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Are the Democrats dying or is it just a flesh wound?

Tory Shepherd

by Tory Shepherd

07 Mar 11:30am

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Filed under: Australian Democrats, Australian Politics, Democrats, Monty Python, Political Parties, Politics

76 comments

Political parties with more than 500 members include the Australian Sex Party, the HEMP Party, the Shooters and Fishers Party, and the Communists.


Family First could probably muster 500 members from a single mega-church.

But the Australian Democrats, once the third force in Australian politics, are being threatened with deregistration because the Australian Electoral Commission says its national membership has fallen below the 500 threshold.

How does this happen? How did they go from having the popular Don Chipp with his catchy ‘keep the bastards honest’ refrain, to having the balance of power in the Senate, to reaching what Bob Hawke called their “death throes” in 2006, to being threatened with deregistration?

The obvious answer is the GST and internal politics – former national leader Meg Lees said the community “lost confidence” in the party. Many have probably switched allegiance to the Greens.

But to drop below the 500 threshold is still a staggering tumble.

Despite the haemorrhaging of votes and the woeful membership figures, they’re still threatening to bite off the legs of the major parties.

Their website proudly declares it’s “time to bring back the Democrats”. National President Darren Churchill told The Australian a couple of weeks ago that people are getting in touch and telling them they want the Democrats to make a comeback – he said Labor’s internal divisions had put them back in the picture.

He also says the party’s membership is “well over 500” (the AEC says they provided a list of 550 but they are not satisfied with it) and the quibble over numbers is “just a formality”.

At the 2010 election they got just 0.63 per cent of first preferences in the Senate.

“We will be working to again get the voice of reason back into Parliament,” Mr Churchill said.

South Australian Democrat Sandra Kanck said: “We are not dead yet.”

So what are they going to do, bleed on them?

Is there anything they could do, Punchers, to get you back on board? Or were you never there in the first place?

Most commented

76 comments

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    • Erick says:

      11:19am | 07/03/12

      I used to be a huge supporter of the Democrats. But their gradual descent into political correctness, feminism and identity politics eventually alienated me.

      There’s simply nothing in that part to appeal to men, heterosexuals, Angl-Australians or white people any more.

      Reply

    • SimonFromLakemba says:

      12:25pm | 07/03/12

      Not sure what you are advocating?

      Sounds like what you want is the KKK

    • Tony of Poorakistan says:

      12:44pm | 07/03/12

      I agree Erick.

      They just slotted neatly into the gap between the ALP and the Greens and have now been assimilated. They should save themselves the registration fee.

    • Erick says:

      01:59pm | 07/03/12

      @Simon From Lakemba - “Not sure what you are advocating?”

      I’m advocating equal rights under the law and non-discrimination for everyone, not just a few politically correct groups.;

      “Sounds like what you want is the KKK”

      Sounds like your ears need a checkup.

    • Nick says:

      03:05pm | 07/03/12

      I agree with the first bit of Erick’s comment, but not the second.  I’m a white male anglo-Australian heterosexual and I think the loss of the Democrats is a tragedy.  They were trying to be a responsible third party whereas the Greens make no effort at all and seem more interested in collecting ill considered protest votes.  I’ve got no problem with affirmative action and political correctness per se and I’m happy to forego narrow self-interest and vote for it where genuine need exists.  Sadly every movement seems to end up being taken over by the loonies and the Democrats were no different.  I hope they can make a come back.  I thought a large part of their problem was that the elected arm of the party was ripped to shreds by the membership, almost the opposite of the ongoing debacle that is the ALP.

    • iansand says:

      04:52pm | 07/03/12

      These comments say a lot.  Remember that the Democrats split off the LIBERAL Party.  Don Chipp was a Liberal.

    • Brad Coward says:

      05:34pm | 07/03/12

      @iansand…...yes, but the Liberal Party is still going strong, Ian.  The Dems are all but cactus memorandus !

      The Dems were going great until politcal correctness became their main platform.  Sadly for the Dems, political correctness alienates more people than it assists.  Please prove me wrong, Ian

      @SimonFrom Lakemba…...the KKK ?  Are you for real or just a little bit silly ?

    • iansand says:

      06:20pm | 07/03/12

      I hate to tell you this, Brad Coward, but you have just proved my point.  Although I doubt you will be able to work out why.

    • Brad Coward says:

      05:00pm | 08/03/12

      @iansand…..Ian, I guess that I’ll just have to keep on wondering how I helped you prove your point.

      You keep wondering how you failed to prove my point incorrect.

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      11:25am | 07/03/12

      Some anti immigration or anti middle class welfare policies would do the trick. Failing that, the Stable Population Party will probably get my vote next election.

      Reply

    • Fred says:

      11:56am | 07/03/12

      Even if they did that I wouldn’t vote for them because the Stable Population Party has those policies as it’s core and couldn’t possibly go back on them.

    • Choice is good says:

      09:05am | 08/03/12

      Yes sustainable immigration policies and financial resopnsibility would be nice! The STABLE POPULATION PARTY has the following core values (from their website at http://www.PopulationParty.org.au):
      Sustainable living; Egalitarian democracy; Fiscal responsibility; Global citizenship; and Productive innovation.
      So I agree - let any stale old parties die. New ones like SPP will rise and the voters will decide.
      Footnote: I don’t the SPP can be called “anti-immigration” though, as they support immigration, but just at a much lower level, and as noted in their website policies, they reject immigration discrimination.

    • Ben says:

      11:26am | 07/03/12

      Ah yes, the Democrats, I remember them. They espoused loudly the principles of diversity and tolerance, having as leader a feminist, an indigenous man and a gay man. And they imploded.

      Reply

    • MisterMarcus says:

      11:30am | 07/03/12

      The Democrats’ fundamental problem was that they were always defined by what they stood AGAINST rather than what they stood for. They were a rag-bag of small-l Liberals, centrists, and those to the left of Labor, whose only thing in common was unhappiness with the major parties.

      That was fine as long as the Dems were the only minor party in town, but with the rise of more ideological parties like the Greens, the Dems’ base disintegrated.

      The GST was only a symptom, not a cause. If it wasn’t that, they would have split over something else.

      Reply

    • Daniel says:

      08:35pm | 07/03/12

      The main issue was that the leader of the Democrats ignored the members on the GST. Where is Meg Lees now though? Nowhere.

    • Ian says:

      08:51pm | 07/03/12

      close to the mark

    • old fart says:

      11:30am | 07/03/12

      hard to be interested in a party that ended up with more self interest from the majority of senators.  The only power house was Stott Despoya, cant see her getting back into it

      Reply

    • Daniel says:

      08:36pm | 07/03/12

      She will be sadly missed.

    • Mahhrat says:

      11:31am | 07/03/12

      All they need to do is promote a decent alternative government.

      In many ways, they started the “playing the man, not the ball” ideology that so plagues the major parties now.

      Reply

    • Martin says:

      11:36am | 07/03/12

      I thought we killed off the Democrats for giving us the GST John Howard lied that we’d “never ever” have.

      Reply

    • TimB says:

      12:53pm | 07/03/12

      And then you were dumb enough to vote him back in when he told you he’d changed his mind.

      Suck it up.

    • Lou says:

      01:23pm | 07/03/12

      Howard did say never ever, but this is conveniently ignored by Howard apologists.
      Howard did not have a mandate to implement the GST.
      He needed the support of the Democrats who coincidentally were against the GST during the election campaign. Without their support he would not have been able to get the legislation through.
      Meg Lees flipped on the GST post election giving Howard the numbers, but certainly not a mandate. Her abandonment of the Democrat position was in no small part a contribution to the collapse of the Democrats as a political force.

    • Ben says:

      02:18pm | 07/03/12

      @Lou

      >Howard did not have a mandate to implement the GST.

      You mean the one where he made the GST an election issue and was returned to government, with a majority in the House of Reps. No mandate? Hello?

      >>He needed the support of the Democrats who coincidentally were against the GST during the election campaign. Without their support he would not have been able to get the legislation through.

      Duh. Between 1981 and 2005 no federal government has ever held a majority in the Senate. Every government during that time has had to rely on votes outside their party to get legislation through the Senate. So your example carries no weight whatsoever.

    • James says:

      02:19pm | 07/03/12

      “Howard did not have a mandate to implement the GST.” except by a whole nation who voted him back in when he used it as one of his main platforms.

    • Ben says:

      02:39pm | 07/03/12

      @Lou, Howard took the GST to an election and won a majority on the floor of the House of Reps, therefore he did have a mandate to implement the GST. The fact that he clearly stated before the 1998 election that he had re-evaluated his views on whether or not Australia needed the GST, and only implemented it after he won the election, wipes out the argument of anyone trying to claim that he in some way mislead the public. He clearly didn’t. The democrats recognised that Howard had a mandate to implement the change, that is why they cooperated with him to legislate the GST. Why is this such a big deal anyway? Even the Labor Party has now admitted that they were wrong about the GST and that it is entirely necessary.

    • Adam R says:

      04:16pm | 07/03/12

      I hope that means we’re going to kill of the Greens for giving us the Carbon tax Julia Gillard lied that we’d “have no carbon tax under the government I (she) leads”.

      Howard at least had the integrity to put it to a vote. It took Gillard less than a month to break her promise, not to mention her arrogance in saying that “this was always going to happen” and that it was a long standing Labor policy.

    • Martin says:

      07:21pm | 07/03/12

      @Tim

      Speak for yourself. I already knew he was a liar.

    • Shavin' Stevens says:

      11:38am | 07/03/12

      You ask “How does this happen?”

      Simple really, people with experience, vision and credibility, like Chipp,  are eventually replaced by vacuous, self important lightweights like Stott - Despoja whose only experience outside of politics is the obtaining of an Arts degree.

      Reply

    • Brad Coward says:

      05:38pm | 07/03/12

      A big “high five” at you !

    • gobsmack says:

      11:40am | 07/03/12

      You’d think given the unpopularity of the leaders of both major parties, there would never be a better time than now for a middle force in politics.
      But please no-one mention Rudd.

      Reply

    • Craig2 says:

      12:17pm | 07/03/12

      Rudd!

    • Ben says:

      02:48pm | 07/03/12

      There isn’t much room in the middle anymore. The Labor Party and the Liberals have converged somewhat. The ALP has adopted many of the economic hallmarks of the Liberals and have abandoned much of their redistributive agenda (though not all). The Liberals had strayed away from some of the more conservative elements of social policy, especially surrounding family benefits, mothering wages, marriage and divorce laws etc.. If there is any room for a new party I think it is on the right of the political spectrum. Enter Bob Katter…

    • UTS says:

      11:51am | 07/03/12

      Everything Cheryl Kernot touched turned to shit, Labor and John Faulkner are classic examples,Stott Despoja was touted as a saviour like Gillard,same,same

      Reply

    • Bill says:

      12:34pm | 07/03/12

      Didn’t Kernot ‘touch’ Gareth Evans? smile

    • ronny jonny says:

      04:37pm | 07/03/12

      ahh, Gareth Gareth, what a knob, he never did get to run the UN did he? I wonder what he’s doing right now?

    • ibast says:

      11:54am | 07/03/12

      Federal Politics hasn’t worked since the Democrats lost the Balance of Power, but with both major parties taking a big step right, it left the Democrats looking like a bunch of Left Wing loones.

      Pity really, because their Democratic constitution really did bring an integrity to the Federal legislative process that is obviously missing today.

      Can’t see them coming back unless there is another Don Chipp type moment. Turnbull and/or Hockey?

      Reply

    • subotic says:

      12:00pm | 07/03/12

      Holy shit, a choice between sex (Australian Sex Party), pot (the HEMP Party), getting our guns back (the Shooters and Fishers Party), or having fair distribution of goods and wealth (the Communists).

      Democrats who?

      Goodbye and good luck….

      Reply

    • M says:

      12:15pm | 07/03/12

      Subiotic has the right of it.

      If only the sex party, shooters and fishers and hemp parties would combine, they’d be my ideal party.

    • SimonFromLakemba says:

      12:27pm | 07/03/12

      Could call themselves “The Boys Weekend Party”

    • subotic says:

      12:44pm | 07/03/12

      @SimonFromLakemba, the big question is would the Muslims support The Boys Weekend Party?

    • Max Power says:

      01:05pm | 07/03/12

      Sub: Yes they would. The gangs could then go around shooting and raping with impunity.

    • M says:

      01:08pm | 07/03/12

      What do the muslims have to do with anything? If they want to vote religious conservative they can vote family first like all the other god botherers.

    • SimonFromLakemba says:

      01:08pm | 07/03/12

      No more than the Christians id suspect.

    • Independent Thinker says:

      12:02pm | 07/03/12

      They brought it upon themselves and it all begn with the defection of Cheryl Kernot (self-serving is the words I would use). They need to establish themselves again and take on a bit of green and a bit of labour and they will fit tright back into the minds of voters. Less extreme than the Greens, and more caring than Labour (immigration etc.).

      Reply

    • wolf says:

      01:00pm | 07/03/12

      Sounds about right.  It wasn’t overly surprising when Cheryl got into bed with the ALP.  According to emails leaked to Laurie Oakes she was already in bed with front bencher Gareth Evans.
      However, Meg Lees selling out the party to the GST, before taking her bat and ball and going home when the backlash led to her losing the leadership was probably more pivotal.

    • Ben says:

      02:56pm | 07/03/12

      Nonsense. If they want votes they need to be economic and social liberals, like the small-L members of the liberal party. Don Chipp came from the liberal party after all. The leftward drift to economic illiteracy and a confused social policy is what made the Dems irrelevant.

    • The Original Martin, not that other guy above ... says:

      12:06pm | 07/03/12

      What ? The Democrats are still hanging by a thread ??? I honestly thought they’d “Gone dodo” years ago !

      A shame too: Natasha was the ultimate geek-girl thinking-man’s crumpet.

      Reply

    • ronny jonny says:

      02:57pm | 07/03/12

      Yes! I thought it was only me. There was picture of her at the beach in her swimming costume in the paper once, a very demure one piece, but what a piece! She was one hot nerd!

    • Kancker says:

      12:09pm | 07/03/12

      Ever spoken to what amounts to the leadership of the Democrats in South Australia?

      Give it a try and you’ll have your answer as to why they’re dead, not dying, dead.

      Their verbally stated position was “Once everyone finally figures out that the two major parties are bad, they’ll remember the Democrats and come flooding back.”

      Tools.

      Reply

    • Esteban says:

      12:15pm | 07/03/12

      Notwithstanding that I think Cheryl Kernot’s defection to the ALP was detrimental the main appeal to a third party is that it is not mainstream.

      There is a need for a special party for special people. But they only need one party.

      It was not surprising that the rise of the Greens was coincident with the fall of the Dems.  Either party had appeal to the “anything but mainstream” electors but the greens positioned themselves left of Labor with more blue sky policies. (Apologies to the true enviromentalists)

      I saw Natsha Stotdespoja on Q & A the other day. I lamented the demise of the Dems because I would rather have her with the balance of power rather than B. Brown.

      If the socialist cum communist agenda of the greens was exposed to their followers then a more moderate party such as the Dems could re emerge.

      That is how the Dems can make their comeback. They must relentlessly attack the greens to regain their voting base who defected. In order to do that they will need some “ruthless individuals” not nice people like Natasha.

      Reply

    • Frank Movatez says:

      12:16pm | 07/03/12

      Three words: red feather boa

      Reply

    • AdamC says:

      12:19pm | 07/03/12

      Natasha Stott-Despoja is actually a case study in abysmal leadership. Had she not allowed her personality cultists to persecute her rivals within the party, the Democrats could have salvaged something. The idea that the GST killed the Democrats is a myth, they did quite well as the 2001 elections post-GST. It was the infighting, caused Stott-Despoja’s acolytes,  whom she failed to reign in,  that did that.

      I didn’t even realise the Democrats still existed at all, to be honest.

      Reply

    • jg says:

      12:34pm | 07/03/12

      I voted dems back in their heyday of the 90s but they slowly and surely just became another arm of the ALP so really, they became irrelevant.

      A pity really because Australian politics could do with a strong third party, besides the Greens.

      Reply

    • Knemon says:

      01:22pm | 07/03/12

      Are the Democrats dying? - Say what?

      I thought they died years ago…where have they been hiding? Do they wheel out candidates like in “A weekend at Bernie’s”?

      Reply

    • Mike says:

      01:36pm | 07/03/12

      Where’s the Apathy Party? I might sign up…..  I guess.

      Reply

    • Apathy Rules says:

      02:08pm | 07/03/12

      LOL Mike…We’re currently struggling to find enough people that actually care, not about the party but politics in general.

      I guess…you and me makes two!!
      wink

    • mr g says:

      02:17pm | 07/03/12

      The Apathy Party are able to be reached at, er, umm, oh bugger it, I couldn’t care less.

    • ronny jonny says:

      03:01pm | 07/03/12

      “deeply uncomitted to inactivism”, PJ O’Rourke I believe

    • Greggy says:

      01:56pm | 07/03/12

      Clearly people have decided to waste their votes on something else now i.e. the Greens.

      Reply

    • sludger says:

      01:57pm | 07/03/12

      Have to agree with a few other posters here, I also thought the Democrats were long gone.  I guess I lost any interest in them when it became obvious they were just another labor stooge, like the Greens are now.  Oh yes, and the red feather boa!  Ye gads!

      Reply

    • scumbag says:

      02:02pm | 07/03/12

      The Australian Sex Party, the HEMP Party, the Shooters and Fishers Party, and the Communists, should all join together and form one party, a BIG party, any time, except for a HEMP party. People should be able to wear what they choose.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      02:34pm | 07/03/12

      Well if Mr. Churchill says that ‘we have to get reason back into politics’, then they certainly will be extinct, because politics needs imagination, and The Democrats, especially, need policies which include a half-dozen ideas The Greens have latched onto, such as a democracy that treats all living things, not in equal value, but with equal consideration, and that asylum seekers need a friend’s voice in Parliament to coerce policy, (this one I’m still not sure on) and a proper and well thought-out Rural Policy, which will include country people in a probably distinct representative manner : regional Councils should be abolished, Shire Mayors will have to go, and a separate smaller ‘government’, specifically established for the rural sector, be set up as a Development Corporation.
      Now, isn’t that democratic ?

      Reply

    • Peter says:

      02:55pm | 07/03/12

      What was the Dems’ contribution to Fed politics?
      Oh yeah I rememeber - someone wore Doc Martens to parliament once.
      Now there’s a party with substance.

      Reply

    • Mark says:

      06:40pm | 08/03/12

      The GST

    • Abbott's End says:

      02:59pm | 07/03/12

      What Ben fails to mention, and I am sure he is aware of it- is that Howard LOST the 2PP vote in the Federal Election which he alludes to was the pseudo-referendum on the GST. Howard was just lucky the way the votes fell in various elections.

      Reply

    • Ben says:

      08:50pm | 07/03/12

      Lucky we don’t determine elections based on the 2PP vote then eh? The Liberals ran a better campaign than Labor and targeted the most important seats, that’s why they won.

    • Don C says:

      05:42am | 08/03/12

      Pointless argument.

      2PP only makes some sense as an opinion poll yardstick - for lack of anything nearer election result reality.

      As an overall aggregate at election time, 2PP tells us something but not very much and is all too often abused for smoke and mirror point scoring.

      The only measure of less use -and more misused - than 2PP is primary vote. That’s not even of much use in looking at opinion polls.

      At an election it is 2PP that decides seats and thus the House majority.

      That is the one context where 2PP really counts - the Seat by Seat actual election result.

    • JT says:

      03:34pm | 07/03/12

      The title of this column should have been “Political parties you thought were dead’‘.

      Reply

    • Richard says:

      03:57pm | 07/03/12

      Cheryl Kernot’s affair with Gareth Evans was what killed the Dems… They were sspeed to be keeping the bastards honest, instead they were in bed with the bastards and trying to deceive everyone that they weren’t. If anything, the dems sensible attitude to the GST almost saved them, but it was too little too late to counter the surging greens by then.

      Reply

    • Ben says:

      05:07pm | 07/03/12

      >>Cheryl Kernot’s affair with Gareth Evans was what killed the Dems…

      Please don’t talk about that: just the thought will give me nightmares tonight.

    • Scott Cole says:

      04:33pm | 07/03/12

      When I read their were only 500 members left, I thought the article might be about the Labor Party. Not long to go now!

      Reply

    • bleD says:

      05:51pm | 07/03/12

      The secular party should appeal to a reasonable crosssection of the public.

      Reply

    • Freeman says:

      06:04pm | 07/03/12

      To lose a few percent at an election is a flesh wound. to have less than 500 members? That S#$% is terminal. I’ll give them $200 for their decrepit party and it’s liabilities just so I can say that I own it.

      Just like the Greens, they deviated from their original message. Can’t wait till the greens go the same way.

      Reply

    • Daniel says:

      08:43pm | 07/03/12

      The Greens will never go the way of the Democrats Freeman. You dont understand politics if you think that.

    • Daniel says:

      08:26pm | 07/03/12

      I used to be a member of the Australian Democrats and was very active within it. When Meg Lees took over and started to ignore the Grass Roots that’s when the party started to fall apart.

      Reply

    • John L says:

      11:41am | 08/03/12

      Yes, and the no-confidence vote on Senator Stott Despoja by the Party Room and the installment of that Bartlett clown just showed that the rest of the party had no interest in the membership’s opinion. Seeing as that was a founding premise of the party it is no wonder they started hemorrhaging members.

 
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