Liberal Democrats
https://www.ldp.org.au/

* I skimmed over them very quickly before the federal election. They seem to
  have put plenty of work into the state election, with a well-written set of
  state policies.

* There's a bit of venting over the lockdowns and government's response to
  corresponding protests in their first policies. They want a bill of rights
  to protect individual freedoms, and a list of "safeguards" covering the
  government's capacity to use emergency powers. In principle some of this might
  be good, but I doubt it would really have much practical effect.

* They want to boost the powers of the IBAC anti-corruption body. They're also
  keen that it takes on the role of investigating misconduct complaints against
  Victoria Police, with a curiously specific funding boost of $43.1 million
  between 2022-26 just for policing the police. I'm not entirely sure where
  they're coming from on the latter stuff, but increased power and transparancy
  for IBAC would be good.

* Without attempting many specifics, they want to "End the Nanny State" by
  repealing laws against "victimless crimes". Cannabis possession and vaping,
  as well as some increased speed limits, are their two examples. Hard to say
  how much I'd be with them on this based on what little they say, but those
  two aren't big things for me either way.

* Their favour of personal liberties extends to energy, promising to remove
  bans on gas extraction and nuclear energy while scrapping renewable energy
  targets and subsidies. They'll get their electricity however they damn well
  choose, and they ain't choosing renewables.

* Housing costs will be brought down by scrapping stamp duty tax, plus easing
  planning and zoning regulations. I think things like the recent floods suggest
  developers may be getting away with too much already regarding these
  regulations.

* One of their big points is small government, and they've got a fairly brutal
  plan for achieving it. 10% off the budget of all State departments
  immediately, excluding critical frontline workers. Then 1% cut per year until
  state government debt is repaid. Without adding extra oversight into the
  use of current funding, I expect departments would react to such a hardline
  policy by simply cutting services while maintaining existing wasteful
  practices, but at least I agree on the underlying problem. I do fully support
  their scrapping Labor's Suburban Rail Loop project.

* They want more spending in regional victoria, as well as 25% of the public
  sector workforce working there by 2026. I certainly like the sound of that.
  Though I wonder whether it would really trickle down to the more rural areas,
  or would it mainly just involve a few big cities ouside of Melbourne?

C: M

On personal freedoms, many of my strongest views apply to topics like internet
censorship and privacy which are mainly federal topics (and not obviously
represented by them there either). They're another party that's big on broad
aspirations, and from their few specifics I don't find much that particularly
enthuses me.

-----------------------