Do you really want to vote above the line? Your quick election guide to WA’s 19 parties

In WA voters can only put a ‘1’ next to the party it most wants to see in government for upper house ballots or fill out all their preferences.

Preferences will flow based on the deals brokered by each individual party when someone votes above the line.

For 2021 the Australian Christians, WAxit, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, No Mandatory Vaccination, and the Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers parties have all placed each other high on their respective tickets to help boost their odds.

The Health Australia Party, WA Party, Daylight Savings Party, Liberals for Climate, Liberal Democrats, and Sustainable Australia Party have made a deal where they take turns to be the highest preferenced party between themselves in the six different Legislative Council electorates.

Six micro-party outsiders with a shot at a seat

Let’s take a quick look at the top candidates from those six parties in their most favourable seats.

Bass Tadros [Health Australia Party], Agricultural

The Health Australia Party has been labelled an anti-vaxxer group by Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup but the organisation says it is just against No Jab, No Play legislation.

There is also an anti-fluoride policy and a platform of reducing the exposure of electromagnetic fields to humans which calls for a demonstration that 5G is safe.

The party wants fossil fuel generators to be replaced with renewable energy systems in the next 15 years and for weedkiller glyphosate to be banned.

Bass Tadros recently posted on his candidate Facebook page a post where he spoke about the musings of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner while connecting the Spanish Flu to the advent of radio.

“He [the philosopher] blamed that technology because he said the electricity in the air is what’s making people sick,” he said.

Mr Tadros went on to talk about how there was a lot of electricity in the air now thanks to technology like 5G and wi-fi.

Charles Smith MLC [WA Party], East Metropolitan

Mr Smith was elected as a member of One Nation before quitting the party two years after being elected in 2017.

Mr Smith and the WA Party want to add 30 per cent to mining royalties for the big miners if they “refuse to hire local workers”, bring in mandatory sentencing, overhaul the local government system, ban property developer donations, and get Perth out of the regional migration scheme.

The party has several WA-first policies and describes itself as being from the centre of the political spectrum.

Wilson Tucker [Daylight Savings Party], Mining and Pastoral

Mr Tucker is the founder of the single-issue party which was formed in 2016. Its goal is simple: bring in daylight savings for WA. DSP applied to rename itself the National Liberals this year, to try to take advantage of confused voters, but the change was blocked by the WAEC.

The party’s website no longer works.

Daithi Gleeson [Liberals for Climate], North Metropolitan

Liberals for Climate could do well this election after being drawn in the second spot of the ballot in two electorates and being placed ahead of the opposition in three.

Mr Gleeson is the secretary and face of the party which successfully changed its name from the Flux Party earlier this year.

The party does not have any policies and wants to use a system where voters log into an app to have their say on individual bills that come up in Parliament.

Loading

Daniel Minson [Sustainable Australia Party], South West

The Sustainable Australia Party has been around for about a decade but used to be known as the Sustainable Population Party.

The party regularly campaigns against population growth and runs on the three tenets of protecting the environment, stopping overdevelopment, and stopping corruption.

Mr Minson is the WA state organiser for the party and studied engineering.

He has been running videos online calling for a stop to political donations and prevention of developments such as a five-star hotel on the cliffs of Gnarabup.

Aaron Stonehouse MLC [Liberal Democrats], South Metropolitan

Mr Stonehouse was the big winner from the 2017 election and found himself the swing vote on several crucial bills since then.

Mr Stonehouse would not horse-trade with Labor on wiping the Roe 8 extension from the metropolitan regional scheme but also did not manage to get through his private members bill to introduce airsoft, a paintball-like sport using soft bullets, to WA.

The Liberal Democrat is promising to legalise silencers for guns and open Crown land for hunting if re-elected.

The party espouses policies based on classic liberalism and less government interference in the lives of individuals.

The rest of the parties

Liberal and Labor need no introduction, but the rest you might not be so familiar with.

Animal Justice Party

This party has picked up seats in the upper houses of Victoria and New South Wales.

They oppose things like live export, promote the total protection of sharks from fishing and culling, and are pushing for a shift for people to just have plant-based diets.

Invasive species such as camels and horses should not be killed according to AJP, which also wants to phase out natural gas in favour of renewable energy, and keep human population growth at or below replacement levels.

Australian Christians

The party has been around since 2011 when WA and Victorian branches of the Christian Democratic Party decided to form a new organisation.

It believes Judeo-Christianity should be the foundation of Australia’s laws, education and culture, but there should also be freedom of religion.

The party is also anti-gay marriage, pro-life and is opposed to reproductive technology being used by people who are not married.

Great Australian Party

Founded by former One Nation senator Rod Culleton, who was disqualified from parliament after his election, the Great Australian Party wants to abolish the family law court, establish mandatory sentencing for violent crimes, and send juvenile offenders to boot camps.

It also wants to nationalise the Commonwealth Bank, abolish income tax, remove compulsory super, and bring in net zero immigration.

The party has a policy of removing all ‘coercive legislation’ so people can decide if vaccination is for them.

Celebrity chef Pete Evans was recently revealed as a future candidate for the party in the next federal election.

Legalise Cannabis WA Party

A newly formed party.

Pretty much all their policies are cannabis-related with legalisation the most prominent issue. They want the drug treated similar to alcohol but with plain packaging, age restrictions, and no advertising.

The party also wants a defence for drug driving laws for cannabis based on medical use.

National Party of Australia WA

The traditional government partners of the Liberals have shared ‘total control’ of parliament in previous years but flexed their muscles in 2008 when they threatened to make a deal with Labor instead.

What resulted from the negotiations was Royalties for Regions which saw 25 per cent of annual mining and petroleum royalties set aside for reinvestment in regional areas with a fund cap of $1 billion each year.

The Nationals have four current MLCs and will be hoping to bounce back in areas like Mining and Pastoral where they had a 9 per cent swing against them in 2017.

No Mandatory Vaccination Party

This new party wants conscientious objections to vaccinations and to stop children from having to get vaccinated to go to school.

NMVP also wants to make it illegal for businesses to require workers to get a vaccination as a condition of employment.

The party also wants to repeal two sections of the WA Public Health Act including one that allows for government authorities to administer vaccination, with force if necessary, during a serious public health incident.

The current Premier and Health Minister have repeatedly assured the public vaccinations for COVID-19 will not be mandatory.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation

WA leader Colin Tincknell told 6PR the party on a state level sat between Labor and Liberal as he distanced the WA branch from federal policies.

“I think in the past we had some very far-right people who just appealed to just a very small percentage of the public,” he said.

“We’ve got very strong social credentials, we care about people who are less fortunate than us.”

The party has released nine policies on its website under the banners of health, education, and law and order.

Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers Party

Party leader Rick Mazza MLC has switched from the Agricultural electorate to the South West for the current election.

Mr Mazza has been a member of parliament since 2013.

The party wants to enable hunting of pest and game animals on public land, more pressure on fire load management, and abolition of the state land tax, payroll tax, and stamp duty.

It also wants the lending of guns between people with the same type of firearms licence, no arbitrary limit on how many firearms one person can own, and the legalisation of silencers.

Socialist Alliance WA

An anti-capitalist party that has been around for about 20 years in Australia, which has seen several local government councillors elected across the nation, including its Fremantle lower house candidate Sam Wainwright.

Loading

The party wants higher taxes for big businesses and polluters along with the abolishment of the GST and nationalisation of the big four banks.

There are policies around ending intensive animal farming and live export.

The party also wants free access to childcare, pre-school, and education, including university study.

The Greens

The Greens, which has four sitting MLCs, is hopeful of holding its numbers but will be in an arm wrestle with Labor when it comes to whether preference flows favour one or the other in seats like South Metropolitan and the South West.

There is potential that the party will find itself in a balance of power situation in the upper house with Labor.

WAxit Party

WAxit is a merger of the Small Business Party and the secessionist WA Republic Party, which had been unable to register with the WAEC before the 2021 election.

Many of its policies are related to breaking off from the rest of Australia with platforms that include starting a WA army, keeping the billions in dollars generated in the state that usually go to federal coffers, and having its own welfare system.

Other policies are for families to be encouraged to have more children and for improving the international relationship with China.