Another example of the reining do whatever the hell we want drunkenness of state:
Liberal Democrats federal leader Campbell Newman concedes his party may need to change its name after new election laws passed parliament on Thursday, but says the bipartisan attempt to rein in minor parties will only push more disaffected conservatives his way.
The changes – pushed by Scott Morrison’s right-hand man Ben Morton – will ban parties from using names already taken by other political entities, such as the word “Liberal”, and a new party will need to have 1500 members before it is allowed on a federal ballot.
Labor backed the reforms…
It’s one thing for the two major parties to protect their intelletual property when it comes to official logos and slogans. It’s quite another to legislate ownership of adjectives in common political use as philosophical identifiers for centuries. The new law requires parties like the Liberal Democrats to seek permission from the majors to use the words “Liberal” and “Labor.” Essentially, then, minor parties contesting elections will be licensed on a case by case basis. The Liberals and the ALP have the option of benefiting from mistaken identity when preferences are slated to go their way. This is legalised bribery. Campbell Newman is right and should pursue the matter legally:
“This is a desperate and unconscionable attempt by the Prime Minister to silence us. He’s clearly scared by the success of the Liberal Democrats in recent weeks. He knows significant numbers of Liberal Party members are deserting the party over lockdowns.”
Would not logic compel the High Court to rule that in a democracy whose history has been shaped by the Democratic Labor Party, the Queensland Labor Party, Billy Hughes’s National Labor Party – not to mention Alfred Deakin’s original Liberal Party – that these words are demonstrably beyond ownership or copyright?