WikiLeaks Party Launching This Week 52
PuZZleDucK writes "The ABC (audio) and the Canberra Times (text) are reporting on Greg Barns and Julian Assange teaming up to form the WikiLeaks Party.
From the article: 'Mr Barns said on Monday he had agreed to be the WikiLeaks Party campaign director following conversations with Mr Assange, who has announced he will run for a Senate seat in Victoria in the September 14 federal election. "The party will offer a refreshing change from the Australian government culture of secrecy, whether Labor or Liberal," he said.'"
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Hmmm, mayhaps we should avoid the punch. Not my idea of a party thanks.
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Should be a wikileaks funeral (Score:1)
They haven't published anything for a long time, and now it's 503.. I guess they all got scared
Re:Should be a wikileaks funeral (Score:4, Informative)
Not heard anything? (Score:1)
The OP probably never heard anything because it wasn't about the USA. So it wasn't reported by the USA press. Ensuring that those "informed" by the USA press that WL only leaks against the USA's interests.
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You mean 451.
Re:Good luck with that (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if Julian is lying through his teeth and guilty as hell of everything he's been accused of in Sweden he is too honest for Australian politics.
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Can we offer to vote for him so he doesn't take that drastic step, ignoring that most of us aren't Australian?
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Right now he could rape kids and still be more honest and trustworthy than most politicians
It would be a refreshing change to be able to vote for something but a corporate ho. I mean, if you have to vote for a criminal anyway, why not one with a crime that doesn't affect the country directly?
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Now if only his name had been Congressman Weiner...
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That's one advantage to the ROT-13. That would tell you it was a joke. Now on April 2 I'm still slightly unsure which stories are true and hilarious versus which ones are false and annoying.
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As an Australian I can assure you that this isn't a joke. The party was announced more than a year ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks_Political_Party
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ever thought about wrapping a trunk around your pee pee and .>.(*$@*( #&$
@#$
$ #
And if the elephant sneezes the international space station will be able to see your testicles heading into deep space by way of your rectum! That my friend is Gawd's very own blow job.
But to each their own...
He has a chance (Score:5, Insightful)
He has a chance, if opinion polls are to be believed, and thanks to the voting system used.
Australian Senators are elected for a term of 6 years, with a half senate election every three years. There are 6 senators for each state. The voting is by a proportional representation variant of the single transferable vote system (called the ‘preferential system’ in Australia).
Minority parties need to get at least 7% of the ‘first preference’ vote and be able to agree to an ‘exchange of preferences’* with other minority parties to have a chance at a seat in the Senate.
Although Assange is domiciled overseas and under threat of arrest, he is still able to run for the Senate. Under section 20 of the constitution, a senator may be dismissed if he is unable to attend for 2 consecutive months and has not been granted leave of absence by the president of the senate. However, under section 15, his place must be filled by another member of his party, conventionally, one who was listed on the ballot paper but who was unelected. Under section 44(ii), he would also lose his seat if sentenced to 12 months or more imprisonment, but only if this was done by an Australian court. In this case again his place would be filled under section 15.
This new party would be best advised to stand a full senate team for each state and look to exchange preferences with other minor parties. The difficulty here is that the Wiki Party voters would probably also be Greens voters and the Greens might be hostile to an exchange.
*A complex series of deals to exchange votes on the ballot paper, but done openly and advertised in campaign literature.
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There is also the small issue that if he gets elected, he is under the Queen's protection as an elected representative of a Commonwealth country. That means her office must sign off on the extradition to Sweden and tradition says she will simply ignore the request. Of course that means he fly home but the stops had better be in Commonwealth counties or else he could end up elsewhere.
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With QANTAS flying via Dubai now, are there any flights left between the UK and Australia that stop in commonwealth countries?
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I'm guessing you would go via India, but probably you would have to buy two tickets with different airlines.
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There is always Air Canada from London to Sydney via Vancouver (the Queen is still the head of state of Canada last I checked)
And the flight to Vancouver from London doesn't fly anywhere near the USA (per the Air Canada web site) so there is no risk there either.
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That's a non-issue - the extradition predates his entire election involvement, so she would have no issues signing off on the extradition.
Also, hes now wanted in the UK for violation of his bail conditions, which don't need any involvement from the Queen to prosecute.
Good post (Score:1)
Good post. It's the kind that keeps me coming back to Slashdot.
Thank you.
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There are 12 senators for each State and two from each mainland territory; a total of 76. Six of a State's senators will be up for election at any one senate election.
He has no chance (Score:1)
Minority parties need to get at least 7% of the ‘first preference’ vote and be able to agree to an ‘exchange of preferences’* with other minority parties to have a chance at a seat in the Senate.
the quota for the election of each senator in each Australian state in a full Senate election is 7.69%, while in a normal half-Senate election the quota is 14.28%. [wikipedia.org]
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This new party would be best advised to stand a full senate team for each state and look to exchange preferences with other minor parties. The difficulty here is that the Wiki Party voters would probably also be Greens voters and the Greens might be hostile to an exchange.
Yeah, I imagine calling Sweden "the Saudi Arabia of feminism [theatlanticwire.com]" might go down poorly with them.
Then again who knows. Maybe in best Orwellian leftist fashion they'll just decide we have always been at war with Eastasia^H^H^H^Feminism. It all depends which parts of the alternative media they get their news from.
"former Lib staffer" (Score:1)
So a vote for WikiLeaks is a vote for the Libs. Some radicals!
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You mean from advertisers who target geeks who find rot13 obvious and get that it was Apr1?
I'm betting they just solidified their demographics a bit.
declare that I am not a member of another party (Score:2)
Just looking at the terms of membership.
I declare that I am not a member of another party and agree not to join another political party whilst a member of The Wikileaks Party.
Not too sure if this is a standard AEC requirement, as it's new to me, but if it isn't, it might be an obstacle to them getting wider member support. They will likely have a lot of overlap with the Pirate party that has already been established for some time and the Greens.
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WikiLeaks Party with Julian Assange (Score:2)
Why not join with PPAU? (Score:2)
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The party is being created solely for the purpose of running for a senate seat. You cannot run as an independent, and the party will appoint a replacement for Julian if he is unable to take up the seat for some reason.
It is interesting to look at the list of National Councillors - includes peace activist, anti-whaling consultant, and of course, the compulsory indigenous consultant.
Just one anti-nuclear activist short of being another Greens party. Definitely heading for a conflict with them. Do they have a
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