Where to now Greg?

While the major players in Election 2013 dominate the scene, there are serious question marks now hanging over the plethora of minor political parties, and where they’re heading – if anywhere.

In this context, there is the matter of what is happening with the WikiLeaks Party, founded by Julian Assange, far-off resident of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. His avowed intention has been to win a Senate seat in Victoria next month.

But things took a dramatic about face last week when Dr Leslie Cannold quit the race – she was No 2 Senate candidate and would have replaced Assange in Federal Parliament if he wasn’t able to leave the embassy. Cannold left with other senior party members, including some from its national council. She walked away following a dispute over the allocation of preferences (criticism in preferencing the Shooters and Fishers Party and Australia First Party ahead of the major parties and the Australian Greens on its how to vote cards)
and claimed the WikiLeaks Party was failing to live up to its democratic principles.

Assange responded by accepting responsibility for this apparent implosion of his party saying he had “over-delegated” to his team (while he was otherwise preoccupied with the situation of US intelligent leaker Edward Snowden). He subsequently sought to play down the impact of the resignations on the party.

The startling turn of events has come just a few months after the party’s launch, when barrister and Hobart Mercury weekly commentator Greg Barns emerged as its national campaign director. At the time, the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Barns as saying that he had agreed to the campaign director’s role after speaking to the founder: “Assange is a serious Senate candidate; this is no stunt.”

Barns further declared that the party would focus on freedom of speech, human rights, government transparency and privacy issues: “The party will offer a refreshing change from the Australian government culture of secrecy, whether Labor or Liberal.”

So in consequence of the defections, the question now arises where Barns sits in the situation. He has made a statement that the party will deal with “governance issues” – but that won’t be until after the election. He rejected Cannold’s resignation as being a body blow to their campaign.

As a footnote, I see that leading Liberal Eric Abetz was quick to comment on the WikiLeaks Party position – he saw it as an implosion that highlighted the essential instability of minor parties: “This is a salutary object lesson on the dangers of voting for minor parties.”