New political party Flux says it wants to change Australia’s political system by focusing on policy

IT ALL sounds a bit ‘pie in the sky’. A political party that allows you, the voter, to vote on every decision it makes. How does it work?

Do we need a new system?

IT ALL sounds a bit pie in the sky.

A political party that allows you, the voter, to vote on every decision it makes.

A political party whose main aim is not to gain control but to turn the entire political system on its head to ensure sound policies and laws are implemented.

But don’t we already have a system like that?

“Like” is probably the key word according to Nathan Spataro, one half of Flux — a new political party which wants to “redesign democracy”.

Fed up with the current state of politics, Mr Spataro, and his fellow Bitcoin consultant, Max Kaye, decided they needed to “shake” things up in a bid to revolutionise Australian politics.

Realising their ideal for a system that ensures only good policies are developed needed to be floated in the minds of the general public before it could become a reality, they formed the Flux political party at the end of last year as a vehicle to get their message across.

Now Flux has more than 1000 members registered.

“At the moment we have representative democracy where we elect people and those people go to Canberra and form government,” Mr Spataro explained to news.com.au. “That government proposes legislation and others decide on it and it becomes law. We have used this system for hundreds of years and we (at Flux) really feel this system is outdated.”

SO WHAT IS FLUX AND HOW DOES IT DIFFER?

According to the party’s website, Flux is a “layer for the redistribution of political power”.

When a Flux candidate is elected they don’t decide on behalf of their members, the members decide through a vote which way their candidate should vote on an issue.

“Flux is still a mechanism for people to choose someone to represent them or choose someone to give their political power to as a citizen. But rather than having a narrow band of choices that are prescribed by two major parties you can choose anyone that is a citizen and is a part of Flux,” Mr Spataro explained. “We also anticipate that some organisations will become part of Flux.

“That way you will be able to give your vote to an organisation the same way you would vote for a party. But there will be a much more diverse range.

“What that translates to is more engaged voters, people who really want to understand where their vote is going and the significance of that. And better policy because we are going to empower people who know what they are talking about to produce policy and make a decision on policy as opposed to a parliament of generalists who go from one portfolio to the next and often have to defer to their own ministry to make policy decisions.

“We want to see that system replace representative democracy and really the party is just the vehicle to do that.”

SO HOW WILL FLUX BE ABLE TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO EMBRACE THIS NEW SYSTEM WHEN THERE IS A LOT OF PUBLIC APATHY?

“One of the things that I thought would drive Flux was apathy. Max and I both suspected that apathy would lead our demographic to be a younger generation who didn’t really care about politics and feel disenfranchised by it,” Mr Spataro said.

“What we found was not the case, They were so apathetic they didn’t engage at all.

“We do have a lot of young members but what we found a large proportion of our members are actually over the age of 55, some are over 65. I think this has a lot to do with the fact people don’t feel empowered.

“Often times the best motivation is autonomy, giving people some sort of power and independence. But if you look at our current system of governance there is no autonomy or independence. It’s like here are these two choices and maybe some other fringe choices that you are led to believe will have no impact anyway tick a box and wish for the best. That is not encouraging, that is not going to make people want to care about politics.

“I think where Flux is going to change that is that we recognise that there are people out there that really care or would like to care.

“It’s really going to shake things up. And it’s going to empower people to do it.”

Just when Flux will begin to have an effect is anyone’s guess but the party is hoping to run in the next election which could be held towards the end of this year.

One of the other differences with the Flux system is the way it wants to handle the current vote preference system.

Rather than give its preference votes to other parties, Flux has proposed a trading system between itself and the other parties.

Those that give their preferences to Flux will be given a certain level of control over an elected Flux senator. Those parties could then trade with each other to ensure they have influence over particular issue in parliament.

Mr Spataro also said Flux would make sure that if half of it members opposed an issue and the other half supported it, then it’s elected members would vote accordingly.

For example, if half of the party supported gay marriage and the other half didn’t and they had two elected members, one would vote for it, the other would vote against it.

Flux will also deal with any party regardless of its political views.

This included controversial parties that might have far-right or extreme socialist views.

“It’s absolutely open to all,” Mr Spataro said. “Democracy is democracy. I may not agree with your party but it’s not for us to disagree with your party. By the way we have organised it, every single party will get a position in Flux even the Liberal and Labor parties.”

Ultimately, Mr Spataro says Flux’s main goal is to change our current system to ensure sound policy is produced.

“We really do believe that it’s time for a change. We believe there are better ways to do it. We have the technology now to make things better and to effect some serious positive change. That’s really it.”