“Community Strong Australia” party launches. It’s the Senate, stupid!

Strong Community Australia may not be the strongest name and its logo may not be the most impressive, but Michael Pascoe He thinks CSA senators are on their way.

While all eyes are on One Hanson’s poll and the short-shift horse racing media are looking at the community independents movement in general, Zali Steggall and Allegra Spending have launched the non-party Community Strong Australia. It faces an uphill battle to achieve official minor party status, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

The traditional media’s antipathy towards “oranges” and the general conservatism of political coverage will make it difficult for the non-traditional party to gain greater coverage, but that’s not how independent communities have succeeded.

None of the eight current lower house independents — no, I’m not counting Bob Katter — take part in the traditional top-down political process.

Genuine community support for the concept of a quality candidate committed to core values ​​such as integrity, equality, climate and middle-of-the-road economics enabled word of mouth, donations and volunteers to be successful.

Hanson’s rise

While everyone is focused on the rise of Hanson and the decline of Labor and the LNP, the independents are quietly holding on to their thin ground. And that, if it could be delivered to the Senate, would be more than enough to gain a place at the policy bargaining table.

More importantly, the current election turmoil has sparked the possibility that the eight incumbents will hold the balance of power in the lower house. There’s still a long way to go until the next election, but the Hanson bombshell, Albanese’s fading fortunes and whatever the Coalition is doing means it’s likely to be a close result.

Turns out Albo isn’t very good at his job

Meanwhile last DemosAU survey For Capital Brief, it will be an example of the hidden power of independents. The headline was that One Hanson received 30% of the primary vote, to Labor’s 27% and the LNP just 18%.

The Greens received 13 per cent of the vote, while the often overlooked independents had 12 per cent.

Labor, LNP and Hanson primary votes have changed radically since last year’s election (Labour 35%, LNP 31, Hanson 6). Greens and independents not so much. The AEC recorded 12.2% Greens, 7.3% “Independent”, and various rats and mice again made up the same number.

It’s all about the Senate

As previously reported here, the power of non-community voters is under-measured because only a minority of seats have this option.

Only 35 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives had independent candidates from the community. Eight won, but 29 received double-digit primary votes; 22 of these were above 14%. Given semi-decent preference flows and candidates with more seats supporting the Senate ticket, these numbers are more than enough to win representation in the upper chamber.

And therein lies the biggest challenge, the hardest part, of winning in the Senate: sending volunteers to all the voting booths, let alone showing up in advance.

For the new Community Strong Australia brand to have a chance, it will need the support of independents who dare not join them.

Kate Chaney and Monique Ryan refused to be part of the CSA. They and the volunteers who support them can still support the CSA Senate ticket if they are serious about integrity, equity, climate and economic stewardship.

How could they not? Apart from a hung parliament, political influence in Australia rests in a Senate dominated by various party dignitaries, minors and vagabonds; Most of them are there out of loyalty not to their state communities but to the machines that provide them with primaries.

It would look suspiciously like a lack of integrity for Chaney and Ryan to wash their hands of Senate candidates of their kind.

It won’t be easy. The CSA will be persistently targeted by the two old major parties fighting on three fronts. Traditional media will continue to do what they have been doing, mainly to aid sniping. There are currently not enough volunteers from the community to fill out the electorate without independent lower house candidates.

But there is significant desire among voters for the chance to vote for quality candidates who prioritize the core values ​​of their communities.

Teal Senate ticket – why we can’t have nice things