Taking a Senatorial stand

The successful Senate run of the Single Issue Parties in the recent Federal election has caused a great deal of consternation amongst the major parties and the mainstream media.

Plymouth Minerals managing director Adrian Byass stood as a candidate for the No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics Party and although he didn’t end up with his name on one of the big red leather seats, he did emerge with renewed faith in Australia’s democratic process.

 

“The party had a message that I believe in,” Byass told The Roadhouse.

“I believe that anthropogenic climate change is not the issue: climate change – this is the geologist in me speaking – has always happened and will always continue to happen.

“The best thing for us to do is to be pragmatic about how we are going to deal with the consequences of it, and store up enough fat for the winter, to use a colloquialism, so that if it does change detrimentally, we can deal with it.

“Rather than taking, what I believe to be, misguided approaches thinking that we are King Canute and omnipotent and that if we change our carbon use in Australia by a fraction of a percent it is somehow going to make a difference.”

The No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics Party first hit electoral radar screens during the 2010 South Australian State election, where it managed to secure a healthy percentage of votes.

This was followed by, what Byass described to be as, a disconnect within the community that manifested in the lead up to the 2010 election, which saw Malcolm Turnbull deposed as Liberal Party leader for fraternising with the Labor Party in regards to an Emissions Trading Scheme and which led Prime Minister Gillard to feel she needed to declare a Labor Government would not introduce a price on carbon.

“There was that explicit statement by Julia Gillard about ‘no carbon tax under a government I lead’,” Byass said.

“That was the bit, I think, that drove the No Carbon Tax Party to take a similar stance to the one they had taken to the South Australian State election in 2010 on a national level.”

Byass explained his decision to stand as a candidate for the No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics Party was not a conscious decision, rather it followed him receiving an unexpected email for the Party asking for like-minded folk to stand for its cause.

After talking it over with his wife and gaining her immediate support he soon found himself working through the many processes required to become a candidate of the Australian Senate.

He found himself having to prepare a biography, sit down and speak with people and tell them why he was running and what he hoped to achieve; it was getting serious.

The recent argy-bargee concerning the rise of single-issue parties has neglected to take into consideration the candidates representing them have not just written their names on the ballot paper, but a running because they genuinely feel they have a point to make.

“I’m not an aspiring politician, in any way, shape or form,” Byass said.

“But I do think it is good to see that people are willing to stand up and do something.

“I don’t care if they’re from the Shooters Party, The Animal Rights Party, whatever; I basically want to see people make time in their lives to try and do something they believe in.

“I was willing to do that.”

Byass said he felt the fact that so many different people stood for all those different single issue parties has plenty to say about how politics is viewed in the country at present.

“It is a reflection of two things,” he said.

“The system was actually changed by the Labor and Liberal Parties several years ago, and they thought it was going to benefit them, but it backfired.

“Secondly…we have all hit the middle of the road [politically], because that is the policy of least resistance and as a result we do have this so-called fringe element emerging.

“It is a way for people, a very healthy way, to show there are issues other than lowering inflation and unemployment.

“That’s something I don’t want to see taken away.”

When asked if he considered the whole experience to be worthwhile Byass said he no regrets and was glad he had taken the opportunity.

He also had no reservations in recommending standing for public office for anybody who believed in what they were doing.

He did, however caution anybody against it should they not fully believe in what they were standing for.

“If you’re not doing it for the right reasons, then I think that sums up everything that Australians are cynical about regarding politicians,” he said.

“If you’re doing it because you view it as a career pathway and you will blow whichever way the winds says you should – I wouldn’t want anybody to do that.”