On a related note, even current members of mainstream parties hide their extreme beliefs. Nazis especially know their ideas aren't popular and won't always blurt them out like the ones in the article. The grapevine is important!

Example: Louise Black ran in 2024 as a Liberal Party candidate in Kingston Council, Victoria. https://aussie.zone/post/15409047

A lot of cookers are big on 'freedom' and 'liberty' rhetoric. I'm not against these concepts, and there are many valid complaints about our governments curtailing our liberties, but it's a centre point for many of the anti-vax 'freedom for me, not for thee' Freedom Movement oddballs.

I think thats definitely the State Governments line of thinking, if i'm reading the quotes at the end of the article right.

I fully support that, because i've never understood why local democracy is treated as less of citizens responsibility than the State and Federal, but i don't know if it'll help drive better candidate selection. I suppose its one of yhose things you don't know until you try, so why not try.

Its definitely a problem that has risen in our colourbond modernity. In other words, i blame the lowering levels of community participation for the fact many people don't know who they're voting for.

Edit: I also think many council areas have too many people in them. I haven't looked at it, but i bet number of councils has not matched population growth. So how is someone supposed to know a set of 5 or 6 candidates from upwards of 10,000 people in their area? Be lucky if you know one or two.