The AEC has just announced the registration of the Pirate Party Australia. Don’t believe me? Check this out: http://www.aec.gov.au/parties_and_representatives/party_registration/registered_parties/pirate.htm

The party correspondence address is in New South Wales, but the Officer of the Party, Mr Takkenberg, is from the ACT.

The ACT has a long history of humorous parties. Although this may not be one of them (I can’t be bothered researching that right now), it’s well worth checking them out.

Examples of joke ACT political parties include:

• • The Party! Party! Party! party.
  • The Sun Ripened Warm Tomato Party.
  • The Surprise Party.
  • The Deadly Serious Party.

Most of those parties are now defunct and new laws make it harder to register political parties in the ACT, which was one of the easiest places in Australia to register a political party.

This means fewer joke parties make it past the idea stage, which, in my opinion, is a loss to the character of Australian democracy.