(Apologies for this long rant - those with no interest in politics can safely skip it.)
Mate, I'll make the assumption that you actually want to win a seat in Parliament, and aren't just forming this political party as something of an ego trip. A little about my background here: Long, long ago, I was heavily involved in the Australian Democrats (before they turned into the joke they currently are). I contested the 2001 election as a House of Reps candidate, and spent a year as a deputy national president of the party, and also worked briefly as a staffer for one of the Democrat senators. So I have a very good understanding of what it takes to win elections, and to actually make a worthwhile contribution in parliament. The first problem I have with this "Australian Business Party" is that whoever wrote their policy statement on their website doesn't seem to have the slightest clue about anything, let alone business. I'll hazard a guess from the use of Unnecessarily Capitalised Nouns in both your emails, and the policy statement, that you are the author of this document. It's the worst hodge-podge of though I've ever seen, and makes some of the Democrat policy fluff look like exercises in intellectual rigour. And this is supposed to be policy, the very bread- and-butter of a political party? Good lord. Where's the economic modelling to show that a) these policies can actually be funded by the Government (because, y'know, you have to have enough revenue raised by taxes to cover what you spend), and b) that these policies will have the effects you want - how will consumer demand be affected by your proposed changes to the GST? How will it affect GDP growth? Unemployment? National savings levels? Inflation? Which business sectors have particularly elastic demand that would make them very sensitive to changes in price caused by the doubling of GST, as you propose? What about the government support of Australian manufacturing? Does this involve tariffs and other protectionist measures? How will our trading partners react to these - particularly those countries with whom we have FTA's? Will that reduce export markets for Australian businesses? I don't care about your particular answers to the questions: I'm asking them to show that you haven't thought of them, and that you haven't put in the research to understand the issues about which you proclaim your policies. And yet, you propose massive changes to the structure of the Australian economy, and dare to offer yourself and your party as the representative of Australian "small business"? Piss off - politics is not a game for amateurs, and the I find the idea that you or your party might every have influence over legislation which affects my business and my life spectacularly disturbing. (However, I won't lose too much sleep at the moment over this, about which more later). Being a politician is not a trade where you get to learn on the job. In the unlikely event you get elected, you will need to deal with complex legislation that profoundly affects millions of people from the first day you sit in parliament. You will need to counter-balance the competing interests of many different groups (even within such sectors as "small business" - it is naive in the extreme to assume that "small business" in this country is a homogeneous entity with identical values and interests) and assess the effects of the afore- mentioned complex legislation on these groups. The second problem I have is that you don't understand how much work and money it takes to get elected, and are selling a lot of people who are joining your party a pipe dream. Take the NSW senate election, which I presume will be one of the elections you might consider contesting. A quota for election is 600K votes at a half-senate election. Because of the preferential voting system, that means you'll have to convince around _four hundred thousand_ people to vote for you as their first preference, and then negotiate some favorable GVT preference flows from the major parties. That's a HUGE task. In the 2001 and 2004 elections, the Democrats got close to these numbers, but still didn't win, and we spent $400K in NSW alone on each election. And that's a for a party which would probably have attracted (at that time) 100K - 200K votes just from their name on the ballot paper. Where are you and your party going to raise $400K? I'd suggest you'd need double that as a realistic figure since no-one will know who you are. Where will you find the thousands of volunteers needed to hand out How-To-Vote cards at polling booths across the state? That's important, because you'll typically lose 15-25% of your potential vote wherever people don't receive How-To-Vote cards. Like it or not, politics in this country revolves around having real money, and all the press releases and policies in the world are worthless if no-one knows about them. So here's my advice to you: If you are _really_ serious about forming a worthwhile political party, take the next year to learn everything you possibly can about the society you wish to represent. Read every book and every report you can get your hand on. Talk to as many small business owners as possible, and find out what they think, and what affects them, because merely assuming your experiences are reflective of everyone else's is patently faulty logic. Policy should be developed after consultation with those it affects, not before. Make contacts with researchers and entrepreneurs and journalists and anyone else who might have something to contribute to your proposed party. Listen to what they have to say. And work out exactly how, and from whom, you will raise whatever amount of money you need to contest the elections you want to. I'm sorry to everyone else for this rant, but it _is_ relevant to start-ups. Having self-appointed, venal and incompetent people proclaiming themselves representatives of "small business" not only reflects badly on us as entrepreneurs, but actively works against our interests in the wider community. Cheers Jason On Jul 22, 10:10 pm, "thebusinesspa...@iprimus.com.au" <thebusinesspa...@iprimus.com.au> wrote: > Hi Everyone, > > My name is Joseph Adams. > This year a will be launching a new political party that will give > Small Business a voice in Parliament. The Australian Business Party > platform is the following: > > Mission Statement > > The Australian Business Party has the following mission: > > To support people who operate or work for a Small Business > > To give Small Business a voice in Government. > > To promote Australian Manufacturing. > > To support Australian Farmers. > > To support Australian Made products. > > To protect the rights of people involved in Small Business. > > To invest in economic infrastructure. > > To help people establish themselves in Small Business. > > To promote greater employment opportunities. > > For more information visitwww.australianbusinessparty.com.au > > If this is something you can support then drop me a line and give > Small Business a fair go. > You can either be part of the solution or part of the 'I don't care > for politics' group. > Your voice, your vote and your actions will speak. > > Regards, > > Joseph Adams > Party President > Australian Business Party > Level 1, 299 Elizabeth St SYDNEY NSW 2000 > Tel (02) 8251 0029 Fax (02) 8251 0097www.australianbusinessparty.com.au --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. 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