Home Australia’s Flag Australian Constitution Article Index Audio Resources Contact Us
Your Will Be Done (p7 of 10)
A booklet by Arthur A Chresby
(Research Analyst in Constitutional Law, and formerly Federal Member for Griffith in the House of Representatives.)
(6) WHAT IS A POLITICAL PARTY?
If you will but pause to think deeply and seriously you will find that a political party, despite its propaganda, constitutions, fine words and phrases, eventually becomes an organisation in the form of a pyramid with final power in the apex of that pyramid. The mass at the base being subject to manipulation by those in the apex, or by those who control the apex from outside of party organisation.
It is not an unreasonable contention that those who finally win through to the apex of the pyramid, both organisational and parliamentary, have to become manipulators of their fellows if they wish to hold their place of power at the top.
A political party, by the very nature of its pyramidal structure, is not, and cannot be, a democratic organisation, and the many years of party politics in Australia since Federation, proves that it is not democratic, despite beautifully worded constitutions, platforms, policies, and philosophies.
Here it might be wise to pause for a moment to define that much used, and much abused, word "democracy" Consensus has it that "democracy" is "Government of the people, by the people, for the people." However, whilst Lincoln's definition, with its tremendous emotive tones, sounds and reads well, experience has shown that in application this concept produces the opposite result "Government of the many by the few in the apex. "
It is suggested here that a far more practical definition of "democracy" would be that it is:
the administration of the affairs of the country to produce the specific results that the people request, not what politicians promise they will give if elected to power.
In the light of the long experience of Australian party politics, it becomes indisputable that political parties are incompatible with this new definition; that the continued domination and control of the Parliamentary machine by party politics must inevitably end in the wrecking of that machine, and the transfer of power to party manipulators. The evidence for this is becoming more painfully obvious each day.
The Australian history of parties demonstrates that every new party comes into being on the claim that existing parties have become dictatorships and that the new party is the only party capable of governing in the name of democracy. However, once its candidates enter a House of Parliament the new party quickly develops in the same mould as those it strove to replace.
Thus, we find the breaking-up and reforming, or splintering, of party groupings as people foolishly seek to overcome the party pyramidal structure and manipulation by replacing it with the same device and mechanism clothed in fine emotive words and phrases. People do not stop seriously to examine the Constitutions of the Commonwealth and the States, and the court interpretations thereof, to find the real nature of the Constitutional and legal powers that the Australian people possess to obtain the specific results they want from their Parliaments and Parliamentarians.
In discussions with politicians and others, the existence of faults in the party system will be admitted, to be immediately followed by the claim that the people traditionally vote on party lines; that the people vote for the party system because the people want the party system.
It is legally unchallengeable that the party system exists and operates ONLY because the Australian people have been deliberately misled into believing that, other than by a dictatorship, there is no other way that Parliament could function effectively and efficiently; that despite its many faults the party system is the only effective and efficient democratic way of governing the country. This is Constitutionally and legally false.
The sole role of a political party, like any other lawful organisation, is simply to recommend to the electors that "so and so " would be a good parliamentary representative and would faithfully carry-out the judicially defined legal function and duty of a parliamentarian. Should the electors accept the party's recommendation and elect that person then the party has no further legal vested interest in that elected person.
Once the Australian people are given the opportunity to learn and grasp that their Commonwealth and State Constitutions, and judicial interpretations thereof, provide the people with a practical legal alternative to the party system to democratically (as defined in this Chapter) operate the seven Australian Parliaments then, save those with a vested interest in the party system and its manipulation, the electors will cease to use the party system.
It is a matter of the printed evidence in the Hansards of all Australian Parliaments that the most honest debating and voting only takes place, with the rarest of exceptions, when the leaders of the parties agree that a certain Bill shall be debated on non-party lines; that their party parliamentarians shall be allowed to speak and vote absolutely freely according to their individual conscience. All other debates and votes must be on strictly party lines.
To summarise the answer to the question "what is a political party?
A political party, in fact and in experience, is a device or mechanism designed to enable manipulators, either elected or non-elected, to obtain and exercise the maximum direct control over the destiny of the people, cliches notwithstanding, in accordance with the will of the manipulators and controllers.
This Book is reprinted in memory of the author, Arthur A. Chresby in appreciation for his 53 years of research and study into constitutional law.
Due acknowledgement should be given when quoting from material on this Site
Continued…