EDITORIAL: Splits, defections and infighting: just another week in Australian politics

^{BY HIS EMINENCE JAMES JAMESONSON, MAN OF THE FEATHER HATS}

THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY has split, the Australian Democrats have lost their freshly-deposed leader, the Republican Party is no more and the Liberal Party has become subsumed by infighting after the formation of the National Party. Just another week in Australian politics.

Let's start with this week's hottest political development: the shock split of the Social Democratic Party with two senators (including the party chair) and an MP forming the new Green Left political party, together with the recently deposed leader of the Australian Democrats, u/Jayden_Williamson. Whilst many party splits are often seen as inevitable (take the recent split of the Liberals into the National Party), this mass defection caught most off-guard.

The SPD party chair and senator u/later_slater1407_, Nicholls MP u/UnknownTrainor and recently-appointed senator u/jq8678 announced their shock resignations from the governing SDP on Monday, announcing that together with the former Australian Democrats' leader, they would be forming the new left-wing party whilst simultaneously merging with the Australian Republican Party.

The party's amorphous new manifesto doesn't strike the eye as anything untried. Their policies cover four main areas - economy, housing, environment and social issues. Indeed, much of this is fairly banal - 'making corporations pay their fair share', 'incentivising free trade', 'create new national parks'. I.e. the sort of policies all parties currently represented in parliament either espouse or at least generally don't oppose.

Of course, the manifesto does have a few gems. Very ambitious policies include reducing carbon emissions to zero in the next ten years (with habitually no detail to follow), and nationalising Medibank Private (and adding veterinarian care). The party's support of private health insurance will certainly be met with an easing of heartrates across corporate Australia.

Meanwhile, in equally inspiring news this week, the country now has two parties occupying the right of the political spectrum, with the Nationals splitting from the Liberals. To any cursory observer of Australian politics, this will come as no surprise. Indeed, this must be the third or fourth incarnation of the National Party we have had in the last 36 months.

The National Party's manifesto will almost certainly turn out to be as seminal as that of the Green Left political party. Truly inspiring policies include 'maintain defence spending', and 'restricting foreign-owned entities investing in projects which carry national security implications'.

Indeed, it is quite laughable that the Nationals' free trade policy - ' Preference fair trade with countries that have acceptable human-rights records' is arguably more left-wing than the Green Left political party's - ' [Incentivise] free trade with countries in Asia, Africa and Europe, and increasing our ability to export goods and services'.

The National Party also espouses the manufacturing of 'green' steel, and my personal favourite - introduce holograms on postage stamps to prevent counterfeiting.

All-in-all, there's new parties beginning to emerge, but not a lot of new policy. The left has been weakened, but so has the right. The Australian Democrats are hardly affected and the Country Labor Party is just proud to have kept itself on the good behaviour list.

The government will inevitably be releasing its budget in the coming weeks, and those in the press gallery will be eagerly watching to see how the Green Left political party votes.

Those watching the shenanigans unfold in Canberra this week will be forgiven for thinking that there's a lot of noise, but not much action. NR