The Confederate Action Party of Australia (CAP) was an Australian

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

political party which first appeared in the

1992 Queensland state election Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 19 September 1992 to elect the 89 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The Labor Party led by Wayne Goss was reelected for a second term with a strong majority government. ...

. Its 12 candidates polled an average of 10.13% in the seats they contested.Grearson, David & Kapel, Michael (1998)
"Pauline's Lunatic Fringe"
in the '' Australia/Israel Review'' Overall, CAP achieved 1.4% of the statewide vote and did not win any seats. The party was registered on 10 September 1992 with the

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent federal agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums. Responsibilities The AEC's main responsibility is to ...

and contested the

1993 Australian federal election The 1993 Australian federal election was held to determine the members of the 37th Parliament of Australia. It was held on 13 March 1993. All 147 seats of the Australian House of Representatives and 40 seats of the 76-seat Australian Senate we ...

in a number of states. It was deregistered on 29 July 1993. and collapsed in August 1993 amid allegations of financial impropriety, vote rigging, infighting and fraud. Tony Pitt, one of the party’s candidates, became the secretary of One Nation’s Maryborough branch. Another CAP candidate, Bruce Whiteside, founded the Pauline Hanson Support Movement in 1996, which was used by Hanson to establish One Nation in April 1997. Santo Ferraro, the CAP’s candidate in the 1993 federal election, then stood in a number of elections for One Nation.''Gympie Times'', 26 February 2012
Santo Ferraro
/ref>

Policy

The party was often accused of

extremism Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied share ...

and

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

. It advocated the return of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

, denial of all applications for

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...

, and the reintroduction of the use of convict labour. The party sometimes used the slogan ''"We are One Australia – One Nation"''.

Tony Pitt

In 1991 Pitt had circulated a letter to far-right extremists which claimed that Australia was about to be deliberately destroyed. "The ALP is going to spring an early election," he wrote. "The Coalition is going to deliberately throw the fight so their ALP cohorts can maintain progress on the plan the upper levels of the Libs and the ALP have in mind for us." Pitt attached a list of "organisations who will help to save us", which included the League of Rights,

Australians Against Further Immigration Australians Against Further Immigration (AAFI) was an Australian far-right political party which described itself as " eco-nationalist", was opposed to mass immigration and aimed for zero net migration. The party was founded in 1989 and register ...

, the AUSI Freedom Scouts, the Libyan backed and funded Australian Peoples’ Conference, the

Citizens Electoral Council The Australian Citizens Party (ACP), formerly the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia (CEC), is a minor political party in Australia affiliated with the international LaRouche Movement which was led by American political activist and conspir ...

, and the Queensland Immigration Control Association, a division of the

National Front of Australia The National Front of Australia (NFA) was an Australia nationalist and anti-immigrant organisation that existed from 1977 to 1984. It was an initiative of John Tyndall of the British National Front but received no funding from the British NF. His ...

. An updated version of this contact list - now including the neo-Nazi group National Action - is found on Pitt’s website. Pitt has also advocated the use of biological and atomic weapons against Asians, and in March 1993 told SBS TV’s Dateline program that he would put politicians on trial, after purging judges and police - "a filthy corrupt mob". His most recent claim is that the Port Arthur gunman, Martin Bryant, was drugged and set up by anti-gun lobbyists to kill his 35 victims.

Federal parliament

State elections

Notes

References

{{Defunct Australian political parties Defunct political parties in Australia Political parties with year of establishment missing Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Defunct far right political parties in Australia