Day 51 Sunday 9 August 2026 Secret Harbour, WA by Brett Murrell

THE FACELESS MEN

The One Nation candidate was about to do the IPL community radio interview — the same one I did the other day — and was told by people higher up in One Nation that he could not.

IPL Radio invited all sixteen candidates to sit down and talk about their vision for the area. Eleven responded and were booked into slots. The One Nation candidate turned up for his and was keen to do it. A decision was made higher up to pull the interview at the last minute, and he left with the party’s state leader without starting. The station’s founding director said he was disappointed, and that it was a missed opportunity for the candidate to tell his story.

Funny, because the media is all over the Labor candidate not being allowed to speak — and here is the same behaviour from One Nation. The party offering all the new values and solutions does exactly the same thing. Silence the candidate. Because the truth is that when you join a major party you do what you are told. You lose your conscience vote, and you lose your voice.

It is more of the same with a new coat of orange paint. It is the illusion of choice. Labor to Liberal to Labor to One Nation. Rinse, repeat.

1963 election pamphlet headed Mr Calwell and the Faceless Men, showing the Labor leader with two men whose backs are to the camera, captioned as waiting for orders from the 36 faceless men of the ALP Federal Conference. — The 1963 “faceless men” pamphlet — sixty-three years old, and the argument has not changed

Look at that pamphlet. Sixty-three years ago the complaint was that unelected men, not responsible to the people, were laying down policy on defence and foreign relations that affected every man and woman in the country. Today candidates are silenced and told to speak and vote on party lines, and party policy is still written by people the public never elected and mostly cannot name.

So why do we even vote on the character of a candidate, if it does not matter — if they are simply bums on seats?

The only real way to fix this is to elect people who are not part of that system. People who are free, and who are after truth, integrity, accountability and transparency.

Illustrated plate of four Napoleonic-era sapeurs in aprons and bearskins, carrying axes and muskets. — Sapeurs — the engineers who went first and cleared the way

Sovereign Australia’s policy is that our candidates speak their own thoughts and their own views, and can also speak the party position. The freedom to share and discuss ideas must not be stifled. SAPper members always keep their conscience vote. We believe that is how the best legislation and the best policy gets made: individual judgment over partisan discipline, and the best candidates rather than the ones chosen for their willingness to follow orders.

Join the Moral's Mark and become a SAPper — a sapeur, an engineer who clears the way for Australians to take their nation back.

The full doctrine: The SAPper.

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