The Australian Citizens Party (ACP), formerly the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia (CEC), is a minor political party in Australia affiliated with the international

LaRouche Movement The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals. ...

, founded and originally led American political activist and conspiracy theorist

Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization, the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy ...

. The ACP campaigns on "restoring Australia’s national and economic sovereignty", with a focus on banking reform, including a " Glass-Steagall" division of Australia’s banks separating commercial from investment banking; an amendment to the Banking Act guaranteeing Australian bank deposits against a "bail-in"; and a new

government-owned State ownership, also called public ownership or government ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, property, or enterprise by the national government of a country or state, or a public body representing a community, as opposed to ...

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

, with a retail division operating in post offices. The ACP is federally registered with the Australian Electoral Commission. The party has pushed

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

, including that international action on climate change and indigenous land rights are part of a conscious fraud masterminded by

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...

, as part of the

British royal family The British royal family comprises Charles III and other members of his family. There is no strict legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member, although the Royal Household has issued different lists outlining who is considere ...

's scheme to depopulate the planet. It ‘believes Prince Philip is trying to break up nation-states through the

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

and is involved in a "racist plot to splinter Australia"’. Founded in 1988, the party has been led by Craig Isherwood ever since.

History

The original CEC was established in 1988 by residents of the

Kingaroy Kingaroy () is a rural town and suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is situated on the Road Junction, junction of the D'Aguilar Highway, D'Aguilar and the Bunya Highway, Buny ...

region of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. CEC candidate

Trevor Perrett Trevor John Perrett (2 August 194110 July 2022) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland e ...

won the

1988 Barambah state by-election The 1988 Barambah state by-election was held on 16 April 1988 to elect the member for Barambah in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, following the resignation of resignation of National MP and former premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Until the ...

, after former Queensland Premier

Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (13 January 191123 April 2005) was an Australian politician and farmer who served as premier of Queensland between 1968 and 1987, for almost 20 years, as state leader of the National Party (earlier known as the Co ...

resigned in 1987. However, Perrett switched to the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

in December 1988. Members of the

Australian League of Rights The Australian League of Rights is a far-right and antisemitic political organisation in Australia. It was founded in Adelaide, South Australia, by Eric Butler in 1946, and organised nationally in 1960. It inspired groups like the Canadian Lea ...

, an extreme right-wing group led by Eric Butler, tried unsuccessfully to take over the new party. Its purpose was to lobby for binding voter-initiated

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

s. By 1989, the CEC leadership was under the influence of the

movement. By 1992, the CEC identified itself as the Australian branch of the broad international LaRouche movement. National Secretary Craig Isherwood moved the headquarters from rural Queensland to a Melbourne suburb, with direct communications links to LaRouche's US headquarters established. In 1996, then-Liberal Party MP

Ken Aldred Kenneth James Aldred (1 August 194517 April 2016) was an Australian politician who represented the Liberal Party in the Australian House of Representatives between 1975 and 1980 and again from 1983 to 1996. Early life Aldred was born in East ...

was disendorsed by the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

after using

parliamentary privilege Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made in the course of their legislative duties ...

to make allegations that a prominent Jewish lawyer and a senior foreign affairs official were involved in espionage and drug trafficking. Aldred made the claims using documents supplied to him by the CEC that were later found to be forged. In 2004, the CEC received the largest contribution of any political party, $862,000 from a central Queensland cattle farmer and former CEC candidate named Ray Gillham. The party collected $2.3 million in donations in 2020-21. In the 2022–23, it raised approximately $1.4 million from 336 donations. The party’s leader is National Secretary and National Treasurer Craig Isherwood of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, who has been a candidate for the party numerous times.

Platform

The ACP, citing historic figure

King O'Malley King O'Malley (2 July 1858 not confirmed – 20 December 1953) was an American-born Australian politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1901 to 1917, and served two terms as Minister for Home Affairs (1910–1913; 1915–16). ...

as inspiration, lobbied for "the establishment of a National Bank and State Banks to provide loans at 2% or less to agriculture (family farms), industry and for infrastructure development", launching a petition in 2002 to drive support with a full page advertisement in ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

'' newspaper. In early 2008 the CEC started campaigning for a "Bank Homeowners Protection Bill of 2008", calling for legislation in the spirit of the Australian moratorium laws enacted in the 1920s and 1930s. The party continues to campaign for establishing a government-owned bank using the Australia Post network. The party follows the LaRouche line of

denying Denial, in colloquial English usage, has at least three meanings: * the assertion that any particular statement or allegation, whose truth is uncertain, is not true; * the refusal of a request; and * the assertion that a true statement is fal ...

the theory of

anthropogenic global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

; it claimed in 2009 that the

Copenhagen Summit The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 and 18 December. The conference included the 15th session of the Conference of the Partie ...

, a climate conference occurring that year, was planning "massive population genocide‚ on a scale that would make Adolf Hitler blush" and the establishment of a "world government". The party espouses the claim that the

Port Arthur massacre Port Arthur massacre may refer to: * Port Arthur massacre (China), an 1894 event in which Japanese troops killed several thousand Chinese in the Liaodong Peninsula * Port Arthur massacre (Australia), a 1996 shooting spree in Tasmania, resulting ...

, in which

Martin Bryant Martin John Bryant (born 7 May 1967) is an Australian mass murderer who shot and killed 35 people and injured 23 others in the Port Arthur massacre on 28 and 29 April 1996. He is currently serving thirty-five life sentences, and 1035 ...

murdered 35 people and injured 37 others, was instigated by mental health institute the

Tavistock Institute The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a British non-profit research and consulting organisation, specialising in the study of group behavior. There are sister organisations in China and Germany. It was formally established in September ...

on the orders of the

royal family A royal family is the immediate family of monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while th ...

, and that the Australian

was founded by pro-Hitler fascists. The CEC's other policies have included introducing a national Glass-Steagall Act to "break up the banks", introducing a moratorium on home & farm foreclosures, constructing

high speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single def ...

and the Bradfield Scheme, joining China's

Belt and Road Initiative The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI or B&R), known in China as the One Belt One Road and sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the government of China in 2013 to invest in more t ...

, shutting down

Pine Gap Pine Gap is a joint Australian–United States satellite communications and signals intelligence surveillance base and Australian Earth station approximately south-west of the town of Alice Springs. It is jointly operated by Australia and ...

and denying the existence of

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

Reception

In 2007, the Anti-Defamation Commission of the Australian branch of

B'nai B'rith B'nai B'rith International ( ; from ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit Jewish service organization and was formerly a cultural association for German Jewish immigrants to the United States. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the se ...

(an international Jewish organisation) has published a Briefing Paper with details of the CEC's alleged antisemitic, anti-gay, anti-Aboriginal and racist underpinnings. The document cites CEC publications and quotes former CEC members. The CEC published a response to the ADC, stating it was an antiracist organisation. Former members of the CEC and families of current members have accused the group of "

brainwashing Brainwashing is the controversial idea that the human mind can be altered or controlled against a person's will by manipulative psychological techniques. Brainwashing is said to reduce its subject's ability to think critically or independently ...

" members and engaging in campaigns involving "dirty tricks". For example, former CEC staffer Donald Veitch has claimed that new recruits undergo "

deprogramming Deprogramming is a controversial tactic that seeks to dissuade someone from "strongly held convictions" such as religious beliefs. Deprogramming purports to assist a person who holds a particular belief system—of a kind considered harmful by thos ...

sessions" and that recruits are probed for sexual transgressions. Veitch has stated "The mind control operations commenced by

in the USA in the mid-1970s are still being practised today within his movement in Australia".

Electoral results

Despite running in "almost every election of the past two decades", in no election has the CEC ever garnered more than 2% of the vote. At the 2007 federal election, the CEC's previous form continued. Its first preference votes in the lower house was 27,879 (0.22%), and 8,677 (0.07%) in the upper house, both results were 0.14% down from 2004. At the 2016 federal election, CEC fielded

senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

candidates in every state and the Northern Territory and seven candidates for seats in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

. Nationally, the party received 5,175 votes (0.04%) in the lower house and 9,850 votes (0.07%) in the upper house.First Preferences by Party – National
, AEC

References

External links