The outback libertarian.

• Author: Shackford, Scott
• Position: Soundbite - David Leyonhjelm - Interview

In September, David Leyonhjelm was elected to the Australian senate as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, a libertarian party founded in 2001. In August, reason's Scott Shackford spoke with Leyonhjelm about compulsory voting, the campaign against him, and why he's able to say things that no other politician can.

Q: You're the senate's sole representative of the Liberal Democratic Party. Does this make you the sole libertarian, or do you have allies who come close to a libertarian philosophy?

A: I'm the first politician, at least in the federal parliament, who's been elected on a libertarian platform, but there are libertarian-inclined people in the Liberal Party, which is the governing party. There are also people with some libertarian inclinations, at least on some issues, in the National Party, which is in coalition with the Liberal Party. And occasionally you'll find a couple in the Labor Party, which is the equivalent of your Democrats. But there's not very many of them and they tend to have big blind spots as well.

Q: How did Australia's compulsory voting laws and your placement on the ballot affect your chances?

A: We got nine and a half percent of the vote, and we attribute that mostly to the fact that the Liberal Party went on a campaign of warning voters not to vote for us in the week or so before the election. Talkback radio, which has huge reach, was constantly telling people not to vote for Liberal Democrats by mistake: "They're number one on the ballot but don't vote for them by mistake. They're not the Liberal Party." And then the day before the election, the biggest-circulation newspaper in New South Wales where I was elected ran a two-page spread, a huge big thing, with a picture of me and another guy from my party, warning, "Don't vote for these guys by mistake!"

Australians are a perverse people. There's a significant number of them that will do exactly the opposite of what they're told. It's actually quite an endearing feature about them. If they're...