Outdoor Recreation Party
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about an Australian political party. For a political party of a similar name see Outdoor Recreation New Zealand.
The Outdoor Recreation Party is a minor political party in Australia. It largely represents the outdoor community and such interests as camping, kayaking, cycling, 4WDing, skiing, walking, fishing lobbies, as well as similar recreational groups which perceive their interests as being threatened by conservation groups implementing "wilderness" protection policies which ignore the notion of 'human interaction'. Their main platform is based around community involvement with nature.
The party has contested several federal and state elections, though it has only managed to elect one state MP, Malcolm Jones, who was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council in March 1999 due to a very strong flow of preferences from other parties, despite receiving only 0.2% of the primary vote. Jones resigned in 2003 amidst a corruption scandal, and party member Dr Jon Jenkins was elected by the Legislative Council to serve out the remainder of Jones' term. Since Dr Jenkins' election there has been a distinct change in the character of the ORP.
As regards the internal party politics of the ORP, its constitution has made it difficult for the rank and file to implement change in the direction of the party to a wider platform, and as a result many members became disillusioned with the party. The ORP is currently altering the processes required for implementing change and has adopted a wider set of policies on many social issues.
The ORP passed the political party registration process as required by the NSW Electoral Office in June 2006, allowing it to contest the 2007 New South Wales state election. Jenkins resigned his seat several weeks before the election, in protest towards legislation passed by the chamber, which he found repellent. ORP contested the election on a joint Upper House ticket with the Horse Rider's Party. However, the party failed to recapture Jones' seat having achieved only 0.6% of the vote, and consequently it no longer has parliamentary representation.
[edit] References
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008) |
[edit] External links
- The Outdoor Recreation Party Official Website
 |
This article about a political party is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
