Wikileaks Party - first major policy

Got an email from GetUp very kindly linking some of the new political parties springing up for the coming federal election in Sept. In that email they comment on the abysmal state of federal politics in Australia, and note the emergence of said new parties.

We've received many emails in the last week from GetUp members who are joining new political parties that are starting up. In an election where millions of Australians are fed up with the politics as usual, it seems quite a few Australians are simply starting their own parties.  

One of the links was for the Wikileaks party, going straight to the Wikileaks Party website. On the home page is a video of Mary Kostakidis, a national newswoman in Australia giving her testimonial of the Wikileaks party, which I've happened to find in my own search on Vimeo.


Mary Kostakidis - WikiLeaks Party Testimonials from WikiLeaksParty on Vimeo.

In keeping with the Wikileaks tradition, their first major policy announcement is to do with freedom of the press.  

Julian Assange’s newly formed Australian WikiLeaks Party (WLP) announced that if elected, it will immediately introduce a national shield law to protect a reporter’s right not to reveal a source, as current state-based shield laws are “inadequate.” 

"Only a uniform shield law covering the whole Commonwealth is acceptable," WLP spokespersons Cassie Findlay and Sam Castro said. "Government agencies, at federal, state and local level, are increasingly gaining powers to obtain information about individual citizens.” 

The proposed law is the WLP’s first major policy announcement since it was formed as part of WikiLeaks founder Assange’s bid to become an Australian senator in the September 2013 elections in Victoria State. 

The WLP plans to compete for Senate seats in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia in the September 14 election, with Assange running for one of the six Senate seats being contested in Victoria. 

Findlay and Castro explained that journalists need to have an “unhindered access” to their sources so they could expose corruption, waste and incompetence. "Uniform shield laws legislated by federal parliament are the answer. That is what we stand for and that is what we will fight for if elected. Effective national shield laws go hand-in-hand with uniform whistle-blower laws, particularly covering media disclosures," the spokespersons added. more