Liberal Democrats
https://www.ldp.org.au/
* I skimmed over them very quickly before the federal election. They seem to
have put plenty of work into the state election, with a well-written set of
state policies.
* There's a bit of venting over the lockdowns and government's response to
corresponding protests in their first policies. They want a bill of rights
to protect individual freedoms, and a list of "safeguards" covering the
government's capacity to use emergency powers. In principle some of this might
be good, but I doubt it would really have much practical effect.
* They want to boost the powers of the IBAC anti-corruption body. They're also
keen that it takes on the role of investigating misconduct complaints against
Victoria Police, with a curiously specific funding boost of $43.1 million
between 2022-26 just for policing the police. I'm not entirely sure where
they're coming from on the latter stuff, but increased power and transparancy
for IBAC would be good.
* Without attempting many specifics, they want to "End the Nanny State" by
repealing laws against "victimless crimes". Cannabis possession and vaping,
as well as some increased speed limits, are their two examples. Hard to say
how much I'd be with them on this based on what little they say, but those
two aren't big things for me either way.
* Their favour of personal liberties extends to energy, promising to remove
bans on gas extraction and nuclear energy while scrapping renewable energy
targets and subsidies. They'll get their electricity however they damn well
choose, and they ain't choosing renewables.
* Housing costs will be brought down by scrapping stamp duty tax, plus easing
planning and zoning regulations. I think things like the recent floods suggest
developers may be getting away with too much already regarding these
regulations.
* One of their big points is small government, and they've got a fairly brutal
plan for achieving it. 10% off the budget of all State departments
immediately, excluding critical frontline workers. Then 1% cut per year until
state government debt is repaid. Without adding extra oversight into the
use of current funding, I expect departments would react to such a hardline
policy by simply cutting services while maintaining existing wasteful
practices, but at least I agree on the underlying problem. I do fully support
their scrapping Labor's Suburban Rail Loop project.
* They want more spending in regional victoria, as well as 25% of the public
sector workforce working there by 2026. I certainly like the sound of that.
Though I wonder whether it would really trickle down to the more rural areas,
or would it mainly just involve a few big cities ouside of Melbourne?
On personal freedoms, many of my strongest views apply to topics like internet
censorship and privacy which are mainly federal topics (and not obviously
represented by them there either). They're another party that's big on broad
aspirations, and from their few specifics I don't find much that particularly
enthuses me.
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