IMOP and Health Australia Party to merge together
PARTIES UNITE
The Informed Medical Options Party (IMOP) and the Health Australia Party (HAP) have announced they will merge together to form the Heart Party (Health, Environment, Accountability, Rights, Transparency).
In a teaming up of two of Australia’s best health freedom parties, this new union will look to form a united front at future elections by putting their resources together.
On Facebook, for example, IMOP has 68 thousand followers and HAP has 41 thousand. Joining forces will allow all supporters to cast their votes for a single campaign dedicated to health.
In a Facebook video announcing the merger earlier today, HAP was represented by Lisa Bentley, while IMOP was represented by Michael O’Neill.
Dr. Isaac Golden, co-founder of HAP, also did a short video to highlight the new changes.
Both parties have faced criticisms in previous campaigns.
In 2020, then-Health Minister Greg Hunt said IMOP’s name was “misleading”.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has also taken aim at HAP’s name in the past.
This is fantastic news for independent political supporters, solving (among many other issues) one main concern that arose from the last election: Split votes watering down the power for change.
BETTER TOGETHER
At the last election, the independent vote was massive.
The problem is: The polls don’t necessarily reflect that, and here’s why.
With One Nation, United Australia Party, IMOP, Health Australia Party and more all running as separate entities, voter preferences were split and each party only got a fraction of what they could of together.
In my local electorate, these parties were able to collectively get 35% of the voters to vote for them, but this was divided into 12% here, 7% there, 2% elsewhere. It was all over the place.
Photo: AMK
If only all of the independent parties were on the same page, things could have been different.
Now, this will at least help to push things in the right direction.
Both IMOP and HAP don’t have to worry about competing with one another, or their votes being split, because at the end of the day: They really were ultimately pushing the same message.
So too, with most other independent parties. But egos and money will always get in the way.
Thankfully, both IMOP and HAP are full of great Australians who are dedicated to doing the right thing, and this is why they were always on our lists of independent political parties to support.
I may be sceptical of the legitimacy of the larger structure of ‘government’, but at least I know IMOP and HAP are genuine people trying to make a difference. And that’s really what matters.
I look forward to seeing what the new Heart Party will bring to the table.
I also suspect a hidden double-meaning with all the heart-related ‘issues’ going on at the moment.
As always, TOTT News will follow the action!
