Moves to replace the Democrats?

The fact is the Australian Democrats are dying - slowly admittedly thanks to half Senate elections. The next election is the final straw for the Dems. They have lost all positive reputation and their finances are stretched so thin that they will most likely will unable to campaign effectively. It is my feeling, as with most people, that the Dems will be a thing of the past.

My feelings for the Dems are mixed - at best they are warm and at worst sometimes openly hostile. If I was old enough to vote in the 1998 election, I would have probably voted for the Dem's Aiden Ridgeway in NSW. Ridgeway was, and still is I suppose, an excellent Indigenous leader (although a disappointment on a number of occassions). Also I did not want the GST to be implemented and, at the time, the Dems leadership were holding strong on their commitment to prevent the implementation of the GST.

I am glad now that I was not old enough to vote for the Dems in 98. As young as I was, I could not see the underlying contradiction of a centrist party like the Dems.

At their height, the Democrats Senators were a motley crew who held separate beliefs on a range of issues - including the underlying core of what the Democrats were about.

Two people exemplify this situation for the Dems: Natasha Stott Despoja and Meg Lees. Sott Despoja held a different vision for the Democrats: one that the Greens have neatly caught for themselves - that is, left wing progressive party. Meg Lees on the other hand and many Democrats beforeher, at least from my point of view, held the view that the Democrats are in parliament to 'keep the bastards honest', hold the balance of power and take the nasty edge off legislation of either party.

The GST debacle, and the subsequent internal leadership battles, flushed out this contradiction. The Democrats cannot hold strong policy stances and play legislative broker in the Senate. Otherwise it will be a lose-lose situation for the Dems - and so it has. Admittedly, this contradiction was only a catalyst for worse political blunders.

On some political chat rooms I have seen posts saying that now the Dems are on their last breaths, there is now room for a centrist "we'll fight for democracy" political party. This is backed up by a recent post at Webdiary from Allison Newman, a former member of the Democrats State Exuctive. (It seems even some of its own membership have given up on the Dems).

In the Webdiary article Newman shows the potential for a new political party called "Westminster". She says:

The following is an idea I have had in the back of my mind as I watched the
Howard Government act with ever increasing disdain for the Westminster
system of Ministerial responsibility for the actions of their departments.
In addition to this, I have become dismayed by the poor behaviour exhibited
by politicians in parliamentary debate, and the lack of adherence to the
Howard’s much vaunted Code of Ministerial Conduct – a good idea that
deserves better application.

Wesminster seems to be another proposal for a centrist party to replace the Democrats - just with some minor changes that sets down exactly what Westminster Senators should do. In other words, it is a proposal to relabel the Australian Democrats and prevent any Stott Despojas from broadening the electoral base.

It will never work in my opinion. First, they will not get elected. A minor party has a chance to get one seat in each state. The gravity in the current electoral climate is towards polarisation. That final seat in each state will fall, at least in the next decade, to either of the major parties, the Greens or a right wing party like Family First.

If a centrist party like Westminster get into parliament and share the balance of power, it is likely that they will run into similar problems to what the Dems are experienceing now. Why? because a centrist party, who might have hard workers who trawl legislation and negotiate finer detail, will offend many people for not making a principled stand against a certain policy.

Many Dem voters over the years voted for them because they opposed a certain policy but couldn't bring themselves to vote for the opposition. Many if not most did not vote Dem because they believe in a party whose sole job is to keep politicians honest by negotiating on legislation. The Dems have failed to recognise this time and time again and this is why they are almost dead.