The Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) (originally known as the Non-Custodial Parents Party) is a small Australian political party. The party has members in all states and territories of Australia. It supports less government control of many aspects of daily family life. In particular, it puts forward a number of policies seeking changes in the areas of family law and child support.
The party is registered with the Australian Electoral Commission as a political party.
Video Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting)
Platform
The party's web-site states that the core policies centre on the issue of family law reform, emphasising legislative changes in order to enshrine a child's natural rights to a meaningful relationship with both parents, and legal and procedural changes to ensure that the Child Support system is fair, equitable and aimed at fulfilling its primarily goal, that being to support the children.
The policies are primarily aimed at assisting non-custodial parents, grandparents and spouses of non-custodial parents. This is particularly with respect to those parents who have either not been granted contact with their children or who have been adversely affected by the child support legislation.
Maps Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting)
History
Formation
The Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) was formed in Australia in 1998 by Andrew Thompson and other concerned citizens. The original name of the Party was the Non-Custodial Parents Party. The party was registered with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) as a political party on 12 January 1999. Andrew Thompson remains the Party Secretary and the Registered Officer of the Party. John Flanagan became the Deputy Registered Officer of the Party in 2003.
1999 NSW State Election
The Non-Custodial Parents Party was originally registered at both the New South Wales State level and at the Federal level. The NCPP ran 22 candidates in the 1999 NSW State Election
There were two candidates for the NSW Legislative Council, Andrew Thompson and Angela Flynn.
There were also 20 candidates that nominated for the NSW Legislative Assembly: viz. in Bathurst, Baulkham Hills, Camden, Campbelltown, Coffs Harbour, Fairfield, Hawkesbury, Illawarra, Kogarah, Liverpool, Londonderry, Macquarie Fields, Mulgoa, Murray-Darling, Parramatta, Penrith, Pittwater, Port Jackson, Rockdale and Southern Highlands.
The NSW State registration was subsequently allowed to lapse after the 1999 NSW State Elections. This was primarily because the NSW State Electoral Commission uses an optional preferential voting system. Also, state electoral commissions in Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT use an optional preferential voting system for the Legislative Assembly.
Optional preferential voting negates the political impact of small parties such as the NCPP. Whereas smaller political parties such as the NCPP have more of an impact if the preferential voting is compulsory
Federal registration was retained because the Australian Electoral Commission uses the compulsory preferential voting system for the Federal Elections.
Federal Elections
Since the 1999 NSW State Election, the Non-Custodial Parents Party has provided candidates for all federal elections. The Non-Custodial Parents Party has fielded candidates in the 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010 Federal Elections and also ran a candidate in a 2002 Cunningham Federal By-Election.
2001 Federal election
The NCPP fielded eight candidates in the 2001 Federal Election. This included two Senate candidates for New South Wales: Andrew Thompson and Annette McKeegan. There were also six candidates for seats for the House of Representatives: in Bennelong, Eden-Monaro, Lindsay, Macarthur, Parramatta and Richmond. All seats were based in NSW.
2002 Federal Cunningham By-Election
In 2002, the Non-Custodial Parents Party contested the 2002 Federal By-Election for the then vacant Federal seat of Cunningham (near Wollongong). John Flanagan ran for the NCPP and received 556 votes, representing 0.83% of the total vote
2004 Federal Election
In the 2004 Federal Election, the NCPP fielded candidates in states other than in New South Wales for the first time. The party fielded eight Senate candidates - two candidates each in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. The eight Senate candidates received a total of 12,207 votes, representing 0.10% of the national vote.<
The NCPP also contested two New South Wales House of Representatives seats: Cunningham and Parramatta. The candidates netted 1,132 first preference votes, representing 0.01% of the national vote and 0.03% of the NSW votes.
2006 Deregistration and Re-Registration
In 2006, the Australian Electoral Commission de-registered all minor political parties. The NCPP was one of the nineteen (19) minor political parties de-registered
This was because the AEC had considered that the names of some of the minor parties were becoming too similar to those of the larger parties. Therefore, it was decided by the AEC that the names of all minor political parties were to be reviewed in a "blanket" de-registration process
This review did not directly affect the Non-Custodial Parents Party as any conflict with another party's name was never an issue. However the temporary de-registration did provide an opportunity for the NCPP to consider a name change.
As part of the re-registration process, the Executive of the NCPP subsequently requested that the name of the party be changed from the Non-Custodial Parents Party to the present name of the Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) - abbreviated to NCPP(EP). This was done to better reflect the party's emphasis on the issue of equal parenting as one of its key issues.
On 28 August 2007, the AEC re-registered the party under the new name.
2007 Federal Election
In the 2007 federal election the NCPP(EP) ran eight Senate candidates. The States contested were again New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia - with two candidates in each state. Nationally the party received 6,385 first preference votes, or 0.05% of total vote.
The NCPP(EP) also contested two House of Representatives seats in the 2007 Federal Elections. They were Cunningham and Macarthur. Both seats were located in New South Wales. The candidates received 795 first preferences votes representing 0.01% of the national vote and 0.02% of the New South Wales vote.
2010 Federal Election
The NCPP(EP) contested the 2010 Federal Election. The Party had two Senate candidates: Andrew Thompson and Roland Foster. The party received 3,616 votes representing 0.09% of the total New South Wales votes. and 0.03% of the national vote.
There were also two House of Representatives candidates. They were for the seat of Cunningham and for the adjacent seat of Throsby. The seats contested for the 2010 Federal Election were all in New South Wales. The two House of Representatives candidates received 2,835 representing 0.02% of the Australian vote.
2013 Federal election
The party fielded candidates at the 2013 federal election. The party has been involved in Glenn Druery's Minor Party Alliance.
2016 federal election
Non-custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) again fielded two senate candidates and two House of Representatives candidates in New South Wales in the 2016 federal election.
2017 intention to deregister
On 29 June 2017, The Australian Electoral Commission gave notice of its consideration to deregister the party under subsection 137(1)(cb) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.
See also
- Child custody
- Equal Parenting Alliance: political party
- Fathers 4 Justice
- Families Need Fathers
- Family law
- Fathers' rights
- Shared parenting
Notes
http://www.elections.nsw.gov.au/past_results/state_elections/1999_legislative_assembly_results
External links
- Homepage
Source of article : Wikipedia
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