Walter Keyes (The Realignment)

Dr Walter Donald Christian Keyes (29 August 2002 - 7 August 2096) was an Australian politician, well-known for being the founder of the Australian Democratic Party (ADP) and leader of the opposition in the House of Representatives.

Born into a working class family in 2002 in the city of Sydney, later studding at the University of Newcastle where he would graduate at the top of his year in 2026. A short time later, he enlisted into the Royal Australian Navy, serving aboard the HMAS Anzac until 2030. During the ensuring years, he worked at the Royal Newcastle Hospital, his popularity among many in Newcastle building before he joined a private practice in 2036. His popularity among the people in Newcastle put him in a position that would later allow him to run for, then consequently win the mayorship of the city in 2039.

A little under two years later, he decided to run for NSW electoral district of Howard in the 2041 election, at that time represented by the Liberal National politician William Moore. Running as an independent (as he did so in Newcastle), he managed to win Howard after a number of recounts with a margin of 115 votes. Whilst in the House of Representatives, he slowly became disenfranchised with the incumbent Prime Minister Andrew Burges, who at the time was steadily moving the nation to what Keyes considered a "more extreme right position", even though he supported the Nationalists on a majority of their immigration policies. Uniting with four other representatives, Keyes founded the centrist Democratic Party on 22 February 2043, officially registering it on 18 May that same year.

After five years if little to no electoral success, Keyes managed to lead a powerful campaign against the Nationalists, Liberal Nationals and Labor parties in 2048, gaining 39 seats for a total of 47 in the House of Representatives. As leader of the second largest political party in the House, he became the leader of the opposition on 28 September, leading a coalition of independents and minor centrist parties against the Nationalists. Many political commentators claim his popularity among the citizens reached its peak on 4 July 2050 with the "Independence Speech"; spoken in Sydney in front of almost 40,000 spectators, he called out against the Nationalists interventionist, far-right policies, and advocated a return to the "normalcy" of pre-Burges Australia.

His popularity, however, fell due to a number of in-party corruption scandals that rocked the Democrats, and in the 2050 election, his party lost 20 seats. Subsequently, Keyes was beginning to be blamed for many of the scandals that didn't in fact include him (claiming he had "no knowledge of the events"), and many in the party began to clammer for a change of leadership. Donald Turnbull (grandson of Malcolm Turnbull) stepped up against the party's leader in the June of 2052, calling for a leadership spill for June 24. This request was granted, and after Keyes was defeated by the shadow treasurer, he stepped down as both the party's leader, and leader of the opposition.