Australia is an interesting contrast. Compulsory voting casts a long shadow; whereas in other countries the extreme vote is worth courting, for us, the CENTRE is the part you need to claim (there will never be enough voters in the extremes to make up for a deficiency in the centre).
Therefore we have:
* The Liberal Party (Liberal in mid 20th Century terms): The party of business. Pitches itself as the party for Small Business; practically tends to favour BIG business. Centre-right, but mainly by average (contains two broad groups - "Wets" (Think American Democrats) and "Dries" (Think British Tories). Currently in power.
* The National Party: Traditionally the party of the farmers and rural conservatives; now basically Liberals who live in the Bush. Technically a separate party from the Liberals everywhere except Queensland, but since a Country/City coalition has existed in one form or another since 1923, it's a little bit strange. Tend to be a bit more right wing than the Libs, but also tend to say "how high?" when the Libs say "Jump", if perhaps with a little grumbling.
* The Labor Party (weirdly using the American spelling of "Labour"): The official political wing of the Trade Union movement, but under increasing pressure to dump that particular aspect of its roots as membership of trade unions continues to become a thing of the past. Therefore in the awkward position of being the only major party that clearly stands for something, but standing for something that's not really part of Australian society anymore. Generally now a centre-left party (but split into a number of formal factions, meaning there's a big brawl before every election).
In practice there is an enormous amount of overlap between Labor and the Coalition, perhaps unsurprisingly, as whoever most effectively captures the middle ground wins the election.
The Coalition or the Labor party will win every election. However, the minor parties play a role because with preferential voting, they have the right to attempt to tell their voters how to vote.
There are hundreds of minor parties, but the most important are:
* Greens: About what you'd expect. The usual combination of scientifically-literate environmentalists and vegan anti-vax hippies, but with the scientist faction being ascendant for now on every issue except nuclear energy (and a bit of a question mark on genetic modification).
* Liberal Democrats: Nobody's really sure what these people are about, but they have a senate seat.
* Palmer United Party: In the process of disbanding. Clive Palmer was a multimillionaire[1] and generated a lot of hype like a certain orange-haired individual. However, his party proved ironically named, as even with their small band of senators they have cheerfully self-destructed.
* One Nation: If Palmer is Australia's answer to Trump as a businessman, Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party is our answer to his disaffected white racist mystique, and is therefore popular in Queensland (the "Deep North".
). Currently running on an anti-Muslim/anti-refugee platform, and doing well[2], I'm sad to say.
[1] I am not sure how much of his wealth is real. He has some mining interests that are quite lucrative, but he shows signs of not being as wealthy as he claims.
[2] Minor-party well, of course - the system does not allow her to actually become Prime Minister unless she becomes leader of one of the major parties[3], and neither the Coalition nor the Labor party would touch her with a 40 foot pole!
[3] It is theoretically possible for a minor party to displace a major party and form government, but in the 116 year history of the Commonwealth of Australia this has not come close to happening by orders of magnitude. Instead, major parties have dissolved and re-formed in a different guise. In fact, the current major parties have remained practically unchanged since the 1950s (albeit the Country Party changed its name to National Party).
Been voting since 1987 and I still can't get over the rubbish we have to vote for.
Cobra Mk. III Cmdr.
