There is a record number of micro parties contesting Western Australia’s March election and thanks to a preference deal they could make an impact in a tight race.
Most of the micro parties are directing preferences to each other in the state’s upper house.
It could lead to three being elected with just a fraction of the primary vote.
The deal has been brokered by so-called preference whisperer Glenn Druery who helped get the Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party’s Ricky Muir elected to the senate in 2013 with a primary vote of just 0.51 per cent.
“Multi-party democracy is a good thing for the community and diversity of voices is a wonderful thing,” Mr Druery said.
“Who wants party hacks, unionists and lawyers and staffers in there?
“That, I'm afraid, is what we have in Western Australia at the moment.”
A record 16 political parties registered
If the micro parties do find themselves on the crossbenches in a tight parliament, West Australians might find themselves putting their clocks forward an hour and drinking un-fluoridated water.
The Daylight Savings Party and Fluoride Free WA are just some of the record 16 registered political parties in the March contest.
There are 58 candidates in one upper house seat alone.
Fluoride Free WA candidate John Watt said his party was formed ironically on the back of a suggestion by a Liberal state politician.
His party’s platform is that they believe fluoride is a neurotoxin that should not be in drinking water.
“I think it’s a very good chance the end of fluoridation is on hand,” he said.
“The fact that we might get close will galvanise the anti-fluoridation movement throughout Australia.
“We will be the first party, but we won’t be the last.”
Daylight Savings WA candidate Wilson Tucker said that the state was ready to have daylight saving despite a 2009 poll showing otherwise.
Mr Tucker said the West Australian population, which surged during the state’s mining boom with workers from the east coast and overseas, would now accept putting the clocks forward an hour.
“If we’re successful in that bid (winning a seat), then we’re just going to try to legislate daylight saving for WA without bringing it to a referendum.”
Western Australia could also face a radical overhaul of its democratic process if the Flux the System! Party got its way.
Candidate Alex Brownbill said the party was developing a smartphone app to give members of the public the ability to vote on legislation.
Through a process of delegating votes to experts in their field, or voting directly on a matter, it would create direct democracy Mr Brownbill said.
“We’re hoping that as political decision making is dispersed throughout the community, then communities will actually start self-organising,” he said.
“Not necessarily to the left, not necessarily to the right, but people will start talking around the dinner table, sports clubs, wherever they are because they actually have a more engaged role in formulating policy.”
One Nation, Nationals will feel the impact
Political analyst William Bowe said the preference deal, which he believed could lead to at least one party getting elected, would hurt One Nation and the Nationals in the state’s upper house.
Mr Bowe said it would also work out better for the Labor party, which most polls have on track to win, because the West Australian upper house is usually dominated by the Liberal and National parties.
“There’s a bigger mix of possibilities for them to cobble together the numbers to get difficult legislation through,” he said.
“So Labor can never really hope for a situation that they probably yearn for where at least they’ve got the Greens with the balance of power because that’s extremely difficult to achieve in Western Australia.
“If they’ve got a couple of people, whoever they are, holding the balance of power there, then I think that’d take that."
