Unauthorised anti-Greens piece a natural extension of third-party politics

The Australian Institute for Progress has reported an unauthorised anti-Greens piece to the Queensland Electoral Commission.

Executive Director Graham Young said that distribution of unauthorised "shit sheets" was contrary to the spirit of open and fair elections, no matter who was being attacked.

"Who knows who has put this piece out, and that is the point.

"Without that knowledge voters can't track down whether this is meant to advantage the Labor Party, or even whether it is some bizarre attempt to spruik the pro-mining credentials of a Greens candidate by pro-Greens supporters.

"It could even be the product of internal Greens politics with one faction targeting another.

"Authorisation is an important feature of elections so motives can be deduced, and voters can then make a properly informed decision."

Mr Young said it might seem strange that the AIP, no friend to the Greens, would report this material, but not to do so would be to abdicate their claim to be supporters of democracy.

"One of the reasons we are a registered third party in this election is that the Labor Party has rigged the rules to make it mandatory that there be third parties to support all of the major political parties, otherwise voters would be overwhelmed by unbadged union material.

"All of our material carries our name, as well as authorisation, so voters can be in no doubt as to who is behind the material. There is even a clear link via a landing page to our website.

"Most of the union campaigns try as hard as possible to pretend to not be union campaigns, which leads to third parties taking things even further into clear illegality.

"We hope that after the election there is a purging of these corrupt laws which are encouraging even more corrupt practices."

For further information contact Graham Young 0411 104 801 graham.young@aip.asn.au