The day we killed a political party
Stuart Gregor and Matt Jones had a vision for political change but the realities of running a political party led to their surrender. They explain what happened.
The idea for the23million came pretty suddenly into the heads of a few like-minded individuals in March this year – like so many things in life, it seemed like a pretty good idea at the time.
Had we known once we registered as a political party and announced we would set sail for the Senate, that we would receive upwards of 100 phone calls and emails from every political party (save for the big two) offering to do deals for preferences we might have thought twice.
What started out as an ideal, an alternative to the status quo, quickly turned into exactly what we wanted fixed. Horse trading, compromising, back and forth-ing took place between a whole bunch of small parties trying their best but with no realistic chance of gaining representation in the People’s House. It was a punish.
suggest you start planning for 2016. You have the party. change the name and focus on being independent party for small business & community, happy to assist.. You could run for NSW State meantime 2015.
I’m 41 years of age. I’ve actively followed politics since I was about 15. That would mean I first engaged in the whole political thing at the Hawke-Howard election in ’87. In that time – both federal, state and local – I can’t remember a time when people didn’t bemoan the state of the candidates, the policies, the race to the bottom, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. If Australian politics brings out anything it’s the perennial whingers. That said Gregor and Co. are to be congratulated for actually trying to do something about it.
As someone who has worked as a communications adviser to a myriad of Ministers. Welcome to it. Politics is like hard yo?
By March this year we were nearing end of a very ugly hung parliament. The low tone of the debate for 3 yrs has been all about one outcome – destabilise Labor’s fragile hold on power. Hopefully that won’t occur again for a very long time. Meanwhile, Matt and Stuart can maintain the rage at the ballot box.