Call Continues for United Conservative Minor Party Ticket Ahead of Next Election

Libertarian MP John Ruddick has continued calls for minor, conservative parties to present a more united front at the next election.

“There should be some messaging in there. If you give a vote for us, it’s also very, very important to also vote for other friendly parties,” said John Ruddick, at the Family First Party’s national conference in Sydney on Sept. 6.

Ruddick said he was frequently asked about the lack of cooperation between the minor right, which, he admits, is something they need to learn from their opponents.

“This is something that the minor left—they’re up,” he said.

“It’s not just the Greens, Animal Justice, Cannabis Party, few socialist parties, communist parties … They are much, much better than us at preferencing each other.”

New South Wales (NSW) has a optional preferential voting system, meaning at the recent state contest, many Family First Party members simply put number one next to their party and left all other boxes empty.

“Well, that’s not helpful,” Ruddick said. “For minor parties, the preferential voting system is very good … if we are smart about it.”

In the NSW Legislative Assembly (lower house) voters can choose to rank additional candidates in order of preference.

For the Legislative Council (upper house), voters can choose to vote above the line only, meaning they mark their first preference for a party, and the party has the authority to direct the remaining preferences.

How Ruddick Envisions a Unified Ticket Working

Ruddick proposed unified minor party ticket about six months before the next federal election.

At present, all minor parties, like Family First, Libertarians, and Gerard Rennick’s People First run separately, but collectively manage to secure about “6 or 7 percent” of the vote.

Ruddick stressed that what such a coalition would need a figurehead or a “really popular candidate who can give a good speech.”

To determine this person, he proposed each minor party nominate its best candidate to deliver a speech and answer questions before the combined membership of all the parties.

“So we have a big coalition ticket, and I believe that democracy will, in most cases, give us the candidate who is most likely to win,” Ruddick said.

The MLC noted that most of the minor conservative parties agree on 90 percent of topics.

“We’re all pro-free enterprise, we’re all pro-free speech, we’re all against the woke stuff, we’re all against global warming,” Ruddick said.

“Yes, we’ve got little differences. Those differences are issues that do not come up frequently. When they do, that’s okay, but on the on the stuff that is wrecking the country before our eyes, we’re all in agreement.”

Lessons From the UK

Ruddick, a member of the NSW Liberal Party for over 25 years, spoke about the problems that face the traditional centre-right party.

“It is disappointing that we have to have minor parties, because we should be having a good Liberal Party,” he said.

In 2021, disappointed by the Liberals’ response to COVID-19 and its internal dynamics, Ruddick joined the Liberal Democrats, which later rebranded as the Libertarian Party.

Elected in April 2023, he became the first member of the Libertarian Party to hold a seat in the NSW Parliament.

Ruddick warned the Liberals could face similar challenges like its British counterpart, the Conservative Party.

“The British Conservative Party was a great party in the 20th century,” Ruddick said. “And so what’s happened? Nigel Farage has happened.”

In 2019, Farage founded the Brexit Party to campaign for a definitive departure from the European Union. The party was renamed Reform UK in 2021.

“Nigel Farage agrees with most of what we stand for, and he was battling away for decades, running in elections … obviously the Brexit thing, which he was a hero of,” Ruddick said.

“But he’s had a lot of setbacks. He is on track to become the British prime minister from a minor party that has not happened for a very, very long time.”

“I believe all the ingredients are the same in Australia. It’s going to happen.”