Wayne Sievers - Politics

Politics

Wayne Sievers resigned from the Australian Federal Police in 2001 and accepted a post as Director of the National Office for the Australian Democrats political party. He was also elected as President of the ACT Democrats in Canberra and campaigned on a raft of social justice issues. He stood as a Senate candidate in Canberra for the party in the 2001 Australian election. He was ahead of the government incumbent in two-party preferred opinion polling, but was narrowly defeated in a swing back in government support following the 11 September terrorist attacks and the Tampa affair incident. During his leadership, however, the party achieved its first ever parliamentary representation that year in the ACT Legislative Assembly. Party membership in the Canberra region doubled.

The Australian Democrats were strongly positioned as the third force in Australian politics at this time. Internal tensions in the party, however, could no longer be contained following the 2001 election. A split emerged on tax policy between the left of the party, the majority of the membership, and the centre to which most federal Senators belonged. The split was made far worse by the actions of a faction associated with the national Australian pornography industry lobby group. This faction not only attempted a take over of the party in the ACT but also wielded considerable power in the party's National Executive. Sievers resigned, disillusioned, from the Australian Democrats in 2002. The disunity and division so damaged the party's stocks that it lost almost half of its representation in the 2004 Australian election. The sole Democrats representative was also defeated in the 2004 ACT Legislative Assembly elections. The party was wiped out at the 2007 Australian election, losing all its remaining senators. Wayne Sievers was encouraged to join the Australian Labor Party (ALP) by a number of that party's leaders, including the late Al Grassby. He is now an active ALP volunteer in Canberra. On 4 March 2008 the ALP candidates for the (Australian Capital Territory general election, 2008) were announced. They included Wayne Sievers, now endorsed as a candidate for the seat of Brindabella.

After leaving the Australian Federal Police because of his public position on East Timor, he worked in the area of rehabilitation for convicted offenders. He now works in immigration fraud investigation and holds Masters Degrees in Business Administration (MBA) (University of Canberra), Public Administration (Griffith University) and Public Sector Leadership (Griffith University). He also holds a Graduate Diploma in Fraud Investigation (Charles Sturt University).