Today Natasha Stott Despoja announced that she would not stand for re-election in the next election. With this development, it appears extrememly unlikely that the Democrats will return a single senator to the federal parliament after the next election. There will be many theories as to why the Democrat demise occured - most would stem from backing the GST and leadership battles. One I believe to be the most accurate is the fact that the Democrats have slowly but surely traveled from the centre of spectrum to the left, to the point where they resemble more closely the Greens and Labor's Left. Once their new 'identity' was assumed, it became very clear that voters prefered the Greens as an alternate Left wing voice. The rise in votes gained by the Greens mirrored a slow but steady decline in the Democrats. When policy mistakes (such as the GST) and cut throat leadership battles raged, the Democrats began to resemble some of the worst aspects of the bastards that they had pledged to keep honest.
The new political stage is an interesting one - an increasingly powerful and popular far left Green Party, and a supposed far right Family First Party. Somehow I think that both Labor and the Coalition will be much more inclined to work with Family First - and this fledgling 'pentecostal christian' party will find itself increasingly powerful in the Senate.
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