10 September 08

Result of Lyne by election: strong message of community dissatisfaction with ALL political parties

The Social Justice Network watched very closely the result of the week-end by election in the NSW seat of Lyne. The result there confirmed what the network was arguing for the last few years. It proved that the community’s dissatisfaction with the existing political parties is growing very fast amongst Australians, especilly from marginalised communities. This was the main platform for the campaign in this coming local government election: to give the community an alternative choice.

“When an Independent candiate scores more than 60% of the primary votes, far exceeding the Nationals (who traditioanlly control this seat) and the Greens (who usually present themselves as an alternative party but scored less than 8%), this has a lot of messages from the community” said Jamal Daoud, spokepserson for the Network. “The community sent an unequivocal and clear message of dissatisfaction by voting independent, and rejecting existing political parties”

“It is very clear that Lyne voters have sent a meesage that they would not buy anymore the political parties’ empty promises, and they would prefer actions not only talks”

“Close study of this by-election result would reveal the deep political crisis in Australia at the moment. The simple conclusion of these results is that the voters could not differentiate between political parties’ real stances and positions. This is why in Lyne, voters chose to vote for a reliabe independent”

“If we add the results of last federal election, where independent Nick Xeonophon was able to get more votes than the Greens and the Democrats combined, we can realise the deep credibility crisis in the Australian political arena” added Mr Daoud.

“We expect that the next council election will deliver similar results, where many local independents will be elected ahead of many political parties. That would be true translation of the crisis we mentioned above”

"The Network is very happy that the community has started to ask these political parties, especially the ones who promoted themselves as pro-social justice, how effective they were in representing the interests of the community, and not the interest of parties’ machines and hierarchy. The Network considers this to be a very positive sign for the future”

In this local government election, the Social Justice Network is advocating that citizens vote for those who did act on issues important to the community, and not who just said nice words

The Network is runing candidates in 2 councils : in Auburn Council (First Ward) and in Canterbury Council (Central Ward). By running these candidates, the group believes that the voters of these areas will be able to send a strong message that voters, if presented with a credible alternative, will not continue to vote for traditional exisiting parties. This would enrich the politcal life in this great nation.

For more info about the campaign, you can contact the group’s spokesperson Jamal Daoud on 0424 163 667