Australian Workers Party

Last updated

Australian Workers Party
AbbreviationAWP
PresidentPeter Bell
Secretary Mark Ptolemy
FoundedFebruary 2017;6 years ago (2017-02)
Ideology Modern Monetary Theory
Social democracy
Political position Centre-left to left-wing
Colours   Orange and blue
SloganReal people, real voices, real choices
Website
www.australianworkersparty.org

The Australian Workers Party (AWP) is an Australian political party which registered with the Australian Electoral Commission in February 2017. [1] The party was de-registered on 15 June 2021. [2]

AWP was formed in response to the continual expansion of economic neoliberalism pursued and implemented by successive Australian governments. The party holds that Australia's main political parties both follow neoliberal economic philosophies which have led to unacceptable levels of unemployment, underemployment, workforce casualisation, the deterioration of workers rights, worker exploitation, the emergence of the working poor and inefficient policies affecting Australia's workforce.

Whilst progressive in all of its policy areas and clearly standing for the ideals of "social and economic justice", [3] the party retains its focus on the wellbeing of workers and their families, macroeconomics and rejects neoliberal assertions which have become accepted as mainstream. The party subscribes to the economic branch of Modern Monetary Theory and advocates an economy which prioritises full employment. Notably, the party advocates the implementation of a job guarantee among its policy platform.

Election results

House of Representatives
Election yearNo. of
overall votes
 % of
overall vote
No. of
overall seats won
+/–
2019 1,6760.01
0 / 150
Increase2.svg 0
Senate
Election yearNo. of
overall votes
 % of
overall vote
No. of
seats won
+/–
2019 28,3810.19
0 / 40
Steady2.svg 0

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Labor Party</span> Federal political party in Australia

The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia and one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party has been in government since being elected at the 2022 federal election, and with political branches in each state and territory, they currently form government in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. As of 2023, Tasmania is the only state or territory where Labor forms the opposition. It is the oldest continuous political party in Australian history, being established on 8 May 1901 at Parliament House, Melbourne, the meeting place of the first federal Parliament.

Neoliberalism, also neo-liberalism, is a term used to signify the late-20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent factor in the rise of conservative and right-libertarian organizations, political parties, and think tanks, and predominantly advocated by them, it is generally associated with policies of economic liberalization, including privatization, deregulation, globalization, free trade, monetarism, austerity, and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society. The neoliberal project is also focused on designing institutions and has a political dimension. The defining features of neoliberalism in both thought and practice have been the subject of substantial scholarly debate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swedish Social Democratic Party</span> Centre-left political party in Sweden

The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the SwedishSocial Democratic Workers' Party, usually referred to as The Social Democrats, is a social-democratic and democratic socialist political party in Sweden. Founded in 1889, the SAP is the country's oldest and currently largest party.

The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of certain centre-right economic policies and left-wing social policies into a centre-left economic framework.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">São Paulo Forum</span> Conference of left-wing political parties

São Paulo Forum (FSP), also known as the Foro de São Paulo, is a conference of left-wing political parties and other organizations from the Americas, primarily Latin America and the Caribbean. It was launched by the Workers' Party of Brazil in 1990 in the city of São Paulo.

Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. Parties of the centre-right generally support liberal democracy, capitalism, the market economy, private property rights, and a modest welfare state. They support conservatism and economic liberalism and oppose socialism and communism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberal Democratic Party (Australia)</span> Australian political party

The Libertarian Party, formerly known as the Liberal Democratic Party, is an Australian political party founded in Canberra in 2001. The party espouses smaller government and supports policies that are based on classical liberal, libertarian principles, such as lower taxes, opposing restrictions on civil liberties, decentralisation, utilising nuclear energy, and the relaxation of smoking laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Saleam</span>

James Saleam is an Australian far-right extremist and the chairman of the Australia First Party. Saleam has been described as a white nationalist, who has been a strong advocate of barring further immigration to preserve a "self-contained, predominantly white nation resistant to further immigration or watering-down of its culture". This is often considered ironic as Saleam is alleged to have mixed Lebanese ancestry; indigenous people of the Middle East, and in fact all non-Europeans, and even some Southern Europeans were once barred from immigrating to Australia until the 1950s under the White Australia policy. He has been observed wearing a swastika armband and associating with neo-Nazi skinheads.

Libertarianism in the United Kingdom can either refer to a political movement synonymous with anarchism, left-libertarianism and libertarian socialism, or to a political movement concerned with the pursuit of propertarian right-libertarian ideals in the United Kingdom which emerged and became more prominent in British politics after the 1980s neoliberalism and the economic liberalism of the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, albeit not as prominent as libertarianism in the United States in the 1970s and the presidency of Republican Ronald Reagan during the 1980s.

Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal-democratic polity and a capitalist-oriented mixed economy.

The Progress Party, initially known as the Workers Party, was a minor political party in Australia in the mid-to-late 1970s. It was formed on 26 January 1975, as a free-market right-libertarian and anti-socialist party, by businessmen John Singleton and Sinclair Hill, in reaction to the economic policies of Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam. It operated and ran candidates in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, but it did not have a central federal structure. Its Western Australian affiliate, which advocated secession from the rest of Australia, did particularly well in the area surrounding Geraldton in the state's Mid West. However, the party failed to win seats at any level of government and had gone out of existence by 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Party of Regions (Poland)</span> Political party in Poland

The Party of Regions was a left-wing Polish non-parliamentary political party created in November 2007 and registered in February 2008. The Party of Regions was created by former members of Self-Defence and the Democratic Left Alliance after the parliamentary election in 2007, when Self-Defence support collapsed to far less than the 5% electoral threshold giving them no seats in the new legislature. Founders of the grouping included Krzysztof Filipek, Danuta Hojarska and Bolesław Borysiuk. For failure to disclose their financial records for the year 2015, they were struck off in early 2017.

Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is an agrarian populist political party in Australia that advocates for a synthesis of agrarian socialist economic policies and conservative social policies. It was founded by Bob Katter, an independent and former Nationals MP for the seat of Kennedy, with a registration application lodged to the Australian Electoral Commission in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animal Justice Party</span> Political party in Australia

The Animal Justice Party (AJP) is a political party in Australia founded in 2009 by Steve Garlick. The party was registered by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on 3 May 2011. The party is also registered in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory. The AJP is the first political party in Australia formed solely to advance animal welfare issues.

Socialism in Australia dates back at least as far as the late-19th century. Notions of socialism in Australia have taken many different forms including utopian nationalism in the style of Edward Bellamy, the democratic socialist reformist electoral project of the early Australian Labor Party (ALP), and the revolutionary Marxism of parties such as the Communist Party of Australia.

Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre and broadly conform with progressivism. Ideologies of the centre-left include social democracy, social liberalism and green politics. Ideas commonly supported by the centre-left include welfare capitalism, social justice, liberal internationalism, and multiculturalism. Economically, the centre-left supports a mixed economy in a democratic capitalist system, often including economic interventionism, progressive taxation, and the right to unionize. Centre-left politics are contrasted with far-left politics that reject capitalism or advocate revolution.

The Expatriate Party of New Zealand was an unregistered political party that sought to represent people who consider themselves New Zealanders but who do not reside in New Zealand. It contested one electorate, but not the party vote, at the 2014 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol</span> Political party in the United Kingdom

Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol (CISTA) was a political party in the United Kingdom, which advocated the legalisation of cannabis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Affordable Housing Party</span> Political party in Australia

The Australian Affordable Housing Party is an Australian political party registered with the Australian Electoral Commission for federal elections in Australia. Its first election contest was in the 2017 Bennelong by-election.

The Transport Matters Party was an Australian political party active in Victoria. The party was registered with the Victorian Electoral Commission on 30 April 2018, after an application was received by the VEC on 9 January 2018.

References

  1. "Current register of political parties". Australian Electoral Commission.
  2. "Notice of deregistration Australian Workers Party" (PDF). Australian Electoral Commission.
  3. Mamo, Erin (14 August 2017). "New party has strong local flavour". Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2017.