Pirates, bullet trains, Wikileaks, Carers - just some of the parties registering to contest September election

As an election year experience, Australian Christian Voter has subscribed to the Australian Electoral Commission's political party registration alert.

Whenever a party applies to register, change its name or has its registration approved or otherwise and the pace of alerts is definitely pick up.

Early alerts pertained to The Pirate Party, Carers Alliance and Bank Reform Party - read our earlier story here.

The next party registration alert seemed to coincide with the (very slow) discussion of a very fast train - The Bullet Train for Australia Party. Canberran Timothy Bohm is named as the applicant and the party's website says its goal is create a better Australia for our children and will have no other policies than to push for a high speed train.

An innocent little alert then came through for the Uniting Australia Party, a few days before Clive Palmer's plan to form a political party hit the headlines. Despite the application not being finally approved - objections can be made until May 24 - the UAP is already naming candidates and running advertising. It helps to have deep pockets.

Then this month, a trifecta of interesting new parties hit the AEC in time to beat the May 13 deadline for new registrations - Wikileaks Party, Voluntary Euthanasia Party and Nick Xenophon Group. You can find out more about their registration applications on the AEC website.

Wikileaks Party is a vehicle for would-be Victorian Senate candidate Julian Assange but has an interesting array of Australians on its National Council. The party has been formed by campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke and he is standing for the Senate, possibly in South Australia. Nick Xenophon says he has reluctantly formed the party so his name can be above the line on the ballot paper.

Meanwhile to parties with a symmetry to their names are both seeking changes or abbreviations to their existing registration.

The Democratic Labor Party of Australia wants to drop the 'of Australia' part with a new abbreviation, DLP Democratic Labor. And the Liberal Democratic Party wants to change its abbreviation from Liberal Democrats (LDP) to Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Party is objecting.