What We Want

We want to replace failed representative democracy with direct democracy. In so doing, we believe that the following objects will be attained.

1. We Want Genuine Democracy

We want to return power to the people. Successive governments break manifesto promises and pass laws the people don't want and never voted for - all under the pretence that they don't know of a better way of representing the will of the people. They continue to use methods that were necessary in the 17th century when the best way of moving information was on the back of a horse.

Wherever you empower us to do so with your vote, 5 Star will ensure that every Member of Congress, MP, AM, and local councillor is put under the direct control of their constituents. And when we replace the failed, outmoded system of so-called Representative Democracy with a Direct Democracy, our public servants will answer to their voters, not vice versa. The political class will be made never again to forget that it is the people who are our politicians' masters, and it is the people who must forever hold and retain control over their nation's future.

2. We Want Genuine Freedom

We must never give up our liberty for the promise of safety. An age-old trick in countries with weak, docile populations is for those who control the flow of information to tell the people they're under threat by some invisible group or entity, and to watch while the people voluntarily go to the most unexpected lengths to support the government of the day - often blithely giving away their ancient rights and freedoms and gifting the government with far more powers and control than should ever be acceptable in a democracy. It happened in Nero's Rome, it happened in Europe in the 1930's, and it's happening again right now throughout the world today.

In many ways many modern Western democracies are beginning to resemble Communist China. Street preachers are being arrested for sharing their faith; those who express an opinion that offends a closed-minded or mentally delicate person are in some instances being arrested and charged with a thought crime. People's social media accounts are being suspended when they question the state-promoted version of events they read about in mainstream media.

5 Star will campaign to liberate western democracies from this dangerously totalitarian trend towards thought control and forced docility. We will campaign to prevent all fascist state incursions that militate against individual liberty and the dignity of the person, including mandatory forced vaccinations, mandatory use of biometrically controlled financial transactions, and location tracking of citizens that have not been convicted of any crime.

3. We Want Truly Independent, Self-Reliant Nation States

5 Star supports the concept of nation states that are capable of defending, feeding, and fuelling themselves, and growing their own economy - with no reliance on foreign entities that operate outside the auspices of democratic control. Foreign trade should enhance and enrich a nation's lifestyle and economy, but should not be a necessity to be used as leverage to undermine control of that nation's money and laws.

5 Star supports the negotiation of trading terms that advantage nations' domestic production and minimise the cost of imports of goods that nation has no interest in producing itself, while implementing graded, labelled production standards on imports that allow consumers to make informed choices for themselves.

5 Star promotes national energy-independence, with open-source information campaigns and local referenda on energy options that utilise nationally available energy sources that negate any necessity to bankroll undemocratic regimes in the Middle East that are avowed enemies of democratic values.

4. We Want Fairer, Meritocratic Societies

Company tax. In many western democracies we are seeing the decimation of small and medium-sized businesses, while offshore-incorporated mega-corporations capture all the market share being lost by these small companies. Multi-billion dollar companies are operating deliberately low-profit subsidiaries in host nations, that are created as separate legal entities to their offshore parent companies so as to effectively pay little or no corporation tax in-country, while domestic businesses bear the brunt of meeting the nation's corporation tax requirements. Current legislation often forces domestic companies to price themselves out of the market while foreign giants blossom.

5 Star challenges unpatriotic legislation that sends domestically originating profits abroad and favours offshore incorporations over our citizen-owned companies. While actively working to reduce the size of government and civil services, and streamlining regulations - all of which results in lower taxation generally - 5 Star campaigns to ensure that companies pay tax at the same effective rate by implementing an industry-standardised turnover tax for large businesses, while giving small and medium sized businesses the option to choose between paying turnover tax or tax on profits - whichever best favours their business model.

Bailouts. Even in Capitalist democracies, very often profits are privatised while losses are socialised. When big banks and companies look likely to fail it is we, the tax payers who bail them out. And yet, when large companies profit, there is no benefit to the tax payer. 5 Star is campaigning to get rid of these double standards: if big companies want a socialised safety net, they must accept part-public ownership and the tax-payer must share the benefit of their gains. If they want to go it alone and retain their profits, they alone must suffer the consequences when they fail, and their directors must be subject to the same strictures that we impose on small business owners when they declare bankruptcy.

Council, municipal and property taxes. Notwithstanding the substantial reduction in refuse collections and an increase in recycling these taxes continues to rise, representing progressively worse value for money each year. We are generally getting fewer services and yet paying more. 5 Star will promote meritocratic initiatives such as 'Band 0' council tax bands for net zero energy homes; and Police and Crime Commissioner salaries that will be performance related as ranked by the public. Additionally, we will promote council tax rebates for workers contributing to the reduction in congestion and pollution by walking or cycling to work.

5. We Want Self-Sustaining Nations

Growth. 5 Star promotes enhanced trading relationships between developed countries and self-declared underperforming economies that are asset-rich but expertise-poor. There is a great deal of untapped mineral potential throughout the world and a reasonable and just share of profits from publicly approved operations that realise these resources could see raised living standards in the developed world, and correlated economic growth in the West.

Countries suffer poverty and social unrest while sitting on resources that they lack the capital injection and / or expertise to mine. 5 Star will lobby heads of state in these countries to hold local referenda within these host countries for international public-private partnerships to be invited on 30-50 year mining leases - ensuring transparent distribution of profits and royalties and equitable benefit to the host country and the investor nation.

Debt. With a knee-jerk reaction to a health challenge that need not have brought national economies to a grinding halt, in just three months in 2020, governments typically increased their national debt to levels that now exceed their GDP. This soon-to-be-unaffordable debt and the printing of money and continuing injection of funds into our money supply is unsustainable and immoral. It results in a massive increase in the cost of living - plunging the poor into unmanageable debt with little prospect of escape.

Our Environment. 5 Star promotes incentivisation, not coercion. We support initiatives that reward conservation, efficiency and good stewardship with tax breaks and voter-approved research and development grants.