Australian Citizens Party
{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Ambox }} Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox political party The Australian Citizens Party (ACP), formerly the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia (CEC), is a minor<ref name="briefingpaper"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> political party in Australia affiliated with the international LaRouche Movement, founded and originally led American political activist and conspiracy theorist<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Lyndon LaRouche.
The ACP campaigns on "restoring Australia’s national and economic sovereignty",<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with a focus on banking reform, including a "Glass-Steagall" division of Australia’s banks separating commercial from investment banking;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> an amendment to the Banking Act guaranteeing Australian bank deposits against a "bail-in";<ref>Template:Citation</ref> and a new government-owned bank, with a retail division operating in post offices.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The ACP is federally registered with the Australian Electoral Commission.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The party has pushed conspiracy theories, including that international action on climate change and indigenous land rights are part of a conscious fraud masterminded by Prince Philip, as part of the British royal family's scheme to depopulate the planet.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It ‘believes Prince Philip is trying to break up nation-states through the World Wide Fund for Nature and is involved in a "racist plot to splinter Australia"’.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Founded in 1988, the party has been led by Craig Isherwood ever since.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
History
The original CEC was established in 1988 by residents of the Kingaroy region of Queensland.Template:Citation needed CEC candidate Trevor Perrett won the 1988 Barambah state by-election in Queensland, after former Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigned in 1987. However, Perrett switched to the National Party in December 1988.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Members of the Australian League of Rights, an extreme right-wing group led by Eric Butler, tried unsuccessfully to take over the new party.<ref name="briefingpaper"/>Template:Failed verification Its purpose was to lobby for binding voter-initiated referendums.<ref name="apvaer">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=autogenerated2>Template:Cite web</ref>
By 1989, the CEC leadership was under the influence of the Lyndon LaRouche movement.<ref name="briefingpaper"/> By 1992, the CEC identified itself as the Australian branch of the broad international LaRouche movement. National Secretary Craig Isherwood moved the headquarters from rural Queensland to a Melbourne suburb, with direct communications links to LaRouche's US headquarters established.<ref name="apvaer"/>
In 1996, then-Liberal Party MP Ken Aldred was disendorsed by the Liberal Party after using parliamentary privilege to make allegations that a prominent Jewish lawyer and a senior foreign affairs official were involved in espionage and drug trafficking. Aldred made the claims using documents supplied to him by the CEC that were later found to be forged.<ref>Antisemitic claims in parliament (including HANSARD transcript):
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In 2004, the CEC received the largest contribution of any political party, $862,000 from a central Queensland cattle farmer and former CEC candidate named Ray Gillham.<ref>"Fed: Latham gone but the money flowed to ALP, AAP General News Wire. Sydney: 1 February 2005. pg. 1</ref><ref>"Ex-defence chief shies from 'cult' petition" By Martin Daly The Age 16 June 2004</ref> The party collected $2.3 million in donations in 2020-21.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the 2022–23, it raised approximately $1.4 million from 336 donations.<ref name="aec-2022-23">Template:Cite web</ref> The party’s leader is National Secretary and National Treasurer Craig Isherwood of Melbourne, who has been a candidate for the party numerous times.
Platform
The ACP, citing historic figure King O'Malley as inspiration, lobbied for "the establishment of a National Bank and State Banks to provide loans at 2% or less to agriculture (family farms), industry and for infrastructure development", launching a petition in 2002 to drive support with a full page advertisement in The Australian newspaper.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> In early 2008 the CEC started campaigning for a "Bank Homeowners Protection Bill of 2008", calling for legislation in the spirit of the Australian moratorium laws enacted in the 1920s and 1930s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The party continues to campaign for establishing a government-owned bank using the Australia Post network.<ref name="westpac">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The party follows the LaRouche line of denying the theory of anthropogenic global warming; it claimed in 2009 that the Copenhagen Summit, a climate conference occurring that year, was planning "massive population genocide‚ on a scale that would make Adolf Hitler blush" and the establishment of a "world government".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The party espouses the claim that the Port Arthur massacre, in which Martin Bryant murdered 35 people and injured 37 others, was instigated by mental health institute the Tavistock Institute on the orders of the royal family,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and that the Australian Liberal Party was founded by pro-Hitler fascists.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The CEC's other policies have included introducing a national Glass-Steagall Act to "break up the banks", introducing a moratorium on home & farm foreclosures, constructing high speed rail and the Bradfield Scheme, joining China's Belt and Road Initiative, shutting down Pine Gap and denying the existence of climate change.<ref name="Our Policies">Template:Cite web</ref>
Reception
In 2007, the Anti-Defamation Commission of the Australian branch of B'nai B'rith (an international Jewish organisation) has published a Briefing Paper with details of the CEC's alleged antisemitic, anti-gay, anti-Aboriginal and racist underpinnings. The document cites CEC publications and quotes former CEC members.<ref name="briefingpaper" /> The CEC published a response to the ADC, stating it was an antiracist organisation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Former members of the CEC and families of current members have accused the group of "brainwashing" members and engaging in campaigns involving "dirty tricks".<ref>Families fight back, Martin Daly, The Age, 30 January 1996; Dark side of the loons, Terry Sweetman, Courier Mail, 8 June 2001; Parents say candidate brainwashed, Adam Cooper, Australian Associated Press, 19 June 2001; and Template:Cite web</ref> For example, former CEC staffer Donald Veitch has claimed that new recruits undergo "deprogramming sessions" and that recruits are probed for sexual transgressions. Veitch has stated "The mind control operations commenced by Lyndon LaRouche in the USA in the mid-1970s are still being practised today within his movement in Australia".<ref>Veitch, Don, Beyond Common Sense – Psycho-Politics in Australia, 1996</ref>
Electoral results
Despite running in "almost every election of the past two decades", in no election has the CEC ever garnered more than 2% of the vote.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
At the 2007 federal election, the CEC's previous form continued. Its first preference votes in the lower house was 27,879 (0.22%), and 8,677 (0.07%) in the upper house, both results were 0.14% down from 2004.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
At the 2016 federal election, CEC fielded senate candidates in every state and the Northern Territory and seven candidates for seats in the House of Representatives.<ref name="2016candidates">Template:Cite web</ref> Nationally, the party received 5,175 votes (0.04%) in the lower house and 9,850 votes (0.07%) in the upper house.<ref>First Preferences by Party – National Template:Webarchive, AEC</ref>
See also
- Category:Australian Citizens Party politicians
- Political parties in Australia
- Gerard Rennick People First
References
External links
Template:LaRouche movement Template:Australian political parties