The left in the federal election
There are six socialist groups contesting the election with a total of 38 candidates.
The Democratic Socialists have by far the largest team with 12 Senate candidates covering every state and House of Representative candidates in Brisbane, Canberra, Cunningham, Fraser, Grayndler, Melbourne, Newcastle, Northern Territory, Page, Paterson, Perth, Reid and Sydney. The Democratic Socialists recently obtained federal electoral registration so their candidates will be identified on ballot papers as "Democratic Socialists".
The Communist Party of Australia is fielding two candidates, Denis Doherty in Sydney and Michael Perth in Port Adelaide. They will be listed on ballot papers without party identification because the CPA is not yet federally registered.
The newly formed Broad Alliance is standing Salvinder Dhillon in Greenway and Aboriginal activist Jenny Munro in Sydney. The Alliance is running on a platform of opposing the "anti-social offensive" of Coalition and Labor governments.
The Progressive Labour Party has two candidates in the Victorian — in Wills (Bill Deller) and Corio (Therese Self).
The Communist League is running Ron Poulsen as an independent for the NSW Senate.
The Socialist Equality Party (formerly the Socialist Labour League) is fielding four Senate candidates, covering NSW and Victoria, and House of Representative candidates in Hunter and Throsby.