Unrolling the scroll of Senate candidates while voting prompts a lot of questions.
Who are all these people? What do they stand for? What is this piece of paper longer than any other piece of paper I’ve seen in my life?
I’ve tried to nail down what each party or bloc stands for — due to space and time constraints it’s a non-exhaustive list of their policies, but will give you an idea of their main platforms.
In order for your Senate vote to be valid, you need to fill out either six or more boxes above the line OR 12 or more boxes below the line.
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A: Reason Party — Yolanda Vega and Harry Millward
The Reason Party, who have a current MP in the Victorian upper house, support trialling a four-day working week, placing a spending cap on election campaigns and publicly funding election spending by parties, as well as curbing emissions, legalising cannabis and decriminalising all drugs.
B: Damien Richardson and John McBride
The independents on the B ticket are fighting against what they say is a quest to remove cash from Australia. Mr Richardson’s website says he is anti-vaccine, anti-mandate, anti-mask and pro-freedom and wants to “drain the billabong”, as well as making all advice given to the government during the pandemic public.
C: Australian Democrats — Leonie Green and Stephen Jagoe
The Democrats were one of the first environmental parties and have fought for human rights and against the detention of refugees in their decades-long history. The environment forms a large part of their centrist platform in 2022, by committing to reducing rubbish and emissions, improving health outcomes for all Australians, particularly First Nations Australians, and adding dental to Medicare.
D: Liberal/The Nationals — Sarah Henderson, Bridget McKenzie, Greg Mirabella, Chrestyna Kmetj, Mick Harrington and David Burgess
The Liberal/National ticket, with Mick Harrington running as a local candidate, launched its campaign last week and is looking to return to power. You’ve probably got a rough idea what they stand for, and their major policies this election are allowing Australians to dip into their super to buy a home, and tax relief over the next four years.
E: Legalise Cannabis Australia — Elissa Smith and Wayne Taylor
Legalise Cannabis Australia are a single-issue party wanting to, believe it or not, legalise cannabis. They want to legalise the drug so it is treated like alcohol and tobacco, expand medicinal cannabis, remove it from the criminal justice system and encourage people to grow hemp. They don’t list positions on any other issues.
F: Sustainable Australia Party — Stop Overdevelopment / Corruption — Madeleine Wearne and Robert Long
The Sustainable Australia Party says it believes in a science- and evidence-based approach to policy — not a left or right wing ideology. It wants to protect the environment with a national biodiversity and native species program, develop a federal ICAC, make political lobbying and donations more transparent and change how we measure progress and growth.
G: Australian Values Party — Chris Burson and Samantha Asser
The Australian Values Party says it aims to bring balance to the centre of Australian politics, and wants to establish a constituent assembly and a national digital survey system to maximise citizen engagement in reform, as well as review the relationship between state and federal governments. It also wants to completely restructure the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and create a National Guard-style organisation and greater certification requirements for media organisations.
H: Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party — Derryn Hinch and Ruth Stanfield
The Justice Party is campaigning on many of the same points it did last time — a stronger judicial system, legal reform to family courts, creating an independent panel with the power to sack judges and a public register of convicted sex offenders.
I: Animal Justice Party — Bronwyn Currie and Chris Delforce
The Animal Justice Party wants to give a political voice to animals and pursue animal protection. It wants tougher laws for animal abusers and a new legal status for animals, as well as banning of 1080 poison. It also wants to ban scientific experiments on animals and transition away from aquaculture.
J: Australian Progressives — Antoinette Pitt and David Knight
The Australian Progressives want to end poverty and homeless, raise the tax-free threshold and phase out stamp duty for a land value tax, as well as implement a federal ICAC, reduce emissions and return to an emissions trading scheme, and increase teachers’ pay.
K: Australian Labor Party — Linda White, Jane Stewart, Casey Nunn, Megan Bridger-Darling and Josh McFarlane
Similarly to the Liberals, you’re probably relatively across what Labor stands for. Labor’s major policies at this election include free TAFE, strengthening Medicare, making childcare cheaper and closing the gender pay gap.
L: United Australia Party — Ralph Babet, Kelly Moran and Kenneth Grimmond
The United Australia Party has made a big hullabaloo about freedom on the election campaign — freedom of speech, of religion, freedom from fear and freedom from vaccine mandates. They’re also promising a maximum three per cent interest on home loans and a 15 per cent iron ore tax to tackle national debt.
M: Socialist Alliance — Felix Dance and Angela Carr
The Socialist Alliance wants to turn away from capitalism and believes the billionaire class controls government and media. It wants to nationalise mines, banks and energy companies under worker controls, tax corporations and introduce a 70 per cent tax bracket for people earning more than $200,000, and scrap the GST. It also wants to shift to 100 per cent renewables in five to 10 years and extend the right to vote to 16-year-olds.
N: Australian Federation Party — Vern Hughes, Karen Kim, Cheryl Lacey, Chris Mara, Neerja Sewak and Mark O’Connell
The Australian Federation Party wants to break up the concentration of market power in the big four banks, the big three utilities, the two supermarket giants and News Corp and make superannuation voluntary. It also stands for stripping local government of its obligation to deliver services, it wants a 15 per cent corporate tax rate and is heavily backing Christian values.
O: Shooters, Fishers and Farmers — Ethan Costantinou and Nicole Bourman
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers believe regional communities have been hurt most by the duopoly of Labor and the Coalition, and want to form a register of foreign-owned land to increase transparency and integrity. They want to introduce right-to-farm legislation giving farmers absolute property rights and extend recreation fishing opportunities. The party also opposes a national firearms registry, wants to review the 1996 COAG agreement on guns and expand self-defence rights and an increased live-export trade.
P: Pauline Hanson’s One Nation — Warren Pickering and Stuart Huxham
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is running on similar themes it’s founder has campaigned on for two decades. The party wants to extend net zero immigration, reduce refugee intakes and opposes vaccine mandates, and will also push for a royal commission into the management of the pandemic. One Nation also wants Australia to withdraw from the UN, and the Paris climate agreement.
Q: Citizen’s Party — Robbie Barwick and Craig Isherwood
The Citizen’s Party is a party fixated on reviving national banking and reversing Hawke and Keating-era privatisation. It wants to establish a commonwealth postal savings bank using post offices and establish a national infrastructure bank which local, state and federal governments can borrow from. The party also supports the Bradfield water diversion scheme in North Queensland, high-speed rail between state capitals and a “iron boomerang” railway between Queensland and WA.
R: Morgan C Jonas and Monica Smit
The independent R bloc is running on a platform of stripping back the size and scope of government involvement in business. The R bloc wants to lift mandates, slash taxes, allow the public to initiate impeachment proceedings against any elected member of parliament, implement a Bill of Rights, loosen gun laws, and fine social media companies that censor free speech.
S: Fusion: Science, Pirate, Secular, Climate Emergency — Kammy Cordner-Hunt and Tahlia Farrant
The Fusion Party is a merger of the Science Party, Pirate Party, Secular Party, Vote Planet and Climate Change Justice Party, and wants to fight corruption, economic inequality and recognise the climate emergency. It wants a $500-a-week universal basic income, a reduction of emissions to zero and to bring down existing greenhouse gas levels, and wants to produce 800 per cent of the country’s energy needs from renewables, leading to electricity exports.
T: Susan Benedyka and Christine Richards
The independent T block, led by Susan Benedyka, will support the climate change act proposed by Helen Haines and Zali Steggall and wants to develop a federal integrity commission. The bloc also supports the Uluru Statement from the Heart and wants to overhaul Centrelink and the NDIS.
U: The Greens — Lidia Thorpe, Adam Frogley, Sissy Austin and Zeb Payne
Most voters will also be familiar with the Greens, who want 100 per cent of Australia’s power provided by renewables, dental and mental healthcare covered by medicare, Treaty with Australia’s First Nations peoples, student debt wiped and free university and TAFE.
V: The Great Australian Party — Darryl O’Bryan and Geoff Whitehead
The Great Australia Party was founded by former One Nation senator Rod Culleton and wants to end personal tax and remove local councils, net zero immigration and end forced medication such as vaccines, fluoridated water and involuntary mental health care, and calls for mandatory jail for violent crimes. It also links to conspiracy videos about the ‘New World Order’ on its website.
W: Liberal Democrats — David Limbrick, Krystle Mitchell and Caroline White
The Liberal Democrats are a libertarian party that wants less government regulation. They’re running on a freedom manifesto and want to cut 10 per cent from all federal departments aside from defence, defund the ABC and SBS, abolish subsidies for renewables, abolish middle class welfare and tackle privacy online, as well as slashing taxes.
X: Informed Medical Options Party — Nick Clonaridis and Robyn Curnow
Informed Medical Options Party is campaigning for people’s right to refuse or choose medical products and vaccines, as well as pausing 5G rollouts, legalising medicinal cannabis, promoting alternative medical therapies and removing fluoride from drinking water.
Y: Peter Byrne and Jason Wardle
These two are running as independents after being unable to register under the Socialist Equality Party due to not meeting the cut-off. They are socialists cut from old cloth but have similar policies to the two other socialist parties running in Victoria — free education, raises to wages and pensions, and also want to pursue COVID-zero.
Z: Victorian Socialists — Aran Mylvaganam and Laura Riccardi
The Victorian Socialists are running on a similar platform to the Socialist Alliance, with similar anti-capitalism rhetoric, and also want to scrap the GST and increase taxes on the rich to lift welfare to $1500 a fortnight. They also want a long-term COVID elimination strategy.
Ungrouped: Glenn Floyd, Allen Ridgeway, James Bond, Neal Smith, Max Dicks, Bernadine Aktinson, Paul Ross, Nat De Francesco, Joseph Toscano, Tara Tran, David John Dillon and Geraldine Marie Antoinette Gonsalvez.
The ungrouped Senate candidates are all running as independents and cover a broad range of issues.