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Australian Federation Party

(Redirected from Australian Country Alliance)

The Australian Federation Party (AFP), also known as AusFeds and formerly known as the Country Alliance and the Australian Country Party, is an Australian political party. Founded in 2004 by four rural Victorians,[1] the party lodged its initial registration with the Victorian Electoral Commission on 15 August 2005.

Country Alliance
(2011–2015)
Australian Country Party
(2015–2020)
Australian Federation Party
Federation Party
AbbreviationAFP, FP
ChairpersonGlenn O'Rourke
National DirectorGlenn O'Rourke
FounderRussell Bate[a]
FoundedAugust 2005; 19 years ago (August 2005)
Registered26 July 2011; 13 years ago (26 July 2011)
HeadquartersMirboo North, Victoria, Australia
Ideology
Political positionRight-wing
ReligionChristianity[4][5]
Colors    Yellow and blue
Slogan“Working For You”
House of Representatives
0 / 151
Senate
0 / 76
Website
Official website

In 2020, the party changed its name to the Australian Federation Party,[6] and is currently registered to contest elections in New South Wales and the Northern Territory[7][8] as well as at federal elections.

History

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The party was founded in early 2004 as the Country Alliance by four Victorians—Fiona Hilton-Wood, a staffer for independent MP Russell Savage; Russell Bate, a Shire of Mansfield councillor; Bob Richardson, a former union official; and Russell Pearson, a member of the Sporting Shooters Association.[1] As the Country Alliance, the party contested the 2006 and 2010 Victorian state elections. In July 2011, the Country Alliance was registered with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

In August 2015, the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) approved a name change for the party, adopting the name Australian Country Party. In October 2015, the Australian Electoral Commission approved the party's name change for federal elections.[9]

In August 2018, the party lodged a change of name application to change its name to the Australia Party/Give it Back,[10] but withdrew the application before processing was completed.[11] In September 2018, the VEC approved a similar application, with the party registered in Victoria as the Australian Country Party/Give It Back.[12] In January 2019, the party applied to revert its Victorian registration to the Australian Country Party.[13]

In February 2020, the party changed its name to the Australian Federation Party. On 4 March, Tasmanians 4 Tasmania, a minor party which had contested the 2018 Tasmanian state election, was formally renamed to Federation Party Tasmania.[14]

On 30 June 2020, the application to register Federation Party Australian Capital Territory was lodged with the ACT Electoral Commission.[15] The party is one of 16 parties registered to contest the 2020 Australian Capital Territory election.[16] The party has also applied to contest local government elections in New South Wales.[7]

On Friday, 22 April 2022, the Australian Electoral Commission Declaration of Candidates across Australia confirmed that the Australian Federation Party is contesting 61 House of Representative seats. This is more seats in their first Federal Election Campaign than One Nation contested at the 2019 election[17]

On Friday, 1 July 2022, the Australian Electoral Commission made the final update of the 2022 Federal Election results for First Preference Votes by a Registered Party. The Australian Federation Party polled the eighth highest Primary vote of any of the 31 registered Parties in Australia. This is based on combining the Coalition's 4 brands of Liberal/Liberal National Party of Queensland/The Nationals/Country Liberal Party (NT).[18]

Electoral results

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Federal

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As the Country Alliance, the party contested the 2013 Australian federal election in several Victorian lower house seats, as well as fielding Senate candidates in South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. The party received 6,440 votes, 0.05% of all votes cast.

The Australian Country Party fielded two Senate candidates and three candidates for seats in the House of Representatives, all in Victoria, in the 2016 federal election.[19]

As the Australian Federation Party, the party contested the 2020 Eden-Monaro by-election. Candidate Jason Potter finished in 14th place out of 14 candidates with 170 votes, or 0.18% of votes cast.[20]

Victoria

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As the Country Alliance, the party contested the three rural upper house regions in the 2006 state election, receiving 13,329 first preference votes and finishing in 9th place overall.[21] In the Western Victoria Region, preferences from the Country Alliance and the Labor Party flowed to the Democratic Labour Party's lead candidate Peter Kavanagh, resulting in Kavanagh securing the fifth and final seat, defeating Greens candidate Marcus Ward.[22]

The party nominated 37 candidates for the 2010 state election, standing in four upper house seats—Western Victoria, Eastern Victoria, Northern Victoria and Northern Metropolitan—and most of the lower house seats in regional Victoria. At the election, the party's best result in the lower house was in the district of Shepparton where it polled 20.5% of the primary vote and 39.8% of the two-candidate preferred vote after preferences.[23] In the Legislative Council, the party was in contention for the final spot in the three country regions. In Northern Victoria Region, Country Alliance polled 6.8% of the primary vote[24] and fell short by approximately 1,900 votes on the final count after the distribution of preferences.[25]

In February 2014, the Victorian branch of Katter's Australian Party merged with Country Alliance, announcing the newly combined party would contest the 2014 state election as the Australian Country Alliance.[26] At the election, the Australian Country Alliance received 1.28% of the vote in the lower house and 0.68% in the upper house in the 2014 Victorian state election.[27]

As Australian Country Party/Give It Back, the party contested two lower house seats—Ovens Valley and South-West Coast—as well as all eight upper house regions in the 2018 state election. Both lower house candidates received over 8% of first preference votes. It did not receive as much as 2% of first preference votes in any region for the upper house, with an average result of 0.68%.[28]

Northern Territory

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The party stood candidates in four seats at the 2020 Northern Territory general election: Araluen, Braitling, Gwoja and Namatjira. Kenny Lechleitner received 12.9% of the vote in Gwoja and Catherine Sartour received 9.5% of the vote in Namatjira. Overall, the party received a total of 942 first preference votes, or 0.92% of all votes cast.[29][30][31][32] The party also contested the 2023 Arafura by-election.

Australian Capital Territory

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The party stood three candidates in the October 2020 ACT election: Jason Potter and Scott Sandford in Brindabella, and Mohammad Hussain in Yerrabi.

Elected representatives

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Former

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Notes

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  1. ^ One of four co-founders.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Knight, Ben (18 August 2005). "Victoria gets its newest political party, The Country Alliance". Stateline. ABC News. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2005.
  2. ^ Eddie, Rachel (20 May 2022). "Socialists, separatists and splinter groups - your Victorian Senate ticket guide". The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH). Archived from the original on 20 June 2022.
  3. ^ McGowan, Michael (29 April 2022). "One Nation candidate 'massively annoyed' after being accused of running for two parties on opposite sides of country". Guardian Australia. Archived from the original on 10 September 2024.
  4. ^ a b Butler, Josh (18 May 2022). "Australian election 2022: from anti-vaxxers to revolutionaries, what do the minor parties running for the Senate stand for?". Guardian Australia. Archived from the original on 10 September 2024.
  5. ^ a b Ross, Isabella (18 May 2022). "From anti-vax to 'pro-life': What every single minor party actually stands for". mamamia.com.au.
  6. ^ "NOTICE OF PARTY REGISTRATION DECISION" (PDF). Australian Electoral Commission. 27 February 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 September 2024. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  7. ^ a b "Party Registration Notices" (PDF). Elections NSW. NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  8. ^ "Australian Country Party - application to register political party". Northern Territory Electoral Commission. 6 February 2019. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  9. ^ "Notice under s.134(6A) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 – Country Alliance". Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  10. ^ "Notice of change of party name" (PDF). Australian Electoral Commission. 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 September 2024. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  11. ^ "Application withdrawn Australian Country Party" (PDF). Australian Electoral Commission. 10 January 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  12. ^ "Change of Australian Country Party to Australian Country Party/Give it Back - Victorian Electoral Commission". Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  13. ^ "Application to change a registered political party's name". Victorian Electoral Commission. 17 January 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  14. ^ "CHANGE OF PARTY NAME AND BALLOT PAPER NAME" (PDF). Tasmanian Government Gazette (21964). 23 March 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 April 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  15. ^ "Australian Federation Party Australian Capital Territory has applied to register as a political party for 2020 ACT Legislative Assembly election" (PDF). Elections ACT. ACT Electoral Commission. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  16. ^ "Sixteen political parties registered for the 2020 ACT Legislative Assembly election". Elections ACT. ACT Electoral Commission. 28 July 2020. Archived from the original on 29 July 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  17. ^ "The closure of nominations confirmed growing ballot papers for the House and shrinking ones for the Senate. - The Poll Bludger". Archived from the original on 10 September 2024. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  18. ^ "First preferences by party - Australian Electoral Commission". Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  19. ^ "Candidates for the 2016 federal election". Australian Electoral Commission. 11 June 2016. Archived from the original on 13 June 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  20. ^ Wind, Emily (20 July 2020). "Minor party sets eyes on new elections". Tumut and Adelong Times. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  21. ^ "State Election 2006 results". Victorian Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  22. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  23. ^ "Shepparton". abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  24. ^ "State Election 2010: Northern Victoria Region results summary - Victorian Electoral Commission". vec.vic.gov.au.
  25. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 April 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  26. ^ Pearce, Cimara (10 February 2014). "Katter's Australian Party set to merge with Country Alliance in bid for rural seats". The Weekly Times. Archived from the original on 18 June 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  27. ^ "State Election 2014 - Summary". Vec.vic.gov.au. 17 July 2015. Archived from the original on 15 December 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  28. ^ "State Election 2018 results". Victorian Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 14 December 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  29. ^ Green, Antony. "Araluen". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  30. ^ Green, Antony. "Braitling". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  31. ^ Green, Antony. "Gwoja". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  32. ^ Green, Antony. "Namatjira". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 22 August 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
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