Tea Party comes to Australia James Massola From: The Australian
September 16, 2010 12:15PM
An anti-tax, anti-government ________________________
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Tea Party has set up shop in Australia, inspired by the US-based movement that has turned the Republican Party upside down.
The Australian T.E.A. Party (an acronym for Taxed Enough Already) will be targeting pre-selections across the country and heavily promotes its links to "our friends" in the United States.
Reluctant spokesman David Goodridge - "just call me the website editor" - says the grassroots movement has no plans to register as a political party, won’t stand candidates and won’t accept politicians as members.
"We’ve been around for a little while but we made a conscious decision not to involve ourselves at the last election - we’re not a political party, we are a political movement, we influence parties that already exist," he said.
Mr Goodridge says the Australian party has not received US funding - "that would not be appropriate, they don’t want to interfere" - but it is looking to update and adapt US training videos for its own purposes.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is the movement’s figurehead in the United States, but Mr Goodridge says there is no figurehead in Australia - although former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen is spoken of in glowing terms.
"We don’t have any Australian politicians that we can use as a figurehead. [The Americans] haven’t used Sarah in that way either, there is a mutuality of interest - and I’m sure there are a few Australian politicians we have similar interests with," he said.
“There is one Australian senator we are particularly interested in, but I can’t tell you who that is."
In his first post on the T.E.A. Party’s website, Mr Goodridge argues that between big business and unions there is "a distinction without a difference in that the average Aussie is getting done over it is just a different set or subset of rapists doing the screwing".
Mr Goodridge laughed off the line, part of a blog post entitled "Gillard’s Labor Government: a unique form of Mussolini’s Corporatist model set to an Australian context", before adding he has received a lot of positive feedback for it.
And the group does back individual politicians - dis-endorsed LNP candidate Hajnal Ban (now using her married name, Black) is one - but that’s all Mr Goodridge will say.
"She is one of the people we have been following. We like to support people, not parties, and we support her," he said.
"We wouldn’t have any politicians being part of our organisation, that would be incompatible with what we do, so that [her membership] would be improper."
"We will look to involve ourselves in pre-selections when they come around …we will target local, state and federal pre-selections."
And while the party claims 50 million members worldwide, Mr Goodridge won’t reveal membership numbers in Australia, saying only that "we have people all over the place" and adding that since the website launched on August 28 he has been in contact with a federal Minister and other MPs.
“Basically it’s based around... three general propositions," Mr Goodridge said.
"What should be the role of the government in the economy, what should be the role of government in people’s lives and do you believe that you can spend your money better than government?"
The T.E.A. Party in Australia announces on its website that it is a "worldwide movement united for free markets, fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited small governments and individual freedom".
The modern US Tea Party movement draws inspiration from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, which was a protest by American colonists against British taxes and emerged in the United States in 2009.
Several Republican incumbents have been replaced by so-called "Tea Party" candidates, most recently Delaware congressman Mike Castle, who has been replaced by the Tea Party-backed Christine O'Donnell.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/capital-circle/tea-party-comes-to-australia/story-fn59nqgy-1225924785030
