The National Committee of Sustainable Australia Party (SAP) has decided not to contest the 2024 ACT Legislative Assembly election, and instead sit out as a conscientious objector to what it calls “an unfair electoral system”.
The party had registered to contest the 2024 ACT election.
“It is an electoral system of the majors, by the majors, for the majors,” a spokesperson said.
The Sustainable Australia Party describes itself as an independent community movement with a science and evidence-based policy platform with sustainable solutions to address Australia’s growing economic, environmental and social problems. It challenges what it terms “the reckless political agenda of rapid growth” in both resource consumption and population size. Its EnvironmentFirstplan aims to stop corruption (including in politics, planning and development); stop overdevelopment (including housing sprawl and high-rise); and stabilise the population (mainly by returning annual permanent immigration to the twentieth century average level of 70,000 per year).
In its 2023 submission to the ACT Redistribution Committee on the review of the ACT Legislative Assembly’s electoral boundaries, SAP had recommended that the ACT Government reduce the number of ACT electorates to two, maintaining the existing (or near existing for evenness) number of members of the Legislative Assembly; and remove the four per cent primary vote threshold for campaign expenditure refund public funding of political parties and independent candidates, so that all candidates could attract the same public funding amount per vote.
“The current electoral boundaries, in particular the number of electorates, disenfranchise Canberrans who do not support the policies of the Labor/Liberal/Green major parties,” SAP stated at the time. “It does this by making the quota to be elected so high as to be generally unobtainable by other than major parties. It therefore fails a basic test of best practice proportional representation.
“Mathematically, there are 25 members of the Legislative Assembly (also known as MLAs), so the community would expect that a quota for winning one seat would require around one-twenty fifth of the vote, being 4 per cent.
“But the electorates have been set up by the major parties to require a quota of one-sixth, or roughly 16.67 per cent of all votes cast in one electorate, just to win one seat.
“The Sustainable Australia Party submits that if the ACT were divided into just two electorates, this disenfranchisement would be significantly resolved because the quota to be elected would be significantly reduced, to under 10 per cent.
“This is a much fairer and more achievable aim for all candidates. An undivided ACT for electoral purposes would be the ultimate outcome for proportional representation and democratic fairness; however, two electorates would be a reasonable compromise to start with.”
SAP argued that the lack of an upper house of review (unlike every Australian electorate except Queensland) made the issue of the political disenfranchisement of non-major party supporters particularly acute.
“Normally, the upper houses have much larger electorates or even a single State-wide electorate, and so provide more options for proportionality and therefore non-major party representation. This is demonstrated by the significant presence of minor parties and independents in other jurisdictions, especially in upper houses. This presence augments democracy by providing a greater plurality of views and inputs into political decisions and processes. We all benefit from this diversity of political opinion, sadly lacking in the ACT.”
SAP also maintained that funding inequality contributed to the lack of democratic representation in the ACT.
“That many Canberrans are unable to have their political opinions represented in the Legislative Assembly is due in part to the current system of public funding of political parties,” SAP argued.
“Parties need to achieve 4 per cent of the primary vote before qualifying for any campaign expenditure refunds. Effectively, this means that the three big parties – Labor, Liberal and Greens – receive refunds for most or all of their campaign spend, including a return of their nomination deposits, while small parties and independents usually receive no refund at all.
“This is a regressive system that penalises small parties and leads to large voting disparities and inequality between the big three and the rest in the ACT.”
A spokesperson today criticised the ACT Legislative Assembly for undermining democratic principles, and suggested that an independent body should oversee elections.
“Unfortunately, the ACT Legislative Assembly, made up of the very parties who benefit from the current system, did not implement any of these fairness measures.
“The fact that the main players make the rules is in itself counter to the principles of democracy. It goes without saying that an independent body such as Elections ACT should make the rules, rather than the foxes guarding the henhouse.
“Hopefully, the media will pick up on this travesty, but for now we are left with an unfair paying field for minor parties and independents.
“Another key part of the power imbalance is the failure of the mainstream media in the ACT to provide reasonable coverage of most minor parties and independents. While the odd independent receives major mainstream media coverage, most minor parties and independents are shunned, or ‘no-platformed’. Despite running candidates in every ACT electorate in both the 2016 and 2020 ACT elections, no major media organisation including the ABC and the Canberra Times provided any opportunity for a feature interview with any SAP candidate. Media releases have been roundly ignored. Is this democracy?”
The spokesperson said that SAP would now focus its limited resources on its ACT Senate campaign, NSW Local Government elections, and its realistic chance of winning an Upper House seat in the March 2025 WA election.
“The decision not to contest the 2024 ACT election is regrettable because SAP is the only political movement to put our environment first,” a spokesperson said.
“ACT voters will not have the choice to vote for SAP and its policy platform to stop corruption, stop overdevelopment, and stabilise Australia’s population size, among a range of other science and evidence-based policies.
“Consistent with SAP’s strong inclination to not enter into preference deals, we will not be making any recommendations as to who our members and supporters should vote for in the absence of SAP.
“However, we do always recommend that voters not waste their number 1 vote on a ‘big four’ major party, but to use the preferencing system to send them a message.
“SAP retains a strong commitment to the ACT, and encourages all ACT residents to research its policy platform and consider joining the party via https://www.sustainableaustralia.org.au/.”
