Editing Australian Democrats (section)

==Overview==
The party was founded on principles of honesty, tolerance, compassion and [[direct democracy]] through postal ballots of all members, so that "there should be no [[hierarchy|hierarchical]] structure ... by which a carefully engineered elite could make decisions for the members."<ref name="thirdman">Chipp D and Larkin J ''The Third Man'' Rigby, Melbourne (1978) {{ISBN|0-7270-0827-7}}</ref>{{rp|p187}} From the outset, members' participation was fiercely protected in national and divisional constitutions prescribing internal elections, regular meeting protocols, annual conferences—and monthly journals for open discussion and balloting. Dispute resolution procedures were established, with final recourse to a party [[ombudsman]] and membership ballot.

Policies determined by the unique participatory method promoted environmental awareness and [[sustainability]], opposition to the primacy of [[economic rationalism]] (Australian [[neoliberalism]]), preventative approaches to human health and welfare, animal rights, rejection of nuclear technology and weapons.

The Australian Democrats were the first representatives of [[green politics]] at the federal level in Australia. They "were in the vanguard of environmentalism in Australia. From the early 1980s they were unequivocally opposed to the building of the [[Franklin Dam controversy|Franklin Dam]] in Tasmania and they opposed the mining and export of uranium and the development of nuclear power plants in Australia."<ref name=Madden/> In particular, leader [[Don Chipp]], and Tasmanian state Democrat [[Norm Sanders]], played crucial legislative roles in preventing the damming of the Franklin River.

The party's centrist role made it subject to criticism from both the right and left of the political spectrum. In particular, Chipp's former [[Liberal Party of Australia|conservative]] affiliation was frequently recalled by opponents on the left.{{efn|Such as the then [[Democratic Socialist Perspective|Socialist Workers' Party]] and early green-left parties such as the [[United Tasmania Group]].}} This problem was to torment later leaders and strategists who, by 1991, were proclaiming "the electoral objective" as a higher priority than the rigorous participatory democracy espoused by the party's founders.{{efn|The first substantive reason given by rebellious senators for deposing leader [[Janet Powell]] in 1991 was her alleged failure to develop a media profile which would attract more electoral support. The first conclusive constitutional abandonment of founding principles was probably the July 1993 decision of the party's national executive to terminate monthly publication of the members' ''National Journal'' and to replace it with less frequent publication of glossy promotional material.}}

Because of their numbers on the cross benches during the [[Hawke government|Hawke]] and [[Keating government|Keating]] governments, the Democrats were sometimes regarded as exercising a [[Balance of power (parliament)|balance of power]]—which attracted electoral support from a significant sector of the electorate which had been alienated by both Labor and Coalition policies and practices.