We all miss out with presidential-style campaigns. You know what it’s like. Bob Brown whines and whinges about not getting invited to the leaders’ debate, even though his party’s polling an eighth of the vote of the big boys. And then there are all the other parties we miss out on hearing from. Crikey hasn’t yet received any media releases from Senate candidate None of the Above, but we’ve got some important campaign news we think we’d better share with you.

Here’s just one of the many missives we’ve got from One Nation Senate candidate Mark Aldridge – complete with the original grammar:

The citizens electoral council who have stood against the major parties for several years have bowed to the liberal party, says One nation Senate team leader, Mark Aldridge

Just who can you trust in the harsh game of politics these days, when a party whose web site and papers name the major players as there opposition can than turn and give the same first preferences, you can easily see why I have called for an overhaul of the electoral system, said Mark

The truth has certainly become old fashioned when even the trusted minor parties and independents like Nick Xenephon can turn their backs on their supporters, Thank god for One Nation who seem the only force left towards honest politics.

The CEC has fought back with this effort:

Our current electoral system is a fraud twice-over. First, because our easily-destabilised, British parliamentary system is itself a scam: without a strong, popularly elected head of state, its purpose is to ensure that real power is held by a financial oligarchy ruling from offstage. Second, “preferential voting” was introduced in 1918 solely in order to stop the pro-national banking, pro-sovereignty Labor Party of that era by allowing the two conservative, pro-British parties to swap votes and therefore to effectively vote as one. Preferences worked to the same end during the Menzies era, when the DLP’s preferences were always anti-ALP, which latter continued its fight for national sovereignty until the Crown sacked Whitlam.

Until we establish a republic, we are stuck with this rotten British system…

Our favourite effort so far, however, comes from the wild and crazy libertarians from the Liberty and Democracy Party:

“I don’t normally smoke and after the election I don’t plan on smoking. However, for the remainder of the election campaign I will take up smoking to highlight the need for Australians to throw off the nanny state and reclaim their freedom to choose,” said John Humphreys, Queensland Senate candidate for the Liberty and Democracy Party (LDP).

“It seems like every time a politician talks in Australia another freedom is removed. Politicians and bureaucrats have taken to treating citizens like naughty children who need Uncle Howard to protect us from the evils of tobacco, alcohol & gambling…

“I already enjoy drinking and playing poker and make no apologies. While I’m not a smoker, I certainly stand up for the right of people to smoke without being hassled or made into a pariah. To show my support for smoker’s rights I will smoke every day for the remainder of the campaign.”

The LDP is the only political party in Australia that is committed to defending individual choices, even when those choices are unpopular or politically incorrect…

Given that public money is stolen money, we’re a little surprised that a good libertarian is contributing to the coffers of the nanny state and paying the exorbitant tobacco taxes.