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http://www.democrats.org.au/campaigns/no_internet_censorship/ seem to have had a clear policy from day one.
Not many of the other parties have had such a clear policy.

The Liberals where only waiting for Narus like packet tech to become cheaper for average isps.
Now they can see it can be done they will keep it.
Try the http://www.democrats.org.au/campaigns/no_internet_censorship/
or
http://greensmps.org.au/content/media-release/greens-tell-labor-abandon-net-filter-and-start-again
Both of the big parties in Australian have been infected by faith based groups with long term plans.

Australian Liberal Party = Republicans (the Liberal Prime Minister's kids even work for Dubya)

Australian Labor Party http://www.alp.org.au/ = US Democrats is pretty correct these days, although the ALP *used* to be a genuine social democrat party like the UK one. Nowadays it's seeming more like a clone of the right-wing Liberal Party (again, much like the UK Labour Party has gone). That said, the Labor Party itself has left and right wing factions, although the latter seem to be holding most of the reigns at present. And I *would* vote for them in preference to the Libs (out of desperation basically).

But there IS a REAL Australian Democrat Party http://www.democrats.org.au/. Politically they are kinda somewhere between the ALP and the Greens (the latter being much like the Greens http://www.greens.org.au/ in Europe and the US). So there is at least the chance to vote Green if you wish (although they suffered badly by conniving preference deals between the parties last election which led to the religious-right Family First party getting seats ahead of the Greens although they had fewer primary votes (Australia has preferential voting)) .

In Australia, the expression "small-l liberal" is used to refer to people who'd be called "liberals" in the US, and "Big-L Liberals" to refer to the members or supporters of the Liberal Party. Apparently the Liberal Party WAS "liberal" compared to its opponents in the earlier days of Australia. Personally, (small l) liberal is not a dirty word if you ask me :).

"AC" in Sydney, Australia.

And if you vote for the Australian Democrats, but disagree with Family First be careful, because the Australian Democrats (and all the other parties except the Australian Greens) have preferenced Family First.

To be safe, vote below the line.

More information here: Election 2004 Candidates and Parties

In particular, look under the "Group Voting Ticket" section which contains information on where your preferences will go if you vote above the line.

Family First is most definently a right-wing party with conservative values. They have no chance at holding any power in our house of representatives, however in this coming election they will have a real chance at gaining power in the senate.

The sad reason for this is that we have been sold out by what is normally a left-wing, progressive party (the Democrats) who has chose Family First as the recipient of their first-choice preferences.

We now have only one major, 'progressive' party left - the Australian Greens. They're the only one yet to sell us out, and also have a real chance at gaining significant representation in the senate.

To illustrate just how conservative Family First is - they are opposed to gay and lesbian marriages/adoption, they are anti-abortion, their members are even appointed by the church rather than through a vote.

It's going to be a scary election - we risk having Liberal voted back in, and if Family First, along with the Liberals hold the balance of power in the senate, we're screwed. The senate will be nothing more than a rubber stamp for our right-wing conservative Government (here, as ironic as it seems, the "Liberal" party is far from liberal in the progressive, libertarian sense of the term - at least on social issues).

I agree, vote for the Democrats, if you live in the Groom electorate vote for ME!

Vote Democrats especially given their stance on OpenSource.

Let enough geeks know about it and we might be able to do something. What better place than /. :)

Vote Democrats especially given their stance on OpenSource.

Let enough geeks know about it and we might be able to do something. What better place than /. :)

Pity they're awful at all the 'leading the nation' type issues.

Vote out Howard, but don't give Latham & Labor a landslide - give your first vote to left-wing parties such as Socialist Alliance and the Greens, and give your preferences to Labor - send Labor a message that we aren't 100% with them.

Thanks to the preferential voting system this is pretty much how I vote. I give my first preferences to the Greens and Democrats before Labour and the coalition (and then the small nutbag parties). I can do this confident that I'm not "throwing away" my vote. I can vote for the little parties and my lesser-of-two-evils large party at the same time.

Not so sure it needs Parliamentary approval. We don't need Parliament to send us to war and I don't think we need Parliament to ratify treaties. The Execuitve has that power. For a Govt that rattles on about external treaties having undue influence on internal affairs (eg Human Rights) this is extremely rich. See http://www.democrats.org.au/news/index.htm?press_i d=3269

BayStar is betting that SCO will be able to collect license fees from Linux users. "We think this licensing initiative is going to work," says Lawrence Goldfarb, managing partner. "We spent a lot of time calling around to potential licensees, and we believe SCO is going to sign enough companies to make this an interesting growth story."

Big money on the wrong side, backing a bunch of whackers making exhorbitant claims and trying to "kill" innocents... what fits that?

• The Silent Scream?
  
• Total Recall?
  
• Confessions of a Simple Surgeon? (if you get a chance to see this one, do)
  
• Blue Thunder? (how do you park a legal system across the train tracks?)
  
• Your Suggestion Here

Either way, D'ohl and his crew of vultures stand about as much real legal chance of succeeding as an insect in IBM's headlights. If any of the studios are challenged, they'll either push SCO's brains through their collective rear or say "we're waiting on the outcome of the IBM case" and sit. It's a lose, lose, lose situation.

Except for Microsoft.

How many people will foolishly turn back to Microsoft simply because there's corporate headcases loose in Linux land? "I'm not playing with that bunch, there's a kid with wild, staring eyes who keeps kicking the others and demanding their milk money."

Want to make sense of what's happening? Simply follow the money. Who stands to profit the most? "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." Sounds trite but it's absolutely true. Money is a game counter that lets the power-hungry keep score, and power hungry people aren't in the game for your benefit.

Here's a few things I can remember about Natasha:
1. Someone at the Government pay office thought she was a politician's staffer, when she went to collect her paycheck.
2. She has worn Doc Marten boots into Parliament.
3. She has often been a guest on the popular nationwide alternative radio station Triple J

Ian Gilfillan, the South Australian Democrat, who introduced a bill to amend state software procurement policies, says he expects to know the fate of the bill by the end of July this year.

Maybe for you. Maybe for everyone who bought shares.

But for the people who actually use Telstra it would not have been any easier to take at all.

Frankly even if broadband was perfect I would be somewhat worried that the Government is selling Telstra off for a value of only $45 Billion or so.

Thats only $2500 per Australian.

You could not even lay copper to each person's door for that amount of money let alone the rest of the infrastructure.

Check out this democrat's pdf (different to US democrats) for plenty of other good reasons why selling our goose that lays the golden egg is a bad idea.

But with compulsory voting, , strong opposition [yes, I know that the democrats are dead] leading to the upper house hobbling the lower house this isn't going to get very far. Never mind. Thank god for three year terms of office, that's what I say.

Here's my suggestions as to who to contact if you want to: (I'm going to give you websites, not email address - you'll have to click through. I really don't want to instigate the /.-ing of my government :) )

You can find email addresses for ministers on this page. The Prime Minister's page is here. The Leader of the Opposition's page is here. The email address of every member of the House of reps is here. Senate addresses here. Be careful please :)
If nothing else, they're not all of the party in power...

Ministers in the government:
Hon John Howard MP, Prime Minister of Australia.
Senator the Hon Richard Alston, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.

Shadow ministers (ie in opposition - not of the party currently in government!):
Hon Kim Beazley MP, Leader of the Opposition.
Hon Bob McMullan MP, Shadow Minister for Industry and Technology.
Senator the Hon Kate Lundy, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Industry and Technology on Information Technology.

Some web pages for Australian political parties: the currently governing party (strictly, the party with a majority in the federal House of Representatives) is the Liberal Party of Australia. The party in Opposition (next greatest in numbers) is the Australian Labor Party. The party with the balance of power in the Senate is the Australian Democrats.