With the election campaign now in full swing, many Brunswick residents are coming to recognise what has been brewing for months now − a grassroots movement with big ideas to fix the issues throughout our society.
Thanks to the prolific advertising campaign by Fusion candidate Owen Miller, people are quickly learning about the party, and they're starting to recognise the Fusion logo in more places.
Fusion candidate Owen Miller in front of a billboard of posters. Source: Facebook
The shiny stickers have been all around Wills for months now, being proudly displayed in places frequented by the movement's early adopters.
These early members of Fusion have come from a few primary places, with the party being a merger of 5 previous parties:
- Science Party
- Secular Party
- Pirate Party
- Vote Planet
- Climate Change Justice
The complementary areas of focus have ended up giving Fusion a broad set of policies which in turn has attracted volunteers interested in shaping further policies. A recent addition is Fusion's extensively researched housing policy, which continues Fusion's characteristic desire to solve problems at their root causes − it calls to reduce the favourable tax treatments given to home-owners, so renting will become more prolific and renters will gain more rights, in a virtuous cycle. With houses no longer doing double duty as homes and as investments, capital will instead be directed to sustainable city-building and other avenues which actually improve our shared future.
This housing policy is being prominently displayed as the third major policy for Wills candidate Owen Miller, after emergency climate action and universal basic income (UBI).
With many artists living in the area, there is a tendency to support UBI, but first people need to actually hear what the idea entails. In brief, it would see the government making regular fortnightly payments of ~$500 to adult resident citizens, with a portion of this recaptured in tax, based on the recipient's income. This would replace any lesser welfare payments and would do away with all the frustrating application processes and the various debt traps that incentivise people to stay dependent on welfare.
By providing a strong social safety net: enough money for food and basic accommodation, it would give people more confidence in pursuing new education and switching careers into something that's better suited to their talents and their ambitions in life.
Conservatives might instinctively tense up at the idea of giving people money for nothing, but the fact that it creates an efficient tax system resulted it in being championed by the likes of Milton Friedman.
As he foments this movement in Wills, this isn't Owen Miller's first rodeo − he also ran as a federal candidate for the by-election in Aston in 2023.
The biggest problem is just that people haven't heard of us. Once they read Fusion's policies, especially how our climate action is orders of magnitude beyond what the Greens are pursuing, then you see their eyes widen and they tell you, "oh wow"
Although the stickers cannot be distributed for federal campaigns, Mr Miller says that there are still posters that new supporters can host at their home.
People say they don't like talking politics or being political, but what is politics anyway? It's a set of agreed-upon processes for running society. It's chatting about how the game should be played. It needn't be aggressive or personal.
If you go about it the right way and just put up a sign saying here are my beliefs and here are the improvements I'd like to see in society, then it can produce incredible outcomes − Martin Luther is the classic example.
While residents of Wills might not start a breakaway religion, Fusion's posters are pitching some large changes for Australia: To inquire about hosting a sign for the upcoming federal election, Please email [email protected].