Create political parties

Investigate how the party system operates in Australia by creating your own political parties.


What will I learn?

  • The role of political parties in Australia’s system of government.
  • How political parties are formed by groups of people with shared values and goals.
  • Factors that shape a political party's platform and policies.
A Z

Glossary words

bill, parliamentary party, platform, policy, political party

Curriculum alignment

Year 8 AC9HC8K02

Resource links

format type fact-sheet
Read more about political parties with this fact sheet
format type interactive_poster
Discover how the Australian Government is formed with this interactive poster
format type quiz
Test your students' knowledge of political parties with this quiz

Getting started

  • Visit the Australian Electoral Commission's list of Australia's political parties. Ask students to each choose a party website to visit. Encourage the students to choose a range of major and minor political parties, being aware that some small parties may not have their own website. Ask students to identify the following information and share their findings with the class:
    • the party's full name
    • the leader of the party
    • the party's main beliefs (party platform)
    • three issues the party plans to address (party policies)
    • other interesting/important information about the party.
  • Compare the party platforms and policies. What are some of the similarities and differences between them? What might be some reasons for these similarities and differences? 

Activity (30 minutes)

  1. Divide students into 3-5 teams. To do this, you might like to display 3-5 different colours in your classroom and ask students to move to the colour they want to join. It is okay if the groups are different sizes, because political parties in Australia can be large or small.

  2. Each group completes the Create a political party worksheet to help them decide who their party is and what their party platform and policies should be. 
  3. Ask each group to introduce their party to the class, including their platform and policies.  

Discussion questions

  • Did everyone in your party have the same beliefs and ideas? Were there any issues that you struggled to agree on?
  • How did your party handle disagreements and differences of opinion when deciding on your platform and policies? Did the disagreements influence the final platform or policies of the party?
  • Do you think the size of your team impacted how difficult or easy it was to reach an agreement about your policies? What could be some of the benefits of a smaller or larger political party? 

Extension

Take the class political parties to an election by completing the Run an election campaign classroom activity.

 

Teacher toolkit