Revival Proposal

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I wasn't around for the earlier attempts at revival, but it sounds as though creating a fictional country from scratch is a little difficult. I'm obviously a bit biased, but I think a mock Australian Parliament could work well, potentially responding to real-time, real world events impacting Australia. The country's political landscape is pretty simple and for easier management we could hold elections with PR rather than a Westminster System. How many people would be interested in an Australian reboot?

[Cappuccino]

I wasn't around for the earlier attempts at revival, but it sounds as though creating a fictional country from scratch is a little difficult. I'm obviously a bit biased, but I think a mock Australian Parliament could work well, potentially responding to real-time, real world events impacting Australia. The country's political landscape is pretty simple and for easier management we could hold elections with PR. How many people would be interested in an Australian reboot?

Probably won't be elections. There never were in Mock Parliament, it was more a government simulation than an electoral one. We also never really had enough people to do elections anyway and when someone is out, what could they do in Parliament?

That's fair enough, it's probably something worth discussing though if we can get this off the ground and more people are involved. If we did do elections, they'd presumably be quite regular (every three/six months?), and would be roughly simulated rather than entirely based on raw voting. If they were close together people wouldn't have to wait that long if they lost their seats. And if we are using a Westminster system, time outside of parliament could be spent campaigning for their party's pre-selection for seats, lobbying parliament or even assisting the GM in managing the elections on the side.

[Cappuccino]

I'd start it based on Australia, with 15 fully committed original players given specific roles to choose from, and then add more in as necessary.

Speaker, also gamerunner
PM
OL
DPM, plus ministry
SOL, plus ministry
Treasurer
STres
FA, Defence and Trade
SFA, Defence and Trade
AG + Immigration
SAG +Immi
Health and Community Services
SHealth and CS
"Infrastructure" (Comms, Transport, Housing etc.)
SInf
Enviro, Resources, Water etc.
SEnviro

The DOL and DPM choose one of the ministries in addition to their role.

Anyone else is a backbencher, and can be promoted to a ministry if someone steps out.

Once we have fifteen committed players and the game has been running for a while, we can broaden the frontbenches and the process a bit, and maybe bring in the Greens, and separate the coalition into Libs and Nats, etc.

The Speaker is basically the GM.

I'd also suggest people take on a specific electorate, and then the Speaker runs a mock election in which our players win their seats but people don't know who'll end up governing until the game starts. So, say, I signed up for the seat of Jagajaga, I could reasonably assume I'd be Labor and win my seat, but have no idea if I'd be governing or not. If I wanted to be flexible about the party I was representing but definitely wanted to be in government, I'd likely choose Eden-Monaro. If I wanted to be coalition, maybe something like Durack or Berowra.

It all depends on whether we had enough players or not, but why not have players (who have been specifically pre-selected by a party) run against eachother in each individual seat (obviously not all 150, maybe 20-25 to start with?) and the Speaker/GM can simulate the election on a seat-to-seat basis with swing etc. It adds the whole pre-selection dynamic to the game as Party members compete for pre-selection in safer seats and so on, and so long as we held elections reasonably close together, people who lose an individual seat contest wouldn't be out for long and could potentially contribute as a lobbyist or in assisting the Speaker.

[Cappuccino]

That sounds good Platypus. In order to keep things in line with a Westminster System, with strict adherence to party whips, we could just adopt the real life measures used by the ALP and Coalition if a party member defies a vote: in the ALP, expulsion from the party (and in this game's format, that'd essentially make a return to parliament at the next simulated election impossible, at least as a Labor candidate) and for the Coalition people can vote against their party but must resign from the ministry (obviously this means backbenchers can vote against their party with limited consequences).

[Cappuccino]

That's very true, Afleitch. How about a three party system, with two large parties- the ALP and the Coalition- but also a slightly smaller, fictional centrist party with lax voting restrictions on their members.

And simulated elections could always be made to result in a hung parliament, where one of the ALP/Coalition has to negotiate to form a minority government, and has to convince the centrists in order to pass legislation.

[Cappuccino]

Hmm, atm I think three parties, keeping it simple, would work best. How about:

Labor- Essentially the same as the real-life ALP, centre-left but with the Catholic Right Faction still prevalent. In this mock parliament typically holding around 40% of the seats (though this fluctuates around simulated elections). Strict voting restrictions where MPs are expelled from the party for not voting along party lines.

Liberal/National Coalition- Larhely socially and fiscally conservative, but influenced by the agrarian socialist policies of the Nationals, just like in real life. Again holding somewhere around 40% of seats in the mock parliament, fluctuating around election results. Strict voting restrictions by the ALP, but backbenchers are allowed to cross the floor, like in the real-life coalition.

Moderate- Fictional, obviously. Economic pragmatists, social progressives (somewhat like the Lib Dems in the UK, or the old Australian Democrats). Typically holding around 20% of mock parliament's seats. Less restricted voting for MPs.

Basically, this mean all bills require actual debate and compromise, and a minority government will always be in power. It also adds the potential for votes of no confidence in the government etc.

[Cappuccino]

But it also ensures the moderates basically govern.

If not two parties, then 5, two with about 30-35% support, 3 with between 10-15% support.

Labor, Liberals, Nationals, Greens, Moderates.

I still prefer two parties for the opening stages.

I'd be happy with that, though I'd say (if interest is high enough) start with all 5 parties.

[Cappuccino]

That seven party system actually sounds really cool, with NZ and Tassie spicing things up. As long as there are people willing to play as Tasmanian separatists, or as One Nation crazies, then that could be really good. Not sure about how many people are interested, but maybe we could start with a twenty-person parliament or something (obviously we can expand at every election sim) so we'd only need one person representing each of the minor parties. Anyway, I threw together some logos for those parties for fun:

[Cappuccino]

Yeah it seems as thought it might be best to start with just two parties, but in the future I really think we should try and expand towards a multi-party system.

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So should we set up the party room threads etc?

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Yep sounds good Swedish Cheese; are there any conservatives willing to start up the LNP Caucus then?

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Isn't that going to mean a whole lot of NPCs?

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I'm assuming that for the purposes of this election the ALP is the incumbent? Just to differentiate between shadow ministers/ministers and PM/Opposition Leader.

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Mr. Speaker, here is the Australian Labor Party cabinet:

Tom Henry
Prime Minister

Dave Astuzia
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs

Andrew Lawson
Treasurer

Colin Elliott
Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations

Frank Connor
Minister for Education

Gordon Menzies
Minister for the Environment, Minister for Immigration

Willow Wong-Jones
Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for the Status of Women

Kevan Jahanshahi
Attorney-General

[Cappuccino]

Please can we get this started...