The anti-Islam, anti-immigration political party Love Australia or Leave has had its Australian Electoral Commission registration application approved, along with its logo - an outline of Australia with the words ‘FULL’ printed within.
On Friday, party leader Kim Vuga received an email from the Australian Electoral Commission announcing the delegate of the Electoral Commission had determined ‘Love Australia or Leave’ party’s application for registration had been approved and the party had been entered in the Register of Political Parties.
The party applied for registration in March and in May the AEC advertised the application on its website to allow for submissions of objection to the party’s registration.
A number of objections were made, including a submission that stated the “party and its logo imply obscene intolerance and discrimination”.
The Love Australia or Leave Party responded by stating it had received an “overwhelmingly” positive response to the name and the logo.
“Our party believes that this country’s objective should be to welcome people that choose to embrace Australia and Australian’s (sic) alike positively and proactively regardless of colour of skin or country of origin to date,” the Love Australia or Leave Party’s response stated.
“We have had many people join the party just on the name of the party alone.”
Another submission called the logo “obscene” in its depiction of Australia, stating Australia “is not full, nor will it be full in the future”.
The party responded by stating the logo outlined Love Australia or Leave Party’s hardline immigration policy.
“The word ‘FULL’ represents that we are economically full,” the party responded.
“We need to secure our own future before we can assist our global neighbours we have over 100,000 homeless people sleeping on our streets and high rates of unemployment.”
Another submission stated the name of the party was “racist and xenophobic”.
The party responded by stating Love Australia or Leave did not believe that any race was superior.
“Love Australia or Leave Party have many members of people and welcome members who come from other countries,” the party responded.
“We have current members who come from Syria, Egypt, India, Europe, Italy, Greece and other countries that have become permanent residents of Australia and are eligible to vote in Australia.”
The AEC found that the party name and/or logo was not outside the “accepted bounds of decency”.
“Based on current community standards, the party name and/or logo do not transgress the generally accepted bounds of decency,” the AEC stated.
“Although the objections to the approval of the proposed Love Australia or Leave’s name and logo were made on valid grounds...the evidence provided by the objectors is not sufficient to cause the Electoral Commission to refuse to register the Party name and logo under s.129(1)(a) or s.129A(c) of the Act.”
Ms Vuga said the Love Australia or Leave party would run in the next federal election and the Queensland state election.
“It has been a long time coming and the members all around Australia will be really happy that we are finally registered,” she said.
“There has been (membership) numbers climbing up all the time fom around Australia, the party has been building momentum.”