Advice from Aden Ridgeway for the Indigenous Party of Australia:

Feb 2021:

Hi Aden,

Hope you do not mind my asking the following:

" If you had one piece of important advice to give us, what would that be?"

Hi again Gab!

I guess my response to your question really relates to the political party (in this case, the IAPA), your policies and campaign messages, and how to make these relevant to a wider support base.

A good example here, is to think of the environmental movement in the 1980s and how they needed to make the issue of environmental conservation, management, protection and biodiversity, a mainstream issue that the population becomes more aware of, understands its importance, and leads to mainstream political parties (as well as big business and society) forming policy responses, etc.

Achieving the desired outcome can often take time but sometimes they can be fast-tracked if the right moment in time and opportunity arises … for example, last year's catastrophic bushfires, etc.

The last thing I would also say is to have a clear vision and strategy about what your party is seeking to achieve, where and how? For example, while I can see that the IAPA is taking a national focus, getting registered is one thing but it also comes back to building up your support base (who are they? what are their thoughts/opinions? How are they like the IAPA and vice-versa? How would they see themselves getting a voice through IAPA, etc.?) So I guess my message here, is more around building the support base and having a clear understanding of the IAPA’s political focus … the Australian Democrats, for example, built a support base aroundthe idea of 'Keeping the Bastards Honest' which then meant developing a focus which was not about becoming an alternative government or even another opposition but a focus which strategised our role to stop the excesses of whoever was elected in government by concentrating our efforts in the Senate. This was further supported by having candidates run in every state and territory election, as well as local government elections, Australia-wide.

regards

Aden Ridgeway

Lambie's approach is pretty much the same as the Aus Dems; that is holding the balance of power in the Senate, which means a senate strategy approach.

The key here is understanding how the Senate vote on election day works … here's a link which might be helpful:https://www.aph.gov.au/Help/FAQs/Senate

The Senate voting system of 'proportional representation' means that you have to achieve a quota in each state in order to be elected. So for large populated states

like NSW and VIC, it is far more difficult, whereas the smaller populated states like Tasmania, it is a whole lot easier to get elected as compared to the larger states.

So I'll leave it at that and wish you well in your political journey .. regards,

Aden