Australia First Party
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The Australia First Party (AFP) is a minor political party in Australia. The party's policies are generally nationalist [1] It is described by some observers as a party of the extreme right and a neo-nazi group, although the party itself denies this. The AFP is not a registered political party with the Australian Electoral Commission, has no parliamentary representation and has not contested a federal election since 1998. The party is currently attempting to be re-registered.
(See also the Australia First Movement founded in 1941)
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History
The Australia First Party was founded in June 1996 by Graeme Campbell, who was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, from 1980 until he was expelled from the party in November 1995. Campbell had become increasingly critical of the policies of the Labor government of Paul Keating, particularly in matters relating to economic deregulation, Aboriginal land rights and multiculturalism.
Campbell hoped to see the AFP became a serious political party, drawing on a current of populist opinion which rejected the policies of both the Labor Party and the opposition Liberal Party. But the AFP was overshadowed by the appearance in 1997 of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a rival populist party led by a former Liberal MP, Pauline Hanson. Hanson monopolised media attention and prevented the AFP becoming a significant party.
Following Campbell's resignation in June, 2001, Diane Teasdale became the national president of the Australia First Party, but at the national level the party has been inactive since the 2001 election, which it did not contest.
In 2002, a new AFP branch was formed in Sydney. The party announced the formation of a new "nationalist youth organisation," the Patriotic Youth League. This body's website suggests that it is affiliated to the British National Party, an extreme right wing group in the United Kingdom. The phraseology at the AFP website, such as "the politics of New World Order liberal-globalist-capitalism," also suggests that the party has been revived by people of a more systematically extreme-right persuasion than was the case under Campbell's leadership. The Secretary of the Sydney Branch is Dr. Jim Saleam, a stalwart of the Australian far right who is perhaps best known for organising a shotgun attack on the home of a political rival in the late 1980s.
Policies
According to their Murray Branch/National Office website, the Australia First Party has eight core policies:
- Ensure Australia Retains Full Independence.
- Rebuild Australian Manufacturing Industries.
- Control Foreign Ownership.
- Reduce and Limit Immigration.
- Abolish Multiculturalism
- Introduce Citizen's Initiated Referenda.
- Strengthen the Family
- Strive To Rebuild A United Australia.
Electoral Performance
At the October 1998 federal election, Campbell lost his seat, polling only 22 percent of the vote in a seat he had represented for 18 years. The AFP failed to win significant support elsewhere, being heavily outvoted by One Nation. In June 2001, Campbell left the AFP in order to stand (unsuccessfully) as a One Nation senate candidate in Western Australia.
At the national level the party has been inactive since the 2001 election, which it did not contest.
The AFP website says that the party fielded candidates in the 2004 local council elections in Sydney, Newcastle and Coffs Harbour. But the real extent of the AFP's organisation and membership is not known.
In November 2005, AFP president Diane Teasdale stood in the elections for the Shepparton Council Office and received 1373 first preference votes, representing 4.37% of valid votes cast [2].
Activities
- On October 8, 2005, up to fifteen AFP members (including Sydney AFP Secretary Jim Saleam) rallied outside Kirribilli House to protest against the suspension of Professor Andrew Fraser of Macquarie University.
- December 11 2005 the Sydney AFP branch, along with the PYL, distributed pamphlets, stickers and allegedly alcohol [3] at the Sydney beachside suburb of Cronulla where an estimated 5000 people had gathered to protest against alleged [4]harassment by Lebanese gangs. SBS World News on December 13 2005 reported that Jim Saleam had organised around 150 members and sympathisers to attend the rally.
- Several AFP members returned to Cronulla the following month during the Australia Day festivities to further their campaign. [5]
Allegations of Neo-Nazism
In 2006, The Australian newspaper carried a story on the group by Dan Box, who spent some time in the party without revealing that he was a reporter[6]. The story claims that an Australia First member told him that "we leaned out of the window and shouted 'Sieg heil! Sieg heil!" at a rabbi [7].
Members of the associated Patriotic Youth League have also claimed to be the Australian branch of the openly neo-Nazi American-based group Volksfront.