Indigenous-Aboriginal Party of Australia has been working towards becoming a registered political Party for over a year, and with one day to go our registration has been undermined by a change to the electoral laws.
Up until this week 550 members were needed by a proposed Party to be registered. We met this criteria and submitted our registration documents. The Australian Electoral Commission has confirmed our membership, had assessed our application and advertised nationally for objections. The objection period ran out on Monday 6 September.
The A.E.C rang our office today , Monday 6 September, to tell us the rules had been changed so that new non-parliamentary parties must now have 1500 members.
The new law came into effect as Labor and Liberal banded together to get these changes through the parliament in quick smart time.
The Convenor of the (proposed) Indigenous Party of Australia, Uncle Owen Whyman, has written to the major parties and asked them if they are afraid of the proposed Indigenous Party of Australia given they were due to be registered this week but suddenly find themselves out in the cold given the super swift change to needing 1500 members to be a registered Party.
Currently, in lock down in Wilcannia, Uncle Owen says it is extraordinary that the major parties did not even debate the issue. This bill, making a major change to the democratic process, did not even go to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny.
"People should feel they can vote for a minor party if that Party represents their views. At a time when many are ill at ease with the major parties, it will strengthen the suspicion that the major parties care only for their own skins and not for democracy or the people of Australia." says Uncle Owen.
In our case it can be difficult to get Indigenous people to get on the electoral roll and join our Party for fear this will somehow come against them, become another stepping stone to having their children taken away or ending up with a fine they cannot pay. It's been a huge community effort to get our application this far.
The Party only accepts Indigenous people as candidates and as members of the Board, but thankfully, our membership is open to both Indigenous and non Indigenous people and we welcome new members. A person can join at our website.
"It makes me laugh to think the major parties could be worried about us. They are so much more powerful than us. Are they afraid of our policy on the Baaka, the Murray- Darling? We support the Indigenous communities and farmers who want continuous flow of that once mighty river, with the weirs full and the fish protected. We say no to cotton farms and flood plain harvesting. We are river people as are other communities along that river. We want all river communities to thrive which means better management of the river. We say we want fewer Indigenous people incarcerated, too. Or is it that they are scared of our education policies. We are calling education bureaucrats to account in N.S.W after NESA closed our schools and tipped Koori kids onto the streets in Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Western Sydney and the Central Coast.
