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Australia Politics

WikiLeaks Party Launching This Week 52

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the we-have-a-leak-in-parliment dept.
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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WikiLeaks Party Launching This Week More

WikiLeaks Party Launching This Week

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  • They haven't published anything for a long time, and now it's 503.. I guess they all got scared

  • He has a chance (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Captain Sensible ( 141639 ) <jafaulkner@unwired.co m . au> on Monday April 01, 2013 @09:36PM (#43334585) Homepage

    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.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      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.

      • Not a problem. Assange would have several Commonwealth-only commercial airline routes from England to Australia. It's also possible to fly him privately from England to Australian territory nonstop, probably using a Gulfstream G650 and probably from Manston which offers a long runway. For example, Manston to the Cocos Islands would be 6,176 nautical miles (Great Circle distance) which is the sort of range a Gulfstream can manage quite safely. There are three other Commonwealth countries under that particula

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jonwil ( 467024 )

        With QANTAS flying via Dubai now, are there any flights left between the UK and Australia that stop in commonwealth countries?

        • I'm guessing you would go via India, but probably you would have to buy two tickets with different airlines.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jonwil ( 467024 )

            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.

      • 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. It's the kind that keeps me coming back to Slashdot.

      Thank you.

    • 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.

    • 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]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Yvanhoe ( 564877 )
      If you are an Australian voter and know other concerned about the Assange case, be loud about the fact that you will follow the exchange negotiations closely and that this will affect your future votes and loyalties. Try to appear as as big a demographic as possible.

    • 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)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So a vote for WikiLeaks is a vote for the Libs. Some radicals!

  • 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.
     

    • Is standard. Party membership numbers are used to determine things like funding allocations, and if you let people enrol multiple times for multiple parties the system becomes easy to game (like football grand final tickets).
    • Standard affair. If I wasn't a member of the pirate party I would sign up for Wikileaks. Best of luck to all of them, anything is better than the two major parties who are only interested in bickering amongst themselves and each other.
  • Am I the only one who (upon reading the title) was getting stoked for a party in the Ecuadorian embassy? Bring your own booze, and party all night with Julian and ambassador Ana Mora! (Just be wary of drowsing off.)
  • In terms of principles and values Wikileaks has a lot in common with the Pirate Party and the Australian chapter ( http://pirateparty.org.au/ [pirateparty.org.au] ). I see no reason in making yet another party. Unless they just want to capitalize on name recognition. I guess that's probably the sole reason - ro re-invent that wheel (pirate wheel: http://falkvinge.net/pirate-wheel/ [falkvinge.net] ).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      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

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by diorcc ( 644903 )
        Thank you for the enlightening glimpe into Australian politics. I'll read up more on it when (when?) time allows.

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