By MICHAEL SLOVANOS
WHY, we ask, did long-time South Australian activist Mark Aldridge, form his own political party called United Voices Australia when he’s pursuing exactly the same issues as One Nation?
And why did the former senator Bob Day form a party called the Australian Family Party when Lyle Shelton is standing candidates under the Family First banner? It’s crazy, self-defeating and probably comes down to plain old ego-centric politics based on petty differences.
Shelton’s Family First, which aims to capture the national conservative evangelical Christian vote, will fracture One Nation’s national vote to a small degree, but Day’s fracturing of that same evangelical vote in South Australia is straight out stupidity.
Aldridge, meanwhile, brags that United Voice organised some of the largest rallies against mass migration in South Australia. “Now we see the highest levels in history,” he says on a social media post.
“Labor called us racists, yet I went against the grain and invited minorities to attend. No other parties joined us sadly, but we the people were united.”
Surely Aldridge knows that One Nation is campaigning on that very issue and has recently passed the Liberals in national polls and in South Australia? The recent Newspoll, for what its worth, shows SA Labor at 44%, One Nation 24%, Liberals 14%, Greens 12% and Others 6%.
Aldridge should also know that if One Nation can translate those figures into seats and the Liberals, Nationals and a few others hold on to seats, Labor and their suave, slick Premier Peter Malinauskas could face a hung parliament. Oh the pain and dread that would cause in Labor quarters across the country.
We fear that Aldridges’ United Voice Australia party is simply going to confuse and fracture the vote that would otherwise go to One Nation, which has been rated with a very good chance of winning seats off the Liberals, especially in regional areas.
Aldridge is well known in Adelaide due to his involvement in previous political campaigns and Farm Direct Markets and is contesting the Legislative Council (Upper House) along with a gaggle of other parties and various independents.
And then there’s Sarah Game, the former One Nation member in the Upper House, who resigned from the party and has gone “independent”, doing a preference swap with the left-leaning Stephen Pallaras Real Change SA.
The parties contesting the SA Upper House are: Stephen Pallaras Real Change SA, Sarah Game Fair Go for Australian, Australian Family Party, Family First, SA Best, Jing Lee Better Community, Legalise Cannabis Party, the Animal Justice Party, the Nationals, the Greens, the Liberals, Labor, One Nation, Independent O group, Independent P group and Independent Darren Phillips.
Good luck voters in working out who you’re going to cast your vote with in the South Australian Legislative Council. Joe Blow who knows nothing about politics and is voting because he has to will probably go for the “easy pick” group votes, and the Labor backroom boys will know how to exploit that to their maximum advantage – as they do in Victoria’s Upper House.
Legislative Council elections are decided by proportional representation. In that house, 11 of the 22 sitting members are up for election. To be elected, a candidate must receive a certain proportion of votes, known as a quota.
If a candidate gets a quota or more, they will be elected. If they do not meet this quota on first preference votes alone, they may get a quota from preferential votes distributed from the candidates with fewer first preference votes who are eliminated. This process continues until all vacant positions are filled.
Out of the 67 elected MPs in both houses of parliament, only 10 are independent or minor party – mostly in the Legislative Council.
The high profile Aldridge and even Bob Day would have made good candidates for One Nation, but instead chose to run with their own little political fiefdoms. It’s a pathetic state of affairs and has plagued the non-mainstream side of politics for decades.
