The Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) (formerly Non-Custodial Parents Party) is a small Australian political party.[1] It 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 in the areas of family law and child support.
The Party is registered with the Australian Electoral Commission as a political party [2]
The Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) [3] was formed in Australia in 1998 by Andrew Thompson and other concerned citizens. The original name of the Party was Non-Custodial Parents Party. The party was registered [4] with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) as a political party on 12 January 1999.[5]
Andrew Thompson is the Party Secretary and the Registered Officer of the Party [6]. John Flanagan became the Deputy Registered Officer of the Party in 2003 [7].
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 child/ren.
The policies are primarily aimed at assisting non-custodial parents, grandparents and spouses of non-custodial parents [8]. 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.
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The Non-Custodial Parents Party was originally registered at both the New South Wales State level and at the Federal level. The NCPP ran twenty-two (22) candidates in the 1999 NSW State Election [9].
There were two (2) candidates [10] for the NSW Legislative Council [11] viz. Andrew Thompson and Angela Flynn.
There were also twenty (20) candidates [12] that nominated for the NSW Legislative Assembly [13]: viz. in Bathurst [14], Baulkham Hills [15], Camden [16], Campbelltown [17], Coffs Harbour [18], Fairfield [19], Hawkesbury [20], Illawarra [21], Kogarah [22], Liverpool [23], Londonderry [24], Macquarie Fields [25], Mulgoa [26], Murray-Darling [27], Parramatta [28], Penrith [29], Pittwater [30], Port Jackson [31], Rockdale [32] and Southern Highlands [33].
The NSW State registration was subsequently allowed to lapse after the 1999 NSW State Elections - The Legislative Council [34] and the Legislative Assembly [35]. This was primarily because New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT use an optional preferential voting system [36] for the Legislative Assembly. (Federal Elections use a compulsory preferential voting system).
Optional preferential voting negates the political impact of small parties such as the NCPP [37].
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 [38], 2004 [39], 2007 [40] and 2010 [41] Federal Elections and also in a 2002 Federal By-Election [42].
The NCPP fielded eight candidates in the 2001 Federal Election [43]. This included (2) Senate candidates for New South Wales viz. Andrew Thompson and Annette McKeegan [44]. There were also six (6) House of Representatives candidates viz. in Bennelong [45], Eden-Monaro [46], Lindsay [47], Macarthur [48], Parramatta [49] and Richmond [50]. All seats were based in NSW.
In 2002, the Non-Custodial Parents Party contested the 2002 Federal By-Election [51] for the then vacant Federal seat of Cunningham (near Wollongong). The seat had been formed in 1949. Since that time, two (2) Federal ministers and a previous Speaker of the House of Representatives had represented the Australian Labor Party in the seat of Cunningham. In the previous 2001 Federal Election, the ALP candidate had received 60.65 per cent of the two-party preferred vote [52].
Cunningham was considered to be a safe Labour seat by both major parties. In fact, the Liberal Party did not even consider it worth the effort to provide a candidate for the 2002 Federal By-Election [53].
There were 13 candidates that nominated for the 2002 Federal By-Election. This included the NCPP candidate. With the exception of the ALP and one of the Christian-based parties, all candidates directed their preferences away from the ALP. The NCPP was one of the eleven (11) candidates that preferenced their “how-to-vote” cards in that way.
This resulted in a narrow win for the Greens candidate. Therefore the NCPP contributed in a small way to the ALP not winning the 2002 Federal By-Election for Cunningham. This showed that even safe seats are not as safe as they sometimes appear if analysed from just historical trends [54].
(Cunningham subsequently reverted back to the ALP at the 2004 Federal Election. The ALP has then held the seat since that time [55]).
In the 2004 Federal Election [56], the NCPP fielded candidates in states other than in New South Wales, for the first time. The party fielded eight (8) Senate candidates – two (2) candidates in each state [57]. The States contested were New South Wales [58], Victoria [59], Queensland [60] and Western Australia [61].
The NCPP also contested two (2) House of Representatives in the 2004 Federal Election viz. Cunningham [62] and Parramatta [63]. Both seats were located in New South Wales. The result for Parramatta was then the highest individual vote that the Party had received.
In 2006, the Australian Electoral Commission then deregistered all minor political parties [64]. This was because the AEC considered that the names of some minor parties were becoming too similar to some of the larger parties. This did not directly affect the Non-Custodial Parents Party. The name of the party was never an issue.
The NCPP was one of the many minor parties deregistered in the “blanket” deregistration process. However the deregistration did allow the NCPP to consider a name change.
The Executive of the NCPP subsequently requested that the name of the party be changed from the Non-Custodial Parents Party to the Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) - abbreviated to NCPP(EP). On the 28 August 2007, the AEC re-registered the party under the new name [65].
In the 2007 Federal Election [66], the NCPP(EP) provided eight (8) Senate candidates [67]. The States contested were again New South Wales [68], Victoria Senate results for Victoria in the 2007 Australian Federal Election. Date accessed 16 December 2010</ref>, Queensland [69] and Western Australia [70]– with two (2) candidates in each state.
The NCPP(EP) also contested two (2) House of Representatives seats in 2007 viz. Cunningham [71] and Macarthur [72]. Both seats were located in New South Wales.
The NCPP(EP) then contested the 2010 Federal Election [73]. The Party had two (2) Senate candidates viz Andrew Thompson and Roland Foster [74]. There were also two (2) House of Representatives candidates [75] viz. Cunningham [76] and the adjacent seat of Throsby [77]. Due to limited resources, the candidates for the 2010 Federal Election were all based in New South Wales.
The Party's vote has consistently increased from Election to Election. For example, the vote in Cunningham in 2010 was 2 1/2 times the vote that was received in the 2007 Federal Election [78] (which was then 1 1/2 times the vote that had been received in the 2004 Federal Election). The Party's vote in 2010 in the first-time contested Throsby [79] was even higher than that received in Cunningham in 2010.
The Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting) is still currently registered as a political party with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) [80].
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