Citizens Electoral Council
Encyclopedia
The Citizens Electoral Council of Australia (CEC) is a minor nationalist political party in Australia
affiliated with the international LaRouche Movement
, led by American
political activist and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche
. It reported having 549 members in 2007. They have been described as "far right", "fascist" and "lunar right," as well as "ideologues on the economic Left."
, an extreme right-wing group led by Eric Butler
, in the 1980s in Queensland. Its purpose was to lobby for binding voter-initiated referenda
. CEC candidate Trevor Perrett
won the 1988 Barambah state by-election
in Queensland
, held after former Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigned from State Parliament in 1987. However, Perrett soon switched to the National Party. By 1989, the CEC leadership was under the influence of the Lyndon LaRouche movement. By 1992, the LaRouche movement had taken full control, renaming the organizational newsletter and moving the headquarters from rural Queensland to a Melbourne suburb, with direct communications links to LaRouche's US headquarters established.
League of Rights publications now warn their readers to avoid the CEC, citing attacks on the British Royal Family for supposed drug connections and LaRouche's criminal convictions. They warn that the LaRouche movement is "strongly pro-republican" and that they have received reports that LaRouche's organization is being used by the Zionists.
In 1996, then-Liberal Party MP Ken Aldred
, often tied to the CEC, was disendorsed by the Liberal Party after using parliamentary privilege
to make allegations of involvement in espionage and drug trafficking against a prominent Jewish lawyer and a senior foreign affairs official, using documents that were later found to be forged, supplied to him by the CEC.
In the mid-2000s, the party found support from Muslim groups opposed to anti-terror legislation. In 2007, the CEC received the largest contribution of any political party, $862,000 from a central Queensland cattle farmer and former CEC candidate named Ray Gillham.
The CEC leader is National Secretary and National Treasurer Craig Isherwood of Melbourne
, who has been a CEC election candidate three times. Other members of the Isherwood family are also prominent in the CEC; Noelene Isherwood is the party's National Chairman.
"What Australia must do to survive the Depression" also has draft legislation for "the establishment of a National Bank and State Banks for provide loans at 2% or less to agriculture (family farms), industry and for infrastructure development" that in 2002 they launched a petition drive to support with a full page advertisement in The Australian
newspaper. "Rebuild the Country with a People's Bank" being a predominant slogan on their election material.
In early 2008 the CEC started campaigning for a "Bank Homeowners Protection Bill of 2008", calling for legislation in the spirit of the Moratorium legislations enacted in the 1920s and 30s by Australian governments.
The official thirteen-point platform is as follows:
The CEC follows the LaRouche line of skepticism towards the theory of anthropogenic global warming. Having lobbied the ABC to screen the film The Great Global Warming Swindle
, then packed the audience for a post-program audience discussion with members who made comments about "carbon 14, eugenics, Plato's cave and Nazism", referring to fears of global warming as "Hitler-Nazi race science... this will destroy Africa".
The CEC also makes claims "the Crown, it's oil and resource cartels and media assets are responsible for looting Australian Citizens." And declares the party's opposition to "synarchists
", which they define as "a name adopted during the Twentieth Century for an occult freemasonic sect, known as the Martinists, based on worship of the tradition of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte...twentieth-Century and later fascist movements, like most terrorist movements, are all Synarchist creations."
In opposition the CEC stands for "...a Republic and a government that governs for all the people..."
In its campaign literature, the CEC claims to associate itself with "a tradition" including such Australian figures as the Rev John Dunmore Lang
, King O'Malley
, William Guthrie Spence, Frank Anstey
, Daniel Deniehy
, Jack Lang
, Ben Chifley
and John Curtin
. The CEC also seeks to associate itself with a "bygone tradition" of the Australian Labor Party
, by which it appears to mean the democratic socialist and protectionist
policies abandoned by the ALP since the reforms of Gough Whitlam
in the 1960s and 1970s.
The CEC website advocates a number of positions of the worldwide LaRouche movement, including that the Port Arthur massacre, in which Martin Bryant
murdered 35 people and injured 37 others, was instigated by mental health institute the Tavistock Institute
on the orders of the British Royal Family
. and that the Australian Liberal party was founded by pro-Hitler Fascists.
(a body similar to the Anti-Defamation League
in the United States) has published a Briefing Paper with details of the CEC's alleged antisemitic, anti-gay, anti-Aboriginal and racist underpinnings. The document cites CEC publications and quotes former CEC members. The CEC in turn has published a response to the ADC's accusations and described the ADC "as a front for Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council, the ruling body of the British Commonwealth." This allegation, that there is a link between the ADC and the alleged power of the Privy Council, has been attributed to the fact that Sir Zelman Cowen
, a former Governor-General of Australia
and a member of the Privy Council, is a member of the ADC's board of advisors.
Former members of the CEC and families of current members have accused the group of "brainwashing" members and engaging in campaigns involving "dirty tricks". For example, fomer CEC staffer Donald Veitch has claimed that new recruits undergo “deprogramming sessions” and that recruits are probed for sexual peccadilloes. Veitch has stated: "The mind control operations commenced by Lyndon LaRouche
in the USA in the mid-1970s are still being practised today within his movement in Australia".
Despite running in "almost every election of the past two decades" in no election has the CEC ever garnered more than 2% of the vote.
At the 2001 federal election, CEC candidates polled extremely low totals; for example, in the New South Wales
Senate
elections, the CEC ticket polled 2,370 votes out of 3.8 million votes cast.
The party fielded candidates for the Senate and most House of Representatives
seats at the 2004 federal election. In some seats it distributed glossy full-colour pamphlets, setting out its views, as well as billboards and television advertising in some areas, suggesting that the party has access to sources of finance greater than its small electoral base would suggest. Australian Electoral Commission
records indicate that the CEC has successfully raised several million dollars since 2001.
Despite this fundraising, the CEC polled extremely low totals again in 2004. The day after the election preliminary figures showed that the CEC had 34,177 votes, or 0.35 percent of the national vote, in the House of Representatives. Out of the 95 electorates in which they were represented, the CEC came last in 80 electorates.
Between September 2005 and January 2006 The Australian reported upon alleged infiltration by the CEC of the National Civic Council (NCC)
, claiming the latter organisation's dismissal of its state executives over the Christmas 2005 period was an internal coup. CEC chairman Noelene Isherwood, while denying outright infiltration, was cited by The Australian's reporter Greg Roberts on 17 September 2005 as saying: "We know that a lot of their [i.e. the NCC's] members are supporters of our ideas. That's good to see."
At the 2007 federal election, the CEC's previous form continued. The number of first preference votes in the lower house was 27,879 (0.22 percent), and 8,677 (0.07 percent) in the upper house, both results were 0.14 percent down from 2004. However, in the Northern Territory Senate count where a quarter of their vote came from, the CEC received 2.01 percent of the vote, overtaking the Australian Democrats
. Territory candidates, however, require a much higher quota to gain election than candidates in the states.
, King O'Malley
, and John Dunmore Lang
.
The ALYM's responsibilities have included managing the groundwork in Federal campaigns, aiding State Campaign efforts, collecting signatures for petitions and mobilising the public and Parliament against anti-terror laws. Members are often found on the streets of Melbourne, home of the National CEC office.
In October 2003 the members of the ALYM, with the help of some members of the International Youth Movement, organised its first "Cadre School". The ALYM hopes to "organize the youth population of the country and harness the enthusiasm and optimism that they offer." The ALYM works for CEC candidates in election campaigns, distributes LaRouche literature and collects signatures for petitions.
The ALYM claims that its membership grew during the 2004 federal election campaign, during which they worked for CEC candidates in three election campaigns in the Melbourne region, in Maribyrnong
, Calwell
and Melbourne Ports
, where they went door-to-door handing out copies of the election edition of the New Citizen, which featured articles on the fight for a National Bank in Australia and the founding of the Australian Liberal Party in the 1940s, and explaining the potential of "LaRouche's New Bretton Woods" and the "dirty state of the Australian political scene".
Twelve ALYM members ran for the House of Representatives and for the Senate in Victoria at the 2004 election. They also managed three flagship campaigns in the Melbourne Region, including the campaign of Aaron Isherwood, himself a member of the ALYM, standing against Michael Danby
(long parliament's only Jewish MP and a well-known LaRouche opponent) in the seat of Melbourne Ports
. All candidates were unsuccessful.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
affiliated with the international LaRouche Movement
LaRouche movement
The LaRouche movement is an international political and cultural network that promotes Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included scores of organizations and companies around the world. Their activities include campaigning, private intelligence gathering, and publishing numerous periodicals,...
, led by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
political activist and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
. It reported having 549 members in 2007. They have been described as "far right", "fascist" and "lunar right," as well as "ideologues on the economic Left."
History
The original CEC was established by members of the Australian League of RightsAustralian League of Rights
The Australian League of Rights is a long-lived far right and anti-semitic political organisation in Australia founded by Eric Butler with its basis in the economic theory of Social Credit expounded by C. H. Douglas. It describes itself as upholding the virtues of freedom...
, an extreme right-wing group led by Eric Butler
Eric Butler
Eric Dudley Butler , Australian political activist and journalist, was the founder of the Australian League of Rights.Butler was born in the Victorian country town of Benalla, although he lived most of his life near Melbourne. In the 1930s he became a follower of the British economist C. H. Douglas...
, in the 1980s in Queensland. Its purpose was to lobby for binding voter-initiated referenda
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
. CEC candidate Trevor Perrett
Trevor Perrett
Trevor John Perrett is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1988 to 1998, representing the electorate of Barambah....
won the 1988 Barambah state by-election
Barambah state by-election, 1988
The Barambah state by-election, 1988 was a by-election held on 16 April 1988 for the Queensland Legislative Assembly seat of Barambah, based in the town of Kingaroy. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of National MP and former Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen...
in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, held after former Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigned from State Parliament in 1987. However, Perrett soon switched to the National Party. By 1989, the CEC leadership was under the influence of the Lyndon LaRouche movement. By 1992, the LaRouche movement had taken full control, renaming the organizational newsletter and moving the headquarters from rural Queensland to a Melbourne suburb, with direct communications links to LaRouche's US headquarters established.
League of Rights publications now warn their readers to avoid the CEC, citing attacks on the British Royal Family for supposed drug connections and LaRouche's criminal convictions. They warn that the LaRouche movement is "strongly pro-republican" and that they have received reports that LaRouche's organization is being used by the Zionists.
In 1996, then-Liberal Party MP Ken Aldred
Ken Aldred
Kenneth James Aldred was an Australian politician who represented the Liberal Party in the Australian House of Representatives between 1975 and 1996....
, often tied to the CEC, was disendorsed by the Liberal Party after using parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...
to make allegations of involvement in espionage and drug trafficking against a prominent Jewish lawyer and a senior foreign affairs official, using documents that were later found to be forged, supplied to him by the CEC.
In the mid-2000s, the party found support from Muslim groups opposed to anti-terror legislation. In 2007, the CEC received the largest contribution of any political party, $862,000 from a central Queensland cattle farmer and former CEC candidate named Ray Gillham.
The CEC leader is National Secretary and National Treasurer Craig Isherwood of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, who has been a CEC election candidate three times. Other members of the Isherwood family are also prominent in the CEC; Noelene Isherwood is the party's National Chairman.
Platform
In 2001, the Citizens Electoral Council published "What Australia must do to survive the Depression", that outlines the party's policy to enact, development programs, academic writings by Lyndon LaRouche and a brief "history" of how the CEC was marginalized by the Hanson mobs."What Australia must do to survive the Depression" also has draft legislation for "the establishment of a National Bank and State Banks for provide loans at 2% or less to agriculture (family farms), industry and for infrastructure development" that in 2002 they launched a petition drive to support with a full page advertisement in The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
newspaper. "Rebuild the Country with a People's Bank" being a predominant slogan on their election material.
In early 2008 the CEC started campaigning for a "Bank Homeowners Protection Bill of 2008", calling for legislation in the spirit of the Moratorium legislations enacted in the 1920s and 30s by Australian governments.
The official thirteen-point platform is as follows:
- The establishment of a "New Bretton Woods International Monetary SystemBretton Woods systemThe Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world's major industrial states in the mid 20th century...
". - The establishment of a National Bank and State Banks.
- The repeal of all federal and state anti-unionTrade unionA trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
legislation - The repeal of recent laws, such as the Australian anti-terrorism legislation, 2004Australian anti-terrorism legislation, 2004Three anti-terrorism bills were enacted in the Australian Parliament in 2004 by a Coalition government with the Labor opposition's support. These were the Anti-terrorism bill, 2004, the Anti-terrorism bill , 2004 and the Anti-terrorism bill , 2004.-Anti-terrorism bill, 2004:The Attorney-General,...
, which the CEC believes have "taken away the civil rights of Australians" - An immediate halt to the privatisation of Commonwealth and State assets and regulatory bodies
- An immediate moratorium on foreclosures of family farms
- The immediate elimination of the National Competition PolicyNational Competition PolicyThe term National Competition Policy refers to a set of policies introduced in Australia in the 1990s with the aim of promoting microeconomic reform.-Origins:...
- The elimination of the Goods and Services TaxGoods and Services Tax (Australia)The GST is a broad sales tax of 10% on most goods and services transactions in Australia. It is a value added tax, not a sales tax, in that it is refunded to all parties in the chain of production other than the final consumer....
- The reassertion of national control over Australia's oil and gas and huge mineral resources
- A "dramatic expansion" of resources to all public health facilities
- A "dramatic upgrading" of federal and state infrastructure
- A "real war on drugs"
- The establishment of "generous immigration quotas"
The CEC follows the LaRouche line of skepticism towards the theory of anthropogenic global warming. Having lobbied the ABC to screen the film The Great Global Warming Swindle
The Great Global Warming Swindle
The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors, and questions whether scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming exists....
, then packed the audience for a post-program audience discussion with members who made comments about "carbon 14, eugenics, Plato's cave and Nazism", referring to fears of global warming as "Hitler-Nazi race science... this will destroy Africa".
The CEC also makes claims "the Crown, it's oil and resource cartels and media assets are responsible for looting Australian Citizens." And declares the party's opposition to "synarchists
Synarchism
Synarchism is a term which generally refers to "joint rule" or "harmonious rule".Beyond this general definition, however, both "synarchism" and "synarchy" have been used to describe several different political processes in various contexts...
", which they define as "a name adopted during the Twentieth Century for an occult freemasonic sect, known as the Martinists, based on worship of the tradition of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte...twentieth-Century and later fascist movements, like most terrorist movements, are all Synarchist creations."
In opposition the CEC stands for "...a Republic and a government that governs for all the people..."
In its campaign literature, the CEC claims to associate itself with "a tradition" including such Australian figures as the Rev John Dunmore Lang
John Dunmore Lang
John Dunmore Lang , Australian Presbyterian clergyman, writer, politician and activist, was the first prominent advocate of an independent Australian nation and of Australian republicanism.-Background and Family:...
, King O'Malley
King O'Malley
King O'Malley was an Australian politician. He was a member in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1896 to 1899, and the Australian House of Representatives from 1901 to 1917. O'Malley was also Minister for Home Affairs in the second and third Fisher Labor ministry...
, William Guthrie Spence, Frank Anstey
Frank Anstey
Frank Anstey , Australian politician, served 38 years as a Labor member of the Victorian and Commonwealth parliaments....
, Daniel Deniehy
Daniel Deniehy
Daniel Henry Deniehy was an Australian journalist, orator and politician; and early advocate of democracy in colonial New South Wales.-Early life:...
, Jack Lang
Jack Lang (Australian politician)
John Thomas Lang , usually referred to as J.T. Lang during his career, and familiarly known as "Jack" and nicknamed "The Big Fella" was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales for two terms...
, Ben Chifley
Ben Chifley
Joseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician, was the 16th Prime Minister of Australia. He took over the Australian Labor Party leadership and Prime Ministership after the death of John Curtin in 1945, and went on to retain government at the 1946 election, before being defeated at the 1949...
and John Curtin
John Curtin
John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Australia. Labor under Curtin formed a minority government in 1941 after the crossbench consisting of two independent MPs crossed the floor in the House of Representatives, bringing down the Coalition minority...
. The CEC also seeks to associate itself with a "bygone tradition" of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
, by which it appears to mean the democratic socialist and protectionist
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
policies abandoned by the ALP since the reforms of Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
in the 1960s and 1970s.
The CEC website advocates a number of positions of the worldwide LaRouche movement, including that the Port Arthur massacre, in which Martin Bryant
Martin Bryant
Martin Bryant is an Australian who has been convicted of murdering 35 people and injuring 21 others in the Port Arthur massacre, a shooting spree in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, in 1996. He is currently serving 35 life sentences plus 1,035 years without parole in the psychiatric wing of...
murdered 35 people and injured 37 others, was instigated by mental health institute the Tavistock Institute
Tavistock Institute
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a British charity concerned with group behaviour and organisational behaviour. It was launched in 1946, when it separated from the Tavistock Clinic.-History of the Tavistock:...
on the orders of the British Royal Family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
. and that the Australian Liberal party was founded by pro-Hitler Fascists.
Criticism
The Anti-Defamation Commission of the Australian branch of B'nai B'rithB'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith International |Covenant]]" is the oldest continually operating Jewish service organization in the world. It was initially founded as the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith in New York City, on , 1843, by Henry Jones and 11 others....
(a body similar to the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
in the United States) has published a Briefing Paper with details of the CEC's alleged antisemitic, anti-gay, anti-Aboriginal and racist underpinnings. The document cites CEC publications and quotes former CEC members. The CEC in turn has published a response to the ADC's accusations and described the ADC "as a front for Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council, the ruling body of the British Commonwealth." This allegation, that there is a link between the ADC and the alleged power of the Privy Council, has been attributed to the fact that Sir Zelman Cowen
Zelman Cowen
Sir Zelman Cowen, was the 19th Governor-General of Australia. He is currently the oldest living former Governor-General of Australia.-Early life:...
, a former Governor-General of Australia
Governor-General of Australia
The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative in Australia at federal/national level of the Australian monarch . He or she exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth...
and a member of the Privy Council, is a member of the ADC's board of advisors.
Former members of the CEC and families of current members have accused the group of "brainwashing" members and engaging in campaigns involving "dirty tricks". For example, fomer CEC staffer Donald Veitch has claimed that new recruits undergo “deprogramming sessions” and that recruits are probed for sexual peccadilloes. Veitch has stated: "The mind control operations commenced by Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
in the USA in the mid-1970s are still being practised today within his movement in Australia".
Electoral results
At the 2001 federal election, CEC candidates polled extremely low totals; for example, in the New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
elections, the CEC ticket polled 2,370 votes out of 3.8 million votes cast.
The party fielded candidates for the Senate and most House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
seats at the 2004 federal election. In some seats it distributed glossy full-colour pamphlets, setting out its views, as well as billboards and television advertising in some areas, suggesting that the party has access to sources of finance greater than its small electoral base would suggest. Australian Electoral Commission
Australian Electoral Commission
The Australian Electoral Commission, or the AEC, is the federal government agency in charge of organising and supervising federal elections and referendums. State and local government elections are overseen by the Electoral Commission in each state and territory.The Australian Electoral Commission...
records indicate that the CEC has successfully raised several million dollars since 2001.
Despite this fundraising, the CEC polled extremely low totals again in 2004. The day after the election preliminary figures showed that the CEC had 34,177 votes, or 0.35 percent of the national vote, in the House of Representatives. Out of the 95 electorates in which they were represented, the CEC came last in 80 electorates.
Between September 2005 and January 2006 The Australian reported upon alleged infiltration by the CEC of the National Civic Council (NCC)
National Civic Council (NCC)
The National Civic Council is a grassroots Australian political movement, although sometimes referred to as a think tank.The NCC develops and promotes policy based on its ‘five primacies’ of the integrity of human life, support for the family unit, decentralism, patriotism , and Judeo-Christian...
, claiming the latter organisation's dismissal of its state executives over the Christmas 2005 period was an internal coup. CEC chairman Noelene Isherwood, while denying outright infiltration, was cited by The Australian's reporter Greg Roberts on 17 September 2005 as saying: "We know that a lot of their [i.e. the NCC's] members are supporters of our ideas. That's good to see."
At the 2007 federal election, the CEC's previous form continued. The number of first preference votes in the lower house was 27,879 (0.22 percent), and 8,677 (0.07 percent) in the upper house, both results were 0.14 percent down from 2004. However, in the Northern Territory Senate count where a quarter of their vote came from, the CEC received 2.01 percent of the vote, overtaking the Australian Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
. Territory candidates, however, require a much higher quota to gain election than candidates in the states.
Youth movement
The CEC also includes the Australian LaRouche Youth Movement (ALYM), the Australian branch of the International LaRouche Youth Movement. It was founded in August 2002, and focusses on the economic thought of Lyndon LaRouche as well as what they regard as Australia's republican tradition, including figures such as John CurtinJohn Curtin
John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Australia. Labor under Curtin formed a minority government in 1941 after the crossbench consisting of two independent MPs crossed the floor in the House of Representatives, bringing down the Coalition minority...
, King O'Malley
King O'Malley
King O'Malley was an Australian politician. He was a member in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1896 to 1899, and the Australian House of Representatives from 1901 to 1917. O'Malley was also Minister for Home Affairs in the second and third Fisher Labor ministry...
, and John Dunmore Lang
John Dunmore Lang
John Dunmore Lang , Australian Presbyterian clergyman, writer, politician and activist, was the first prominent advocate of an independent Australian nation and of Australian republicanism.-Background and Family:...
.
The ALYM's responsibilities have included managing the groundwork in Federal campaigns, aiding State Campaign efforts, collecting signatures for petitions and mobilising the public and Parliament against anti-terror laws. Members are often found on the streets of Melbourne, home of the National CEC office.
In October 2003 the members of the ALYM, with the help of some members of the International Youth Movement, organised its first "Cadre School". The ALYM hopes to "organize the youth population of the country and harness the enthusiasm and optimism that they offer." The ALYM works for CEC candidates in election campaigns, distributes LaRouche literature and collects signatures for petitions.
The ALYM claims that its membership grew during the 2004 federal election campaign, during which they worked for CEC candidates in three election campaigns in the Melbourne region, in Maribyrnong
Division of Maribyrnong
The Division of Maribyrnong is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. It is located in the north-western suburbs of Melbourne. It covers the suburbs of Moonee Ponds, Essendon, Niddrie, Keilor East, Avondale Heights, Tullamarine, Airport West, Sunshine and Brooklyn. Due to...
, Calwell
Division of Calwell
The Division of Calwell is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1984 and is named for Arthur Calwell, who was Minister for Immigration 1945-49 and Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1960-67...
and Melbourne Ports
Division of Melbourne Ports
The Division of Melbourne Ports is an Australian federal electoral division in the inner south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
, where they went door-to-door handing out copies of the election edition of the New Citizen, which featured articles on the fight for a National Bank in Australia and the founding of the Australian Liberal Party in the 1940s, and explaining the potential of "LaRouche's New Bretton Woods" and the "dirty state of the Australian political scene".
Twelve ALYM members ran for the House of Representatives and for the Senate in Victoria at the 2004 election. They also managed three flagship campaigns in the Melbourne Region, including the campaign of Aaron Isherwood, himself a member of the ALYM, standing against Michael Danby
Michael Danby
Michael David Danby is an Australian politician and has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the Division of Melbourne Ports, Victoria...
(long parliament's only Jewish MP and a well-known LaRouche opponent) in the seat of Melbourne Ports
Division of Melbourne Ports
The Division of Melbourne Ports is an Australian federal electoral division in the inner south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
. All candidates were unsuccessful.
External links
- Official website
- B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission's briefing paper on the CEC (PDF)
- Retort to the Anti-Defamation Council by CEC (PDF)
- The (Victoria) Age: "Workers of the world, take fright"
- The Australian: Putsch to extremes
- The (Victoria) Age:"Fascist Australia" (about CEC)
- Green Left Weekly: "Beware of the Citizen’s Electoral Council!"
- The Age: "Families fight back"
- Courier Mail: "Dark side of the loons"
- Australian Assocated Press: "Parents say candidate brainwashed"
- nineMSN: "On the fringe"
- Australian Electoral Commission website
- CEC page on Australian Electoral Commission Website
- Catholic News reports charges of CEC infiltration of the National Civic Council
- AIJAC: Taking Extremism Seriously