Carers Alliance and Bank Reformers seek registration alongside the Pirate Party

Two new parties have applied for registration towards the September 14, 2013 federal election, joining 33 other parties already contesting the poll.

The Carers Alliance and the Bank Reform Party hope to follow the most recently registered political grouping, The Pirate Party, which had its registration approved by the Australian Electoral Commission on February 13, 2013.

Party registration benefits include having party affiliation printed on ballot papers, not needing the signatures of 50 voters to nominate in an electorate and funding for endorsed candidates who received 4 per cent of the vote.

Representing unpaid carers

The Carers Alliance constitution, submitted as part of its registration application, says, the party's purpose is to stand candidates at state and federal level to represent the rights of unpaid carers for people with disabilities, frail aged, mental illness and chronic illness.

"Every issue that affects ordinary Australian citizens has an even great impact on the unpaid carer...For unpaid carers it is a case of all the responsibilities and no rights.

"We are told there are over 2.3 million unpaid family carers in Australia. They do not have a single political voice and as as result, unpaid family carers feel disenfranchised as Australian citizens and exploited as individuals."

Visit the Carers Alliance website for more information about policies and candidates.

Reform of banks, supermarkets, fuel

The Bank Reform Party says it has been formed 'from broad dissatisfaction in the Australian community around the lack of genuine and substantive reform in the banking, supermarket and fuel sectors, and a need for greater social responsibility by our major institutions.

The BRP constitution describes the party as a 'non-aligned, centrist party with a platform of greater competitive reform in key sectors' which will seek to open dialogue with Australians about a social compact built around fairness and accountability.

Visit the Bank Reform Party website for more information.

And then there are the pirates...

At first glance seeming like a joke party, the Pirate Party are actually serious contenders in the next election and can boast that similar parties in Europe have achieved elected representatives.

Not actually wearing cutlasses and eye pieces, the Pirate Party says it is "a movement based around the core tenets of freedom of information and culture; civil and digital liberties; privacy and anonymity; and government transparency.

'We in the Pirate Party have simply decided that if sharing a love for culture, knowledge and information with our friends and family makes us pirates, then that’s what we are and we’re proud of it,' the party website says. 'We’ve adopted the very term intended to demonise an entire generation for the completely natural impulse to share discoveries with those around us. We’ve claimed the pirate name in the fight for a free, open and renewed democracy in Australia...'

Aiming primarily at the Senate, The Pirate Party has a fully-functioning branch in the ACT and interest in other states.

Visit the Australian Electoral Commission political party page