Labor or LNP don’t serve our vote — but the crossbench does

Australian citizen on BTN video, What is the Crossbench? https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/what-is-the-crossbench/13900666

The crossbench is made up of independents and minor parties who aren’t Labor or LNP. They don’t wear red or blue. What they do is hold major parties to account. They can expose lies, delay harmful laws, and push forward the ones that actually protect us.

Want to understand how it works?

Watch this short video made for students — it’s sharp, a little funny, and features a strong Muslimah as the Australian citizen casting her vote:

What is the Crossbench? (ABC BTN Video)

Once you understand the crossbench, you’ll see why major parties fear them—and why we need more of them in Parliament.

What is the difference between Labor and LNP?

Having read the immigration, counterterrorism, foreign affairs and defence bills Labor has passed, I can tell you: there is no meaningful difference between the two major parties.

In just the last term, Labor passed laws and took steps that disproportionately harm Muslims:

1. Immigration Bans Without Borders
Labor gave the immigration minister unchecked power to ban entire nations from entering Australia in the name of “national interest.” No explanation. No appeal. If you’re from the “wrong” country, you’re out. This law is a loaded weapon pointed at our families overseas—and it was Labor who pulled the trigger, backed by the LNP.

2. Detention as Punishment, Not Protection
People on bridging visas or seeking protection—many of whom have called Australia home for years—can now face mandatory detention for a year simply for missing a bureaucratic appointment. Is that justice?

3. Prison for Our Children
A child or adult with or without a disability could be imprisoned for five years under new counter-terror laws—just for watching a video or scrolling past a post. This is not safety. This is state violence wearing a suit and tie. Labor also rushed through controversial hate crime laws on the back of a hoax ‘caravan’ terrorism plot that they knew to be fake.  Again these were passed with the LNP, as Labor wasn’t required to listen to the Crossbench concerns.

4. Silent Arms Pipeline to Israel
While Palestinians are being bombed, burned alive, shot and starved, Labor quietly exempted military exports to the US and UK from scrutiny—letting Australian weapons slip through the back door to Israel. But don’t expect your Labor MP to mention any of this in their carefully worded reply about Gaza. The silence is scripted.

Australian, US, UK Alliance (AUKUS)

5. Rewarding Israel’s weapon suppliers with billions of contracts

The Albanese Labor Government has pledged at least $22 billion to weapons giants like Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, and Rheinmetall—companies listed by the UN for complicity in serious human rights violations in Gaza. The UN called on the world to cut ties. Labor chose to double down. And that $22 billion? It doesn’t even include the nearly $1 billion contract handed to Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems—a company deeply embedded in the occupation and assault on Palestine.

Israeli company Elbit Systems has been awarded a fresh defence contract worth $917 million, creating jobs in the electorate of the Labor Defence Minister Richard Marles. The company’s technology was stripped from Australian Army equipment over possible data security concerns three years ago (ABC News)

Resistance Exists—on the Crossbench

Senators Fatima Payman and Lidia Thorpe have drawn red lines, introducing legislation to end Australia’s complicity in genocide, apartheid, and illegal occupation. This extends to any atrocity around the world. The Greens back them. Muslim Votes Matter has put the package to 2025 federal election candidates, asking where they stand.

And what do Labor and LNP do? They stay silent.

So I ask: What exactly are we voting for?

A softer face of the same system? A gentler boot on our necks? The oppression doesn’t change just because the hand is red instead of blue.

Both major parties have declared open season on our community. One smiles while doing it and hides their complicity. The other doesn’t bother to hide it. But they’re two wings of the same bird of prey.

The smiling one sedates us. It quiets righteous anger. It stops the broader community from organising.

Look at the weapons trade with Israel. Labor denies it like their lives depend on it—even when the evidence is right in front of your face. Just last Friday, a photo and a story broke. Proof. But still, they lie. Still, they hide. Dutton? Would he even bother denying his support for Israel through AUKUS?

Israeli defence officials pose with an EOS Remote Weapon System in January 2025 (Supplied: Israel’s Ministry of Defense; ABC News )

Did it suddenly get bad for us?

No, but the genocide shattered the illusion that Labor might be different.

For over two decades, this state has treated our religion as a threat, branded our communities as suspects, and fed the public a constant stream of fear.

Legal experts sounded the alarm.  The damage runs deep. It’s in the air we breathe. No public education campaign can undo it. The next battle must be the law itself.

But despite years of advocacy from our community, neither major party has shown the will to act. Why? Because dehumanising us isn’t a byproduct of their foreign and defence policy. It’s a requirement.

Federal Election 2025

We owe these major parties nothing—not our vote, not our loyalty. It’s time to build power in the crossbench.

The more independents and minor parties we elect, the more we block the hand that signs our pain into law.

“If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, that’s not progress… They won’t even admit the knife is there.” — Malcolm X

Stop giving them the knife.

Labor has already passed harmful, oppressive laws—with LNP’s help. Why? Because they don’t need the crossbench to hold power. They don’t need to negotiate. That’s the problem.

But if we change the balance—bring in minority government—Labor is forced to think twice. It won’t fix everything, but it slows down the harm.

But What If It Helps Dutton?

Backing a minor party or independent isn’t “helping Dutton.” That’s a fear tactic. Don’t fall for it.

You can still put Labor above LNP on your ballot to guard against a Coalition win. That’s your preference flow. But your first preference vote unlocks real money.

In 2022, each first preference vote earned over $3 for the party it went to. That’s $34 million to the major parties—unless we cut them off.

Strategic Voting in 2025

Put Labor and LNP where they belong—towards the bottom.

Not second. Not third. The further down you rank them, the better chance an alternative has.

In so-called “safe” Labor seats—where the outcome is treated like a foregone conclusion—complacency is the real enemy. You can shake the system.

If you want to make a so-called “supersafe” Labor MP sit up, pay attention, and remember who they serve, you hit them where it hurts: their overweight margin. You don’t need to elect the LNP to hold Labor to account. You just need to make them sweat. That means lifting the Crossbench, and—if necessary—ranking Labor below the LNP. Not because you support Dutton, but because you refuse to be taken for granted. This strategy, if based on careful math, works to hold Labor to account while keeping Dutton out.

You don’t keep power in check by whispering. You do it by making noise—loud enough that even those in their safest fortresses hear it.

Yes, you can keep the unelectable racist fringe parties at the bottom—One Nation, Family First, People First—but don’t get distracted. The real harm isn’t from the fringe. It’s from the state. It’s from the so-called ‘centre’. And we’ve had enough.

We have learned that Labor is not substantially different from LNP and whether Albanese or Dutton governs next term, our country will continue to support Israel and our community will suffer with worsening laws.

Minority government, where Labor can only govern with the support of a broad range of Crossbench, is the only ‘protection’ we have against more of the same.