What gains has the freedom movement made politically in 2022?

Previously indifferent voters and neutrals, these new freedom enthusiasts who were suddenly handed a reason to enter the political domain during the COVID era, learned a lot about politics last year. One thing they've learned is that things won't change overnight. A ship turns slowly. Daniel Andrews is still here, as are most of the Labor Premiers around the country, and the goal of winning the balance of power in Victoria's upper house was not achieved. With the new prominence of the Legalise Cannabis Party, Labor won't have it all their way, but it will still likely be able to control both houses after negotiations with The Greens and Legalise Cannabis.

There are world trends. We've seen those with a taste for tyranny rise in the form of Trudeau in Canada, Ardern in NZ, McGowan in the West, Gunner in the NT, along with Andrews (100 press conferences in 100 days) and others. We can but wonder or debate why voters in Western democracies are proving so satisfied and compliant with the penchant towards autocratic rule.

There are many new faces to the Victorian upper house. Legalise Cannabis is new. Renee Heath's election in Eastern Victoria sent waves of contention through her own Liberal Party, even before the election day. Pauline Hanson's One Nation won a seat for the first time ever in Victoria.

David Limbrick of the LDP, was re-elected after his first term in office as genuine reward for leading the challenge against the Premier's excessive decrees, even once being arrested by police along with 400 others simply for being found present at the anti-lockdown rally in front of Parliament on November 3, 2020.

Family First Party, traditionally known as having a Christian supporter base, who was only reregistered as a political party by the VEC less than two months before the November election, won a few percent of the vote in many places. And even if it did not win a seat, some of their preferences helped get other conservative voices into Parliament, such as the DLP candidate.

By strict proportionality of seats won compared to first-preference votes, some parties have more seats than they deserve, some have less, and some of this relates to preferences. If 'freedom friendly' parties were more consolidated or coordinated with their vote preferencing, it might have been possible for them to win perhaps a few more seats.

For the 'preference whisperer', Glenn Druery, the group of minor parties under his umbrella collectively dropped from 8.75% of the upper house vote down to 5.6% compared to the 2018 election, with their collective ascendancy on the crossbench being broken, dropping from 9 seats down to just 3. Yet, by helping to win those 3 seats (Shooters & Fishers, Liberal Democrats, & Animal Justice,) Druery continues to show that his method of preference dealing can be effective, since by percentage of votes compared to seats, it is still punching above its weight.

So there is clear evidence of political green shoots after COVID. Enough to bring the freedom movement some impetus going into the future.