Ampclamp:
Has anyone seriously considered running for the senate at a fed level?
Now that my friend is a good suggestion.
You could set your platform to appeal; to union members or folk who identify with Unions, or would like to be unionised.
Your support base starts with the Electrical Trades Union, the CFMEU and perhaps the ALAEA if the ALP does the dirty. This would split the ALP vote and ensure that the ALP was
never going to get a Senate majority without Union support
You could run candidates in each state and it would drive Labor nuts. To be eligible to stand as a party candidate you have to be a working person and a Union member, specifically, you cannot be a former labour party apparatchik like most of them are. Union official would also be OK.
The platform would be to oppose anything that hurts working Australians and unions. You can be protectionist because by 2014, the world will be retreating once more into protectionism, although they will pretend they aren't. You can also talk re-industrialisation - bringing work back from China, because that will be all the rage by then as well.
You can sit on the cross benches, deal with the greens etc. to provide a counterweight to the big business interest that have Labor and the Liberals by the balls.
Make your platform "Real Labor" or "New Labor" or "Union Party".
Theme: "For working Australians"