|
They thought we were gone. They called us a "footnote in political history". But this election, we're back. And we're keeping the bastards honest. Goons, I'd like to introduce a new contender for the NSW Upper House for 2015:  Rendall Wagner, from Point Clare on the Central Coast, has signed up for an Upper House ticket along with a dozen other Australian Democrats candidates around the state. The NSW Australian Democrats are firmly behind putting a total kybosh on coal seam gas (exploration as well as fracking), keeping the Libs from starving TAFE of its funding, supporting the growth and development of manufacturing and hi-tech industry, improvement and further development of passenger rail and making the most out of the NBN. In particular, Rendall wants to see more telecommuting, teleconferencing and other work from home initiatives in places like Gosford and Wyong. Some background for those not familiar with the Dems (especially foreign goons): Founded in 1977, the Australian Democrats are a nominally centrist (but noticeably left-wing in practice) party devoted to government transparency and accountability (as expressed by the rather colourful slogan "Keep The Bastards Honest"), the absence of corporate or other vested interests in politics, economic justice, social justice and human rights. (Basically, we're the polar opposite of the LNP and ALP, but not as far left as the Greens.) In 1986, Janine Haines took the helm of the Dems to become the first woman in Australia to lead a political party. Ten years later, things fell apart when Meg "the gays are ruining the party" Lees failed to hold John Howard accountable for introducing tax reforms he said weren't going to happen. The Goods and Services Tax passed the Senate, the Dems as a whole were blamed and despite maintaining a Senate presence right up until 2008, the party's reputation was permanently stained. In 2012, a near-bankrupt money hungry shitstain by the name of John Davey set up his own faction with the intent of taking over control of the party completely, aided and abetted by the then-president of the NSW state division and some other muckety-mucks in the National Executive (ironically, this all happened shortly after I joined the party). Calling themselves 'RebootD' and claiming their aim was to give the Dems a fresh start, Davey and company laid waste to the party's organizational structure and finances EVE-style, including looting $22,000 from the national bank account and hijacking all the web domains, engaging in some truly bizarre correspondence with the Australian Electoral Commission that nearly cost the party's national registration, seizing control of the official social media accounts and using them to slander and bully the living crap out of anyone who questioned their actions, and holding their own separate national executive meetings where they pretended that the Democrats' national president, Darren Churchill, had resigned. After a concerted effort involving the real NE and the AEC, RebootD was given the flick, but three years later we're still picking up the pieces. Needless to say, it cost us the ability to field candidates for the 2013 federal election. Fortunately, we've been able to restore the party's functionality enough to get Rendall Wagner and friends on this year's Legislative Council ticket, and hopefully something can be put together for next year's federal election.
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2015 13:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 13, 2024 06:26 |
|
|
MiniSune posted:Anecdote: With the advent of steam my piracy of games has dropped to zero. And I've been doing it since the TRS-80. Sounds like an effective business model to me. starkebn posted:I always voted Democrats when they were an available option. Thought they had imploded for good. Good to see you guys are trying to get them back into service! With a bit of luck, we'll be an available option more often from now on.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2015 14:01
|
|
|
Gough Suppressant posted:How do you expect people to take you seriously with your claim of "keeping the bastards honest", when you are the bastards who assisted in passing the GST, and were found to have dishonestly inflated your party membership resulting in deregistration by the AEC? 1. What makes you think the whole party was OK with the GST? 2. That was One Nation. Totally different bunch of bastards.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2015 15:05
|
|
|
Gough Suppressant posted:1)It is in the minds of most people the single most defining act of the Australian Democrats. You can't try to resurrect the name of a party and trade on don chipp's catchphrases for some easy notoriety without also being linked to that. The same 'most people' that many in this thread have painted as abysmally stupid, terribly ill-informed, or both. The same 'most people' who voted 'for Abbott', thus creating the mess we have now. The same 'most people' who forgot all about WorkChoices because they were distracted by the slow implosion of the federal ALP. Based on that, do you think 'most people' really remember or care about ONE loving SENATOR brown-nosing up to Howard 20 years ago? Sure, marginally smarter folk like yourself can point at us and loudly bray "I REMEMBER WHAT YOU DID LAST CYCLE" because you're so completely secure in the knowledge that our one fuckup somehow disqualifies all future AD members and senators from ever doing anything useful again. quote:Nope, the party claimed it had well above the threshold for registration, the AEC reckoned you were lying and what do you know, turns out you were. Citation needed. quote:If you are claiming this incarnation to be a fresh face and has no institutional memory of those things then it sure as gently caress has no connection to any of the far more distant virtues you're laying claim to. I never said that. It's the same party, but with fresh faces making fresh policies. If you want a Dems MP or Senator to wind back Howard's GST, there's no reason why we wouldn't at least consider it. thatfatkid posted:ScreamingLlama please address this i'm genuinely interested, as right now when i think of the Dems i picture a socially-liberal Liberal party and the GST. Hard for me to say, given that I've never protest voted. If you're going to vote, vote mindfully instead of just giving Joe Candidate the political equivalent of a pity gently caress. If you're determined to hate the Demmies because of something that happened when I was ten, not much I can do about it.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2015 02:32
|
|
|
Murodese posted:I think if you're starting a political party with new faces/ideas, taking on the reputation of an older defunct party causes as many problems as it solves. Sure, there'll be a chunk of the population that'll be like "oh those old chaps, I'll vote for them because they were familiar when I was a lad" and get you over the "who the gently caress is this" hump, but you're also going to dissuade a chunk of the population that are still annoyed at said party for their past deeds. No amount of cajoling is going to convince them otherwise, either. We're not starting another political party, we're reviving an existing one. The Dems were never deregistered in the first place; we've still been around, just lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right time to make a comeback. 2013 would have been that time had RebootD not been a thing. Obviously some people are still sore over the GST, but as I said before, it can always be repealed. From the looks of this thread, there are some people who still like the Dems and would quite like the opportunity to vote for us again.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2015 06:33
|
|
|
Murodese posted:Since you're probably aware of what happened: can you explain what the deal was with the two? democrat parties during the last election? I remember hearing that somebody had hijacked the party in one of the states or something? ScreamingLlama posted:In 2012, a near-bankrupt money hungry shitstain by the name of John Davey set up his own faction with the intent of taking over control of the party completely, aided and abetted by the then-president of the NSW state division and some other muckety-mucks in the National Executive (ironically, this all happened shortly after I joined the party). Calling themselves 'RebootD' and claiming their aim was to give the Dems a fresh start, Davey and company laid waste to the party's organizational structure and finances EVE-style, including looting $22,000 from the national bank account and hijacking all the web domains, engaging in some truly bizarre correspondence with the Australian Electoral Commission that nearly cost the party's national registration, seizing control of the official social media accounts and using them to slander and bully the living crap out of anyone who questioned their actions, and holding their own separate national executive meetings where they pretended that the Democrats' national president, Darren Churchill, had resigned. After a concerted effort involving the real NE and the AEC, RebootD was given the flick, but three years later we're still picking up the pieces. Needless to say, it cost us the ability to field candidates for the 2013 federal election.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2015 07:43
|
|
|
Chicken Parmigiana posted:Would Chipp noice Here you go: Objectives Policies GrandTheftAutism fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Mar 18, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2015 19:07
|
|
|
Kommando posted:How about : Tony does dumb poo poo, looks bad, calls double dissolusion, steps down. Better?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2015 04:31
|
|
|
Endman posted:The funniest part is that we actually need to have a discussion on why it's just not cricket to criticise a woman for her appearance. She's greedy and gluttonous, hence the fat joke.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2015 06:27
|
|
|
Endman posted:Yeah, sure. That's the reason. No way that could be interpreted as a slight against her appearance. No, sir. If I wanted to slight her appearance, I'd call her a ugly, prune-faced scraggly-haired hag and ask how many muumuus she has in her wardrobe. But no, she's Gina the Hutt because I'm using fatness as a metaphor for greed.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2015 06:34
|
|
|
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2015 06:39
|
|
|
hiddenmovement posted:I would be ok with using enormous girth as a metaphor for greed and gluttony (because in historical terms, being fat was directly corrolated with being a huge fatty fat fat) but no one wants to make fun of the fact Clive has 15 chins with me so I guess it gets reduced to regrettable sexist commentary He's got more chins than a Chinese telephone directory. No?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2015 06:50
|
|
|
Karl Stefanovic does something entertaining, pigs take to skies
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2015 22:31
|
|
|
Graic Gabtar posted:Well you seem completely wrapped up in emotion and drama so I'll just stick to the policy and rule of law. 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2015 12:13
|
|
|
Whatever you say, Herr Doktor Mengele. 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 20, 2015 12:32
|
|
|
Lid posted:A MOTHER used her one-year-old baby as a weapon during a shocking street fight in Alice Springs. are you loving kidding me this is why people should require a license to breed
|
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2015 02:38
|
|
|
Birdstrike posted:SOCIAL ENGINEERING SHOCKER: Do you write for The Australian?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2015 04:46
|
|
|
bowmore posted:I disagree Looking For Alibrandi, Dirty Deeds, Iron Sky (Finnish/German/Australian endeavour), the Crocodile Dundee franchise, The Castle, The Dish, Happy Feet, Kenny, Moulin Rouge, The Rage in Placid Lake... what do you mean Australian cinema is a cultural wasteland
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2015 12:13
|
|
|
bowmore posted:hold up The NY scenes were filmed in Hamburg and a good portion of the cast was German. Zenithe posted:Are you seriously using Iron Sky as evidence that Australia is not a cultural wasteland? Present an argument to the contrary that doesn't involve "I thought it was a lovely movie about Space Nazis"
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2015 12:20
|
|
|
Zenithe posted:Why can't I use valid criticisms? Some people like the film and you're invalidating their personal experience.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2015 12:23
|
|
|
Zenithe posted:I thought it was poo poo. Why are you invalidating my personal experience? I'm not, just saying you need to find another argument because the one you intend to use is too subjective.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2015 12:27
|
|
|
Who wants MORE privatisation?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2015 01:19
|
|
|
Nam Taf posted:Online voting fucks up yet again I knew it was a terrible idea the moment I heard about it. I'm voting the old-fashioned way.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2015 11:31
|
|
|
I just got my Dems polling package today from Rendall Wagner: a bulk pack of how-to-vote cards, a couple of t-shirts and some bumper stickers. Fuckin' A, I'm ready to go.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2015 10:27
|
|
|
Goodpart posted:My favourite part is gonna be when you open the package up, review the Dems' policies and realise you're campaigning for a cut-price Greens derivative Bullshit. Just because we share some policies with the Greens, doesn't mean we're some kind of knockoff. Besides, Dems are actually older than the Greens.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2015 10:52
|
|
|
white mans burping posted:pretty much this whole thread mate I turn 30 this year, definitely not considered a Baby Democrat though - Young Dems is for the 18ish set getting their first real taste of politics. I did some how-to-vote-ing yesterday and my back and ankles are making me pay for it, let me tell you.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2015 02:09
|
|
|
The federal election is going to be interesting, to say the least. People might actually have to reconsider two-party thinking.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2015 13:11
|
|
|
What about spoofing your IP address?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2015 16:02
|
|
|
Just taking a break atm, been HTVing since polls opened. Some CDP twat showed up, set up a card table and one sign, then vanished. How's that for effort? edit: yes I voted before I started electioneering
|
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2015 02:41
|
|
|
Brayds2006 posted:Of course my old electorate is the only place to gain in the Nationals vote. God drat Tamworth, how do you even exist? Nats had the biggest campaign. ESPECIALLY Kevin Anderson.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2015 13:36
|
|
|
Birb Katter posted:Paging ScreamingLlama Thanks, I'll look into this and let you know what's going on. (I have a nagging suspicion that this could be the ghost of 2012...)
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2015 04:15
|
|
|
thatfatkid posted:Your party is dead. Move on. It ain't over until the
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2015 04:25
|
|
|
OK, I texted the Dems National President and got a reply fairly quickly (quoted sic erat scriptum):Darren Churchill posted:Don't panic. It's same as three years ago. We have to resubmit list of 550 members, as some didn't verify. That's why we sent that yellow form last year. Not all members updated or confirmed their details. It's fine we just have a second hoop to jump through after a minor hiccup at the first one. It will be fine. So really what Birb Katter posted was a "Dems need to verify they have the numbers so they can stay in the game" sort of thing, though the AEC could have worded it a bit less ominously. Truth be told, we're in no more danger of being deregistered now than we were three years ago when RebootD tried to gently caress up our registration so they could reregister the party as theirs.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2015 04:51
|
|
|
we already did you dumb gently caress
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2015 05:11
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 13, 2024 06:26 |
|
|
I hear Canada is pretty nice. CPSU greenlights hour-a-day strike, poo poo gets real
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2015 05:39
|
|