This was published 8 years ago
Election 2016: Fringe-dwellers vie for their place in the Senate
By Nick O'Malley and senior writer
The reawakening of the political fringe-dwellers these past few weeks has been impressive enough as to resemble a natural phenomenon.
The moment the federal election was called optimistic political minnows stirred across the country, not unlike those dormant desert fish that wriggle impossibly back into life when the rains come after arid years.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull might have called the election to clear out the Senate cross-benches, but in doing so he gave micro-party candidates a last chance at life, and they are fighting for it.
Some seek to free climate science from the grips of "so-called scientists", others want to see Muslim immigration suspended and Halal food banned. One mob, the Health Australia Party, fears water fluoridation and vaccination and wants to redirect health funding to alternative therapies.
The moment the election was called optimistic political minnows stirred across the country.Credit: John Shakespeare
Derryn Hinch wants to see "more jail, less bail" while Angry Anderson, running for the Australian Liberty Alliance, is down on abortion and "Islamification" but very supportive of the Australian flag and national anthem.
The reason the micro parties are so excited is that this is a double-dissolution election, meaning that all the Senate seats are up for grabs rather than half, as is usual. In turn this means candidates need only secure half as many votes to nail down a seat.
With a great deal of luck and some cunning preference deals, an outsider might have a chance by winning a little over 3 per cent of the vote rather than 7 per cent.
"It is the last shot in the locker for the minor parties," says Glenn Druery, the fixer who has made a living guiding many fringe candidates through the complexities of creating a party then trading preferences in the hope of slipping into Parliament.
Suddenly fringe views have an outside chance of being aired on the national stage.
"If I was the Health Australia Party I would be as extreme as possible," he says. "I'd be screaming about vaccination. The vast majority of people disagree with them, but they don't need the vast majority, they need 3 per cent."
The new laws passed by the government with the support of the Greens encourage voters to distribute their own preferences rather than leaving it up to parties to do so. This means voters are more likely to opt for names they know - Labor, Liberal, Greens or even Xenophon - rather than those they have never heard of.
One habitual candidate, this year vying for a NSW Senate seat, is Peter Breen, a former state upper house member who has served both Labor and the Liberal parties, the Bill of Rights Group, the Motoring Enthusiast Party, the Reform the Legal System Party and the Human Rights Party. This year he is running for the Renewable Energy Party, an outfit he formed having recycled the constitution of the Human Rights Party.
He notes that the law changes have forced Druery's so-called preference whispering from the living rooms of the micro parties into the foyers of the majors, because without getting on a major party's how-to-vote card, no one stands a chance.
Breen says that in days before the deadline to submit how-to-vote forms there was a queue of micro-party hopefuls waiting in the lobby at the Labor Party's Sussex Street headquarters in Sydney.
The Liberals and the Greens also held protracted negotiations with micro parties and their candidates. Breen says he was in talks with Michael Kroger, president of the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party, for a deal to back any future plan to dump the controversial 18c racial discrimination law in return for a place on the Liberal how-to-vote card. Breen agreed but the deal never eventuated.
Unlike some critics of a system that rewards fringe views through obscure preference deals, Breen argues it gives voice to actors who would otherwise not be heard.
In mainstream politics, lobbyists flush with industry cash simply buy access to power brokers. Micro-party politics, Breen argues, is the poor man's method of lobbying. The point is not just to get elected, he says, but to get access to the major players in the larger parties to make your case about issues that are otherwise not being discussed.
Despite the excitement prompted by the double-dissolution, despite the frenzy of deal-making and politicking, Druery - who has worked on and off with Breen for years - believes few micro candidates have any real chance of being elected.
A large cross-bench will be returned, he says, but it will be made up mostly of Greens and those few who already have a political toehold - people like Glenn Lazarus, Jacqui Lambie, a couple of members of Nick Xenophon's Team, perhaps a member of Family First, maybe David Leyonhjelm of the Liberal Democratic Party.
The rest will return to the political desert and, given the changes to the law, they are unlikely to see any rain for a long time.