Australian Democrats

The Australian Democrats are a political party in Australia, created to consist of then-independent Brisbane MP Zak6858, Liberal National Senator GHagrid and former Social Democratic Party Deputy Leader Jayden_Williamson. The aim was to create a party for accountability, centrism, and collaboration in Australian politics.

Founding and Leadership of Zak6858 and GHagrid
Party Chair Jayden-Williamson filed for application on 10, 2020. The Australian Electoral Commission approved its registration two days later.

The Democrats fielded candidates unsuccessfully in the Melbourne By-Election in May and the Mayo By-Election in June before winning Hotham and Robertson and a Senate Seat in the July 2020 General Election under then Party Leader GHagrid.

August - December 2020: Jayden Williamson
The Democrats saw an increase in their vote share in the October 2020 Australian federal election however lost the Division of Hotham held by long-time MP Deladi0 in a marginal race against Independent challenger Mad_Bear_O_Melbourne.

On the Super Saturday By Election held on November 21, 2020, the Democrats fielded 3 candidates winning 1 in the Division of Canberra by Party Chair Matthias_Caesar.

December Leadership Spill
A vote of no confidence was called against Party Leader Jayden_Williamson on December 8th with the vote passing the following day with 71.4% of members voting against the Williamson’s Leadership. Jayden_Williamson re-contested the leadership following the vote competing against Party Chair Matthias_Caesar and Party Member MerrilyPutrid. Matthias_Caesar was elected on the first ballot with 62.5% of first preference votes, Jayden-Williamson received 25.0% of the vote and MerrilyPutrid received 12.5%.

Following the replacement of Jayden_Williamson as Party Leader by Matthias_Caesar, Jayden_Williamson would defect to the nearly formed Australian Green Left Party causing the Australian Democrats to once again be reduced to only 1 seat in the House of Representatives.

December - February 2020: Matthias Caesar
Matthias_Caesar would lead the Democrats into the 19th General Election where while they saw a decline in their share of the popular vote the party was able to retake Hotham after loosing it at the 18th General Election, retain Robertson after incumbent MP and former Party Leader Jayden_Williamson left politics to join the High Court, and Canberra which was won in the Super Saturday By-Election. Following the result Matthias_Caesar and the Democrats were viewed as Kingmakers in deciding the composition of the next Government.

As a part of internal party changes implemented by Jayden_Williamson and Matthias_Caesar, the Australian Democrats voted for a new Leadership Team where Matthias_Caesar was re-elected unopposed due in part to his successful leadership of the party so far.

The Democrats entered into negotiations with the SDP and Liberal Party to discuss the possibility of forming a centrist Government however after the defection of MP Elect for Robertson Surfing Nooty the coalition talks failed and the Democrats resigned to the cross bench. After the GLP the largest non-Government parliamentary group refused to form the Official Opposition, Matthias_Caesar would become the Leader of the Official Opposition despite only having 2 House and 1 Senate seat in Parliament.

Opposition
The Democrats saw their position in Australian politics greatly improve while in Opposition, the party would see their polling numbers increase from winning over 10% of the vote in the 19th General Election to polling at over 16% after the April By-Elections and overtaking the Nationals, the then leading Government Coalition partner to come in second behind the Social Democratic Party. While in Opposition the Democrats advocated for major reforms including expanding the coverage of medicare, lowering out of pocket medical costs, increasing parenting payments for stay at home parents, legalising nuclear energy, protecting academic speech, granting Parliament additional constitutional powers and making food donations tax deductible. The term however was not without it's controversy, during the diplomatic crisis with Italy, Party Leader Matthias Caesar called out the Government for hording vaccines, a move that drew sharp criticism as most of the vaccines the Government had ordered was intended for allied nations in the Asia-Pacific Region. Caesar denied that he was backing a Foreign Government over the Australian Government and that he had not forgotten about Australia's allies.

In another incident, Member for Hotham GHagrid voted in favour of a controversial amendment brought forward by the Prime Minister Griffonomics to a propose blood donation law that was written by Green Left Leader model-kyosanto. The bill would have liberalised blood donation laws particularly for LGBT individuals, however the amendment would have tighten those restrictions contrary to the intentions of the bill. This caused tensions between the Greens and Democrats and a number of press groups applied considerable pressure. During the final weeks of Parliament, the Daily Courier began running stories about the culture of the Democrats after comments made by GHagrid after the defection of the Member for Robertson resurfaced to the public eye. Despite the best attempts by the now rejoined Member of Robertson to end the matter, it grew to include joint press statements calling out the Democrats by the Green Left and Liberal-Nationals for a problematic culture within the party.

May 2021 Election
The Democrats went into the election expected to perform well with some even considering the party to end up as the largest in Parliament. However a weak performance by the Liberals and Nationals and an unusually strong performance by the Greens and Democrats saw no change in the Democrats presence in Parliament with their Senate vote share slumping to their lowest to date. The biggest consequence of the election was Party Leader Matthias Caesar losing his bid to win the rural Victorian seat of Nicholls, despite a closely fought contest the Greens, Country Labor and Nationals performed deals with each other to prevent Caesar from getting the numbers he needed to win. Following his loss GHagrid was appointed Parliamentary Leader of the Democrats while Caesar would take over duties as Chair of the Party.

List of leaders
The following is a complete list of Australian Democrats leaders:

Key:

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