Democratic Labor Party

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For alternative meanings, see Democratic Labour Party

The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) is a minor political party in Australia that espouses social conservatism. It is descended from, but not legally the same as, the Democratic Labor Party which existed from 1955 to 1978, and which until 1974 played an important role in Australian politics. As at 12 December 2006, the DLP appear to have won two seats in Victoria's Upper House in the 2006 state elections.[1]

The old DLP was wound up in 1978, but a small group of DLP activists in Victoria refused to accept the dissolution of the party and formed a new DLP, which has contested Senate elections in Victoria at every election since 1980 but has never gained representation until 2006. The party is largely run by John Mulholland and his family, and its main platform is opposition to abortion, euthanasia, therapeutic cloning and same-sex marriage, and also opposition to economic rationalism. The party no longer has the patronage of the Catholic Church but still has some support among conservative Catholics.

At the 2004 Federal Election, the DLP received 58,042 first preference, or .49% of all votes, in the Victorian Senate election [2]. These votes assisted in the election of Steve Fielding from Family First to the Senate, even though the DLP vote was higher than the Family First vote. It also contested the federal divisions of Ballarat, [3] and McMillan [4].

The DLP contested the 2006 Victorian State Election, fielding candidates in the eight regions of the reformed Legislative Council, where proportional representation gave the party the best chance of having members elected. It polled 1.97% of the first preference[5] vote. However, in two regions it polled higher, with 2.70% in Western Victoria and 5.11% in Northern Metropolitan. Two weeks after the election, with counting nearly complete, the party seemed likely to have Peter Kavanagh elected on the distribution of preferencs from other parties in the Western Victoria Region. On December 12, 2006, the Victorian Electoral Commission announced that the DLP had gained two seats in Victoria's Upper House, though this count will be challenged by the Victorian ALP. [6]