A new political party is seeking to unite voters frustrated by a litany of political scandals in order to clean up electoral donor laws and cap politician wages.
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The Democratic Reform Alliance has been set up by Canberra immigration lawyer Nicholas Houston, who's poured $100,000 of his own money into the party and is considering running as a candidate.
Former Sex Party ACT leader and Bob Katter advisor Steven Bailey is Houston's chief political advisor. Mr Bailey is also yet to make a decision about whether he will run in this year's election.
While Mr Houston was once a member of Labor and the Greens parties, he said his party will be neither left or right-leaning, and instead seek votes "from everyone who can agree the major parties are not working for them".
They will target the people who've voted in the past for Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer, those disillusioned by party politics, although Mr Houston says the platform will be "moderate and reasonable".
Their platform includes limiting the remuneration of ministers and senior bureaucrats to 10 times the minimum wage, cutting post-parliamentary entitlements like gold airline passes, and making ministers accountable for the actions of their senior staff.
They also want to ban donations from corporations and organisations, cap individual donations at $10,000, outlaw foreign donations and end state funding of political parties.
"Essentially it's a party that basically represents people who've had a gutful of the way politics has worked in Australia for the last decade," Mr Houston said.
"There's nothing extreme about politicians entitlements or spending. We're not a left or right party, we're a reformist party. We're going to renovate the bastards."
The party is not yet federally registered, although Houston said they want to eventually field candidates all around the country.
They will also approach other minor parties with an "integrity pact" that will guarantee supply only if their reforms are enacted in the first 100 days.
Like any minor party though, there is the fear that it will implode as soon as its elected members set foot in parliament. Mr Houston and Mr Bailey say they have a plan to stop that from happening.
Candidates will have to pass "rigorous stench tests" and may be required to pay a bond to stand on the Democratic Reform Alliance ticket.
They will only be allowed to speak on the party's platform and if they talk about broader political issues, they risk disendorsement or the loss of their bond.
The rationale is that the party can't risk "alienating potential voters".
Party members will also have the chance to vote on legislation that elected members will consider through an app.
The idea is similar to that used by the Flux Party, which contested the last ACT election, however Mr Houston says their method is more sophisticated.
The management committee will also have a veto power if branch stacking is suspected, a scenario that seems all the more possible after the NSW Young Nationals was infiltrated by members of Australia's alt-right movement last year.
In fact, Bailey and Houston see their party as a way to save democracy from the polarising forces which have captured politics over the last 10 years.
"People cannot excuse themselves from politics and democracy because it's broken. The only way we can fix it is together," Bailey said.
