There is a new Australian political party that allows the public to vote on all legislation brought before the parliament and it looks like we are heading for a new age of democracy in Australia. If it works it will eventually put a stop to the unions and big business controlling Australian governments, politicians and how they vote in parliament.
The new political party is the Flux Party and they intend on allowing all Australians to vote on all legislation via a new application for smartphones etc. It is not a case of if we will be able to vote on all legislation but just a matter of when and the Flux Party are the first cab off the rank and the major parties will eventually have to follow or they will disappear.
How it works
Every time there is new legislation before the federal or state parliaments then the Flux members can vote how they want their member of parliament to vote. For example if there is a Flux Party senator in the federal government and they are voting on whether or not to have a Royal Commission into the corrupt banks then we vote using the new software. If 51% of the voters support it then the Flux Party senator will vote in support of the Royal Commission in the senate.
The Co-Founder of Flux, Nathan Spataro, says there are three things you can do with your vote.
“They can vote yes or no on any legislation put before that senator or senators.
“They can give their vote on that issue to someone they trust, it could be a peer, a friend, it could even be an organisation.
“Or they could trade their vote away in exchange for a vote they can use at a later time on an issue that they care or feel really strongly about”, he says. (Click here to read more)
Below is an interview I recorded with Flux Party co-founder Nathan Spataro on Friday the 17th June 2016 in Sydney. The other co-founder is Max Kaye.
How voting in parliament currently works
It is well-known that the major political parties quite often vote how they are told to vote. The Labor Party is controlled by the Unions and the Liberal Party is controlled by big business. Both parties are also known to accept bribes which can determine how they vote.
The below video is former Howard government minister Jackie Kelly who said ‘In NSW the Liberal Party is corrupt. The Liberal Party is full of lobbyists.’ on the ABC’s The Drum Friday June 3, 2016. Ms Kelly stated what is obvious to many NSW voters but it is good to see a former member of the party say it.
Federal Election, Canberra and Western Australia elections
The Flux Party has a total of 13 senate candidates across the country for the federal election and are hoping to get a few elected. Given it’s their first election it is obviously a test run for future elections and Canberra have a local election for the ACT Government in October this year and WA have a state election due early next year.
The ACT has 17 members of parliament to govern a population of just on 400,000 people. If the Flux Party can get some traction in the July 2nd Federal Election and then move quickly to campaigning in Canberra they might do well in the ACT election in October and pick up a seat or two there which would give the ACT government a huge shake up.
Funding the Flux Party
The Flux Party is initially being funded as a start-up for the software:
The Flux Startup recently privately raised AU$270,000 in seed funding. The company said further investment will be provided via a trust which will be seeded using electoral funding provided by the Australian Electoral Commission.
“If we receive any funding from the electoral commission — because it ultimately comes back to taxpayer dollars — we’ll treat this as though it was the people of Australia who gave us that money and so the idea behind that is to try and create a trust in the name of the Australian people and use that as a way to both fund the platform but also enfranchise regular voters,” (Click here to read more)
Ultimately in the long-term I think any software used to facilitate the ongoing regular voting on legislation will be owned or leased by the federal and state governments. If someone else owns it in the short-term it’s not a big issue.
I see this type of funding for a political party as being a lot better than the current system where the Labor Party and Liberal Party both steal off the taxpayer and launder the money into their own bank accounts as per the previous article I wrote on the subject. (Click here to read more) And it’s certainly better than all the bribes that the Liberal Party and Labor Party accept.
The Flux Party
The Flux Party are only new and have a website with all the information you need at: https://voteflux.org They have received quite a bit of publicity such as on the SMH website in an article titled “The Bitcoin of politics: Flux Party offers radical new model for democracy“ and on the ABC’s Lateline in a story titled “As voter dissatisfaction worldwide grows, ironically it’s politicians who are cashing in“.
It is totally free to join the party and you can volunteer to help for the elections at: https://voteflux.org/signup The Flux Party currently has 2996 members and 490 volunteers which updated in real-time on their website.
They have candidates in all the states for the federal election which you can see on their site at: https://voteflux.org/candidates and a community forum at: https://community.voteflux.org which allows you to interact with other members, find information and ask questions.
Summary
How well the Flux Party do and don’t do time will tell. But one thing is for sure and the model underpinning their party allowing the public to vote on all legislation will happen in the future. It has to as the current democratic system is suffering from systemic corruption everywhere you look and change is long overdue. The good news is that the needed change looks like it’s not far away.
At this stage I’ll be voting for the Flux Party simply on the basis that I think we need to get someone like them in parliament because it would put huge pressure on the major parties to clean up their act otherwise the Flux Party and other parties like them will take over as the public have had enough.
The days of only having 2 choices when voting are long gone and even more so with the Flux Party. The major parties will attack and try to undermine the public’s ability to vote on all legislation but if we can do our banking on the internet and tax returns on the internet etc. then there is no reason why we can’t vote on all legislation.
Admin: There is 2 weeks left until the election and I have raised approximately $2620 of the targeted $5,000 to keep on reporting and publishing for the federal election so please read below and support.
Kangaroo Court of Australia is an independent website and reliant on donations to keep publishing. If you would like to support the continuance of this site, please click on the button below to donate via PayPal or go to the donations page for other donation options. (Click here to go to the Donations page)
If you would like to follow this website, you can by email notification at the top right of this page and about twice a week you will be notified when there is a new article.
Thank you for your support.
Categories: Flux Party
So, if a person of low morals wanted to flood the ‘flux’ with calls from a call centre … What is stop them from doing this?
A call centre won’t be able to do much as voting is done on the internet. Whenever there is voting there will be people who will try and rort the system and that will need to be dealt with.
The Flux party, that’s an interesting idea, certainly to allow the involvement of the voters. But having those three options of voting, the more options the more people will find a to rort or fiddle with the system. My opinion would be to make it a vote yes or no on each legislation, keep it simple.
If you take lobbying out of politics, you would halve the corruption very quickly.
This is how our constitution was set up. If it was not corrupted by politicians it would still be the way without a new party..we need statesmen not opportunists in parliament
We need the Swiss-style Direct Democracy where citizens have more power over government decisions and initiatives.
I’m glad that you’re championing the cause of direct democracy.
The real slog is being done and has been for the last decade, by the voluntary contributions of many. onlinedirectdemocracy.org is one of those efforts, one of the many models being put forward. It’s not a speculative pitch, this is a working model and no we’re not Bondi Hipsters, so our media coverage is limited, nor are we finance insiders, which means our funding is tiny.
We believe in democracy and in the need for a diverse and open media.
Finally, a chance to put in a vote that will count. No more invalid votes for this bloke.
I think it will evaporate into the ether there is too much corruption in all the current parties and they will all form ranks and see that this new FLUX party sinks into oblivion.Every Polly that I know is only bent on one thing “keeping his/her job and staying in power” This condition has evolved over the last 50 years in all the western countries, I know because i have witnessed it. In Britain the last bastion of “true” politics died with Thatcher, in Australia Menzies when they broke the mold. Look at the sources from which pollies evolve, Liberal ….Lawyers, bankers,business men Labor……union officials lawyers, and local Councillors.The public are being rorted every day and politicians involved are just spitting in the face of the people the claim to be working for .Politics today are filth in a black suit and a red or blue tie.OK a few have been caught and less have been punished but most are up there ripping us all off while we pay their salaries and supplying a pension that you cannot jump over.
Allan Usherwood Myalup (Not a cynic just an aged realist)
I hear your concerns Alan. I’ll declare an interest, I’m candidate in Perth for the real direct democracy advocates – onlinedirectdemocracy.org
We run because we believe in democracy as means of enfranchising everyone.
There’s no redemption nor much hope in maintaining the duopoly, all we’ve seen from either side is the emasculation of Australian sovereignty to the point we’re in deficit because we can’t collect taxes from the largest businesses in our country.
The only way this gets better is if we do the same to the Pollies power base, take away the franchise that they assume means to rule without question based on a 3ish yearly popular vote. If we bring back real democracy those far too clever men and women of the parties end up with a vote each. They can spruik their crazed ideologies and beliefs but unless the majority backs them, the idea’s going nowhere.
I got up, put up my $1k (buggered if I can actually afford it) because I’m damned if I don’t stand up and try to do something that will force change on this perverse politics that’s destroying my once beloved country. Two core beliefs were passed to me:
1. That democracy means all who are involved in an issue, are legally enfranchised, can debate and discuss that issue and that we will decide by popular vote a majority which will be enacted. It offers no guarantee other than that, the right to vote on every issue.
2. That the purpose of life is to make the world a better place than we found it.
Pessimism, cynicism, that’ll get us a whole lot more of the same, guaranteed. If you want to see change grab hold of reality and shake it.
Who has the money to set up such a new party? It ain’t the “average people”. Average people get squashed anyway when they try to do something good, be it by changing laws, intimidation, threats, or whatever.
The world’s elite criminals and their politician lapdogs are starting to get very scared. People are starting to get very angry with the entire corrupt system. Until I see solid evidence to the contrary, I will see this as another fake attempt to capture the disgruntled vote. Just like the Obama campaign to do good for the people was a fraud, i suspect this will be another.
I hope, but doubt. My guard is up.
My concern is that ask a million people whether they want to raise a tax to pay for something important … and the question will be too complex to get an educated vote. Instead people will vote for things that are good short term.
I wish I had more faith in the ability of the population… such that over 50% would have good knowledge and long term big picture thinking.
Am I missing something that might convince me?
I think 50% is a generous estimate.
If this party gets up and running and starts to worry the major parties, the majors will get together and trump up charges against Flux, just as they did with Pauline Hanson and her party.
The first hurdle that this party has to overcome is the fear and loathing of the Murdoch press.The standard tactics of smear and innuendo will be the opening gambit.The second stage will be to enlist the help of other media owners such as Stokes etc through there print,radio and TV outlets.I suspect the third stage will be formulated by lobbyist for oligarchies and the corporate cabal of the big end of town.
If Murdochracy is threatened it will be interesting to see what terror will be unleashed upon us all.
I hope they survive because they are a breathe of fresh air in a moribund system that is well overdue for a revival of the intent of our founding fathers.
Anyhow I have to go now I need more Gin.
Any form of electronic voting ups the likelihood of fraud, as the Americans have found over the past fifteen years.
I understand the direct democracy system relies uses something like Bitcoin technology – verifiable and anonymous.
There are discussions here https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Liquid_Democracy and here https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/jan-behrens-axel-kistner-andreas-nitsche-bj%C3%B6rn-swierczek-marco-deseriis/liquid-de and software here http://www.liquidfeedback.org/
The US has problems with old, unverified voting machines, hacks and disfranchisement that are systemic and do not invalidate the concept. See http://www.phibetaiota.net/2016/05/antechinus-us-vote-rigging-favors-clinton/