Recently political analyst Kevin Bonham ran through a list of minor parties that have folded, renamed, disbanded and otherwise fallen off the face of the earth altogether. My former Justice Party rated a mention as one of the many to enter the political graveyard, and I have to confess, when I wasn’t returned to Canberra as a Victorian senator in 2019, part of me died.
I wondered if my life was over. I believed I still had a lot of unfinished business.
It’s not easy being an independent or running a small party in Canberra. I starkly remember when I started the Justice Party. I had a coffee with electoral analyst Glenn Druery and excitedly told him I had registered the party name.
“What is it?”
“The Justice Party”.
“You’ll lose. You’ve got to call it Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party.”
I protested that, despite rumours, I wasn’t an egotist like Pauline Hanson or Clive Palmer.
Druery scoffed. “You are a brand. That’s like Kellogg’s just calling themselves cornflakes. People know you for what you stand for, why you went to jail”. He was right, the party name was changed, and I was elected.
We ended up with one federal senator and three members of the Victorian upper house. I had to sack one state member when she went rogue before even being sworn in.
A federal election must be held by this time next year and the pundits are predicting a return of the Albanese government but in a minority. It means the Greens, the teals and other crossbenchers gain more muscle. I saw a recent poll posted by Peter FitzSimons on X/Twitter where the question was asked: Having closely watched the performance of the teal independents since the election, how will it affect your vote next time?
The results were really interesting. More than 60% said they would be more inclined to vote teal, 11% said less inclined and 25% said their view was unchanged.
Minor parties can have successes. Aided by then foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop, I got legislation passed to stop convicted paedophiles engaging in child abuse tourism in the region. Campaigns can work.
Peter Dutton, a former cop, called me at 7am one day to say we had to get the public register of convicted sex offenders off the ground. It is now Liberal Party policy.
Another lesson for small parties and independents: campaigns cost money. And you don’t get the big corporate cheques that major parties do. Earlier this year I announced I would run for lord mayor of Melbourne. I pulled out after the money men went through everything dollar by dollar and concluded a real campaign would cost between $125,000 and $500,000. When I shut down the Justice Party I personally paid the last bill of $17,000 to Australia Post. I wasn’t going down that dollar drain again.
But going back to my confession. I miss Canberra terribly. I still want to be there. I watch question time with mixed emotions. I could have, should have, done more. But the tribe has spoken, as they say, and that’s democracy.
