The Democratic Labour Party wants to hand back Canberra's northside hospital to Calvary, grant stay-at-home mothers $35,000 without a means test to look after their children, abolish compulsory bicycle helmets and bring back fireworks for the King's birthday long weekend.
And ACT Labor is now working desperately hard to make sure no voters in Yerrabi or Ginninderra mistake the group for the party of Chief Minister Andrew Barr, which has been in power for 23 years.
The governing party has launched social media ads warning voters not to be misled by the presence of the Democratic Labour Party on ballot papers in Yerrabi, Ginninderra and Kurrajong.
While the DLP is unlikely to win a seat, the party can split Labor support at the ballot box.
ACT Labor is also working to get its message out through community groups and is targeting areas where booths with a high DLP vote in 2020 correlated with a higher proportion of people who speak Mandarin at home.
The Democratic Labour Party has put up roadside corflutes in the red-and-white scheme reminiscent of Labor, with the message: "It's time. Vote for the REAL Labour Party. Vote 1 Labour DLP."
No Labour DLP candidate, as they will be listed on the ballot paper, has provided a statement to Elections ACT about their reasons for running or policy positions.
The DLP is running two candidates in Yerrabi - Colin Jory and Michael Hanna - and four candidates in Ginninderra - Rick Howard, Maxwell Spencer, John Vanderburgh, Douglas Cooper and Helen Crowe.
Belinda Haley and Boston White are running for the DLP in Kurrajong.
The party's website listed a 36-point policy platform, which includes replacing welcome to country statements in schools with daily national anthem singing, an end to the "politicisation of public education by banning the teaching of radical race and gender material and climate change alarmism in public schools", and a reduction in rates and government fees and charges.
The DLP wants to repeal drug decriminalisation laws, introduce a zero-tolerance graffiti policy, establish a dedicated ACT police force, and drop the age of criminal responsibility back to 10 years of age.
The party also wants a free state dental clinic, a gas-run power plant, private hospital emergency departments, and to make smoking in designated outdoor areas at pubs, clubs and hospitals legal again.
The DLP's position to the left of ACT Labor on the 2020 ballot paper in Ginninderra contributed to the loss of ACT Labor's third seat in the division, casting Gordon Ramsay, who had served as attorney-general, out of the Legislative Assembly.
Labor fears a similar effect in Yerrabi this election, where the DLP will be positioned to their left on ballot papers. The DLP is column C, while ACT Labor is in column G.
ACT Labor is positioned to the left of the DLP in Ginninderra this election: ACT Labor is column E and the DLP is column G.
The column order for ballot papers in the territory is determined by draw using a random number generator.
In 2020, the DLP collected 4.7 per cent of the primary vote in Yerrabi and 2.4 per cent in Ginninderra. ACT Labor collected 34.2 per cent in Yerrabi, with a 9.8 per cent swing against the party, and 40 per cent in Ginninderra, with a 1.4 per cent swing against the party.
Nearly 50,000 people - 14.9 per cent - had already voted in the first four days of early voting in the ACT, information released by Elections ACT on Friday showed.
At the last election, the DLP spent $12,893 on its campaign and received $21,699 in public funding. Public funding is paid to parties that achieve at least 4 per cent of the first preference vote; the amount is calculated on the number of first preference votes.
The origins of the DLP are in the 1955 Labor Party split, in which delegates from the Victorian Labor branch connected to the B.A. Santamaria's Catholic Social Studies Movement were excluded from the party's national conference and went on to form what became the Democratic Labour Party.
The split in the Labor party helped keep the party out of power in the federal parliament until Gough Whitlam led the party to victory in 1972, as the more conservative, Catholic-dominated DLP directed its preferences to the Liberals ahead of Labor.
