Blatantly Partisan Party Review XXVII (federal 2022): The Great Australian Party
Running where: six of eight states and territories—not ACT or TAS
Prior reviews: federal 20l9
What I said before: “Much of this party’s policy delves into conspiracy theory territory, with wilful misrepresentations and bizarre interpretations of the law, constitution, and political history … Steer far, far away from this party.”
What I think this year: The Great Australian Party (GAP) is a brainworm colony in party form. If you’ve been wondering who the biggest cookers are on the ballot, wonder no more. This is it. Not the AusFeds. Not the “Informed” Medical Options. Not the United Australia Party, review forthcoming. Not, amazingly, even the Australian Citizens Party. This is as bad as it gets.
GAP is led by “Senator in exile” Rodney Culleton. One of his latest endeavours is to write a scarcely-coherent letter to the governor-general suggesting the office of governor-general is vacant because covid vaccines were mandated. It’s incredibly deranged stuff that makes no sense, but might impress a few people who are gullible to the laziest pseudo-legalese.
Anyway, GAP were anti-vax before covid. They were sovereign citizens before covid. Sovereign citizens, put simply, believe the law does not apply to them, and if they recite magical phrases and use special punctuation then cops and courts and the tax office will simply vanish in a puff of smoke. I would call it the ideology of selfish toddlers, but that would be mean to all the selfish toddlers out there. I could recount their policy platform in detail, but why? It's just one example after another of how this is the most unhinged party on the ballot.
Here's how daft this party is. They have a “how to vote?” page, and the question mark is telling. They display a ballot listing GAP first, “Informed” Medical Options second, AusFeds third, and then 4–7 for something mysterious called CADCO (more on that below), before “put the majors list” being labelled misleadingly above the ungrouped independents. Now, no Senate ballot looks like the ballot they show, but the page has a QR code. So, from sheer curiosity, I decided to see what the QR code led me to—perhaps a page that shows their HTV for my state? I held my phone to my laptop, clicked on the QR code… and it loaded the exact page I was already on.
Great stuff, geniuses.
Anyway, CADCO is Commonwealth of Australia Democractic Co-Operative. It comprises… GAP, IMOP, and the AusFeds, who the GAP how-to-vote already suggests you place 1–3. I’m not sure what other CADCO parties they’re imagining you rank 4–7 as per their how-to-vote.
Obviously, this is the party for the dumbest people.
My recommendation: Give the Great Australian Party a weak or no preference.
Website: https://www.greataustralianparty.com.au/
