Community Alliance Party

As the ACT elections came into focus towards the end of 2007 and into the early 2008, the deficiencies of the ACT Labor government sharpened for me. I had been an ALP and union member for years, having joined it with enthusiasm, but over time I had become disillusioned. I resigned.

For all its conferences and committees, my experience showed that there was no place in the Labor Party for the individual. The Party was hamstrung by factions and vested interests within and without. It had bowed to radical feminism. Political correctness and social engineering were rife. It was swayed by uncompromising pressure groups whose priorities were not always those of the ordinary Canberran. A totalitarian behaviourist culture seemed to have invaded the psyche of the ALP here. A climate akin to Big Brotherism was abroad: an attitude of knowing what is best regardless of community thinking and action. 

Long incumbency seemed to have rendered the ALP ministry conceited. It wished to be a “first” among other Australian governments in social engineering, ready to confect rights for some and disregard true societal values and the greater social needs of the ACT.

Consultations were held more for form than for advice. Having ticked the consultation box, the government and its agencies would do what was originally planned anyway. Prime examples are the consultations about school closures decisions; same-sex marriages, the profligate and risky water purification plant versus a new dam in a new catchment, the mess of hospital parking, the closing of a needed library, and lately the fiasco of a polluting gas-fired data centre adjacent to residences. The list of failures and indiscretions of the whole government and that of at least one of its Ministers was sufficient to have me look for a more representative citizen-oriented political force.

The ACT Liberal Party had some appeal but at that time was deeply divided and without its traditional backers. It was trying to renew itself but keen memories of Kate Carnell’s administration still put me off.

A serious study of the Greens showed it to be an exploitative organisation that used general concern for the environment for more global sinister purposes. It is more totalitarian and micro-managing than Labor. My unwillingness to see the Greens as an alternative to Labor was recently vindicated when the Greens ACT leader confessed to the wilful deceit that the Greens played on the electors of Canberra by admitting that Green and Labor policies “are not too far apart”.(See  City News, 23-29 April, 2009: "Greens Leader tells:” We’re just like Labor!” That connection had been publicly and vehemently denied in the 2008 election because the Greens were as aware as most, that the electorate was looking for an alternative to local Labor and the Greens desperately wanted to appear different from out of favour Labor.

Around January 2008 I found that there was a group of concerned citizens who were also looking for an alternative to the current parties in the ACT Assembly. Over succeeding months those people formed a new political force in the ACT that would be responsive to communities' needs and aspirations. The group adopted the name "The Community Alliance Party" to reflect that.

The CAP formulated policies (most of which appealed to me), and found courageous and able candidates prepared to put those policies before the electors. CAP had few resources, so the candidates largely had to finance their own campaigns and muster what help they could. For each of them the task was herculean, all-consuming and historic. It was years since any ACT group had had the audacity to challenge the larger parties. The local media were puzzled by the challenge to the status quo as they perceived it.

While no CAP candidate gained a seat in 2008, many lessons were learnt for the 2012 elections. Among these are that CAP must persevere, publicise its determination and purposes, and enlarge its membership.

I for one intend to maintain my membership and support.

Greg O’Regan