challenge for too many years. The DLP was a party that was driven by its hard line Catholic base, so even though it maintained the balance of power in the Senate, its decisions were always ruled by its faith, which was not a good thing. The Democrats, however, scrutinized legislation instigated by either left wing or right wing parties and both sides of the political ditch needed to provide good sound legislation first and foremost, otherwise it was sent to the graveyard of dead bills.
Even if one did not vote for the Democrats, the talk at election time always involved them. For myself, I valued the Democrats presence, and voted for them in the Senate. I did this, as I have never, and will never, give one party control of both houses of Parliament. The Democrats were, to me, a centralist party, and therefore, I trusted them to look at legislation on merit, and pass it or vote it down accordingly. Without them on the scene, I will be definitely looking for a party that can give me the same satisfaction. The Greens may get my vote, but they would need to broaden their political vision more than just green issues for me to give them the same respect I gave the Democrats.
So to say they meant nothing is simply not accurate. As former Senator Andrew Bartlett said today:
“The Australian Democrats have been the most successful third party in Australian politics, which is a two party system. We’ve done it better than anyone else. It’s very sad and very historic to be there at the end.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/25/2285936.htm
So what went wrong? Why are they no more? This party was very successful for many years, but it was this particular event that sounded the death nell.
Internal conflict over the government’s proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST), during the 1998 federal election and in Parliament in 1999 was extremely damaging to the Democrats. Meg Lees (then Parliamentary leader) campaigned on a modified GST platform, opposing the GST on food and books. After negotiations with Prime Minister Howard, Meg Lees and Andrew Murray (both part of the centrist element within the Democrats) agreed to support the GST legislation with exemptions for most food and some medicines. Many left-wing Democrat voters and a large number of party members regarded this as a betrayal, and two senators on the party’s left, Natasha Stott Despoja and Andrew Bartlett, voted against the GST.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Democrats
All it took was one moment in time, albeit a very contentious moment in time, and the party collectively signed their death warrants. All that they stood for they kissed goodbye, and the house of cards that they had built was falling down. Their credibility as a party that was keeping the other parties honest was unable to hold water anymore. They sided with the government of the day, and helped bring in a major and some would argue damaging, piece of taxation legislation with very few changes. They caved, and the government of the day got what they wanted with very little sacrifice on their part.
So it is truly an end of an era. Where the Democrats will go from here is anyone’s guess. Maybe they were a party that was meant to be, and meant to heighten our political consciousness, at this moment in time. If nothing else, they have at least made us think a little longer before we put that cross on the ballot paper.
Enjoy your day…and to my sister, who has always kept me honest, a very Happy Birthday!
