Party Games 20/38 Liberal Democratic Party

The Liberal Democratic Party is Australia's libertarian party, and they are very committed to their ideals. They have become a lot more outspoken during COVID, with their position on the matter is that no government should take any action on the issue other than maybe asking people to be careful. And while yes there can be debate on how effective government action was, and what should and shouldn't have been done, the position that nothing should have been done at all is one I don't find tenable.

The idea that government shouldn't really do anything forms the basis for most of their policies. They want to privatise schools, privatise the ABC & SBS, and get rid of a whole slew of government regulation. Their budget proposal is to cut all departments' (except the armed forces) budgets by 10% initially, and then cut an additional 1% each year until the budget is balanced, which could be an issue because their tax plan would cut tax revenue by about 25%. 

They oppose any action on climate change, which means they want to get rid of any carbon reduction targets, let alone a net zero target, they want to get rid of subsidies for renewables (which I could support at this stage if they also got rid of all the subsidies for fossil fuels and factored in externalities from pollution by say imposing a carbon tax, but they don't seem to get there). I do agree with them on allowing nuclear power.

Finally, I guess this last bit is more subjective than normal, but to me it feels like their freedom fundamentalism leads them to always siding with the dickhead in situations. Whether it's things like opposing racial vilification laws because of freedom of speech, opposing worker protections because employers should be free from regulation, supporting a company that put's sexist jokes on their hire vehicles, and more, the freedoms they support always end up being freedom for the powerful rather than the powerless. And so, since I don't want to have to ask "Am I the Asshole?" I'm placing them towards the bottom of the ballot.