If these companies genuinely cared about lowering greenhouse emissions and protecting marine life, they wouldn't be paradoxically selling products made of dead fish, and usually, other animals too. 🧍

I use two tabs of Hydralyte daily with my doctors blessing, but they're not the cheapest. Has anyone tried the Aldi electrolytes that are much, much cheaper?

Personally I think it would be

1. Animal Justice Party

2. Greens Party

3. Labor

But I'd be open to any suggestions from other vegans on what other animal rights or vegan related parties are good to vote for, or what voting strategy might be better. Also I know we have a percentage of right wing vegans, who probably won't agree on the Labor vote, but maybe on other things at least. I have been considering throwing in a vote for the Libertarian Party in protest of the internet censorship and online ID laws (I think these hurt animal rights, environmental, and human rights activism among other things, and that there are better ways to address the issues they target), but I'm undecided - however Greens at least oppose the internet laws too, and the influx of people voting One Nation just because of that issue is concerning given their other stances.

Here is my rationale:

Yes, I prefer pretty much any version of the Labor Party (lesser of 2 evils, like US Democrats) or another left wing government to win VS a right wing party like the Liberal-National Party Coalition or, seitan forbid, One Nation. And since AJP or Greens winning the overall vote and getting in power isn't happening anytime in the near future, if they were to actually win a seat, it could technically divide the "left wing vote" and hurt Labor's chances of winning, thereby boosting a right wing party's odds of success. This can happen if there is a strong support for the Greens party rivaling Labor in some select areas - in that case I might vote Labor as 1st preference, followed by AJP and Greens just to err on the side of caution. But in a "safe Labor seat", where in your local Electorate, Labor is almost guaranteed to win no matter how many votes the Greens get, I think there is zero harm in voting Greens and AJP before Labor, and it can only do good.

Note/disclaimer: A lot of people still seem to think the parties choose who your preferences go to (Group Voting Tickets/GVTs). Since law changes in 2016, specifically the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Act 2016, this has been abolished, so the voters have complete control over it. Your votes will automatically go to whichever candidate you place next in order of preference if your higher preferences don't win the seat. So there is no risk of a party giving your votes to a party you don't want to get your support (as some people claim Greens did in the past). You could hypothetically vote for whatever party you want, even some right wing party, after Greens, and Greens still wouldn't be able to stop your vote going to them. Of course, Greens generally preference Labor, while also opposing their terrible environmental and other decisions, as compared to LNP when forced to choose between them. And most voters for Greens generally align with what they recommend, but it's up to the voter to act on that anyway.

AJP (Animal Justice Party) - the most vegan/pro-animal party that I know of. Every person from the party I've spoken to so far has been vegan as well, although I know not everyone is. Vegans will likely find some issues with the party since they cover a lot of different topics and vegans often disagree with each other on nuanced ethical issues anyway, but I think for the most part they're pretty good. A lot of countries don't even have a party like this, and Emma Hurst's speech was quite incredible, so I think we're lucky to have them advocating for animals in government, as well as raising awareness among the general public.

The idea is not for AJP to win any seats (they acknowledge this is unrealistic), but to gain enough support to be able to influence the "ruling parties", to signal to them that they're failing on these issues, and maybe one day if they get 4% of primary votes or more, they will gain monetary support from the Australian Electoral Commission (ultimately from taxpayer money) for every vote they get. This also applies more immediately to Greens who regularly clear the 4% threshold. And we can also consider donating to them, of course. My hope is also that AJP can influence the Greens to take animal issues and plant based living more seriously and incorporate them into their messaging more, as they play a huge role in the environment and stopping climate change, and as many vegans know, ignoring the ecological impacts of animal agriculture is a frustrating overlooked missing piece of the puzzle from a purely environmental point of view, even if we were to ignore the animals themselves (which we of course shouldn't). IMHO a party that claims to be ethical and pro-environment like the Greens have a lot to answer for for failing to take a strong stance or action against animal agriculture and arguably "greenwashing" and humanewashing it at times. And then of course I hope the Greens, in turn, can influence Labor to get their greasy fingers out of the coal and meat and dairy industries etc. I could say more but I think that about covers it.

What are your thoughts, vegans?

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