Australian Democrats on YouTube

And now, foreign news. Our sister party in Australia, the Australian Democrats, have started making greater use of the Internet this year, including a YouTube channel from Lyn Allison, the party’s leader. They’re not new to innovative web campaigning though – one of their senators, Andrew Bartlett, has been blogging for quite some time.

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8 Comments

  • Barry – they are our sister party in the sense that when Liberal Democrats have been in Australia or when Democrats have been the UK, we’ve met up with and trained each other.

  • I sincerely hope that the training that the Lib Dems received from the Australian Democrats was not in how to achieve electoral success. Founded by the charismatic, late Don Chipp, the Australian Democrats face electoral annihilation in the near future. Politically savy, they ain’t.

  • Jeremy Sanders 5th Jun '07 - 1:10pm

    Hi Barry

    I must admit, I was a little surprised to find that Australian Democrats had no official links with LI. Certainly, their members have attended international Liberal events I’ve been at in the past, and have been an observer member of LI’s youth wing, IFLRY, for many years. Politically, they would fit perfectly well into the “Social Liberal” wing of LI.

    I suspect their reluctance to use the word “Liberal” is simply down to the fact that most Australians would probably assume that the word implied some connection with, or similarity to, the Australian Liberal Party.

    I’ve never heard of the Australian Liberal Democratic Party, but as you say, they are obviously a small Libertarian group who are unlikely to regard themselves as having much in common with the British Lib Dems. Given that their website seems to be quoting as successes elections where they got around 1% of the vote I would guess that they are very much on the fringes of Australian politics.

  • Friend or Faux? 7th Jun '07 - 11:40pm

    The LDP is a tiny party that has never had a single candidate elected. It is almost non-existant outside Canberra, and even there it has minimal support.

    As for the Australian Democrats’ lack of electoral success, this is only true of the last few years. The party was much stronger electorally in the late 1970’s-early 2000’s. It has much to teach the Lib Dems about how to avoid sudden collapse, using the 20/20 vision of hindsight.

  • I follow UK and Oz politics fairly closely and the Australian Democrats (the dems) are sister party to the UK LDP. Staff and ideas have proven interchangeable over the years for:

    Labour (UK) Labor (Oz)
    Tories (UK) Liberal Party (Oz)
    LDP (UK) Oz Dems (going through a rough patch)

  • Paul Kavanagh 31st May '10 - 3:53pm

    Congraluations and best wishes for the coalition government ! Australian Democrats are thrilled with your success.

    There are differences between our Parties, but there’s much in common – all Democrats in Australia seem associate with your Party. Australia’s two large parties are much like the Tories (Australia’s so-called ‘Liberal Party’) and the UK Labour Party. Both parties have left and right wings, with the right in the ascendency in both.

    The Australian Democrats are for civil liberties and the rights of religious and cultural minorities; rehabilitating the environment; excellent universal health and education services and tax that promotes income equality and builds infrastructure while supporting business innovation and greater efficiency. We’re for peaceful, cooperative international relations and foreign development aid.

    İn the Senate the Democrats opposed the invasion of İraq, we opposed an identity card, we worked for tax reform to reduce income tax for low-income earners, we supported a flexible labour market and we proposed many environmental initiatives.

    The Australian Democrats are now struggling and we face an uncertain future, despite a recent revival in membership. We would welcome any support from the UK to help us campaign for this year’s election – in particular, acclaim for your role in a successful Coalition Government !

    Paul Kavanagh
    Lead candidate for Victoria, 2006
    Australian Democrats, Melbourne.

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