Liberalism in Australia

This article gives an overview of liberalism in Australia. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in Parliament. The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme. What constitutes a "liberal party" is by no means clear-cut in Australia. The extent to which liberal thought plays a role in the Liberal Party of Australia is a contentiously debated issue, however they are closest to conservative liberalism or liberal conservatism. The Australian Democrats could be described as holding beliefs in social liberalism.

1 Introduction
2 Contemporary Australian Liberalism
3 Ideology
4 The timeline
5 Liberal leaders
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

[edit] Introduction

The earliest pioneers of the federation movement, men such as Alfred Deakin and Samuel Griffith, were generally self-described "liberals". The degree of progressive sentiment varied from colony to colony: social liberals were prominent in Victoria and South Australia, for instance. At any rate, Australia's parliamentary institutions, especially at a national level, were brand-new, so it was difficult for anyone to be labelled "conservative" in a traditional sense. The two largest political parties, the Free Trade Party and the Protectionist Party, could both loosely be described as "liberal" in the terms of the time. They were moderates with a strong belief in parliamentary institutions, financially orthodox and attached to the British Empire, with a distaste for radicalism. The third major political force was the trade union movement represented by Australian Labor Party. The rise in popularity of the Labor party began to become the major pre-occupation of these two other parties.

In the early stages of the Parliament, the Labor party engaged in a partnership with the more radical Protectionists, but Labor's wide-ranging policies for social reform met with only lukewarm support from most Protectionists. Fear of socialism became widespread among the ranks of the establishment, and as the question of tariffs was settled, there was increasing pressure on the non-Labor parliamentary forces to unite in opposition to Labor.

The result was the Fusion in 1909 of the Free Traders and the two wings of the Protectionists. The Fusion soon began calling itself the Liberal Party, proclaiming its adherence to classical liberalism. After Deakin's departure, the fervent anti-socialist Joseph Cook became leader of the party and it became the dominant right-wing force in Australian politics.

The pattern of a non-Labor party defining itself as liberal rather than conservative and deriving support from a middle-class base continued to the formation of the present-day Liberal Party, founded in 1945 and led initially by Sir Robert Menzies. In his memoir, Afternoon Light, Menzies described the decision to call the Party Liberal in these terms, "We took the name Liberal because we were determined to be a progressive party, willing to make experiments, in no sense reactionary but believing in the individual, his rights and his enterprise."

The "wet" (moderate) and "dry" (conservative) wings of the Liberal party co-operated fairly harmoniously, but in the early 1970s as conservatives started to dominate in South Australia liberals led by Steele Hall broke off to form the Liberal Movement. In 1977, other dissident small-l liberal forces led by Don Chipp created the Australian Democrats.

[edit] Contemporary Australian Liberalism

From the early 1990s, economic liberalism and social conservatism has characterised the Liberal Party's actions in Government and policy development.[1] The Prime Minister John Howard in a 2005 speech described the modern position: "The Liberal Party is a broad church. You sometimes have to get the builders in to put in the extra pew on both sides of the aisle to make sure that everybody is accommodated. But it is a broad church and we should never as members of the Liberal Party of Australia lose sight of the fact that we are the trustees of two great political traditions. We are, of course, the custodian of the classical liberal tradition within our society, Australian Liberals should revere the contribution of John Stuart Mill to political thought. We are also the custodians of the conservative tradition in our community. And if you look at the history of the Liberal Party it is at its best when it balances and blends those two traditions. Mill and Burke are interwoven into the history and the practice and the experience of our political party."[2]

Some Federal "small-l liberals", such as Joe Hockey [3][4] and Malcolm Turnbull serve in Federal Cabinet, Christopher Pyne serves as Assistant Minister for Health and others such as Petro Georgiou and Marise Payne are active in policy formation. At the state level, "small-l liberals" have substantial influence particularly in Victoria and South Australia.

The Democrats, in turn, became fractured as under the leadership of Cheryl Kernot and Natasha Stott-Despoja the party moved towards the left. Party leader Meg Lees formed the more avowedly centrist Australian Progressive Alliance in 2003. In 2002, Tasmanian Liberal Candidate Greg Barns was disendorsed following comments opposing Government action taken over the Tampa Affair. Barns joined the Australian Democrats, with the view of returning a strong liberal platform to the party. So far Barns has served in a support capacity in the last federal election and various state elections. Barns is a strong advocate of human rights for Asylum seekers, and also supports the case for an Australian republic. He served as chair of the Australian Republican Movement 1999-2002.

[edit] Ideology

Liberalism in Australia has been notably lacking in a coherent philosophical underpinning: it is strongly pragmatic, rather than ideological, defined chiefly in antithesis to Labor. The governments of Menzies, Fraser and Howard differ each other in both social and economic approaches.

Insofar as there is a unifying thread running through Australian liberalism, it has been based on:

Support for private enterprise. Previous Liberal party governments, especially under pressure from the Country Party to safeguard its agricultural base, have been interventionist to varying degrees; but the current climate is very much in favour of deregulation and supply-side economics.
Opposition to major changes to the Australian Constitution. Once again, this varies: the Democrats, and quite a few Liberal Party members, support a republic. The Liberals and Democrats have shown much more affection for the Senate than has Labor.
In foreign affairs, loyalty to Australia's major allied partner (the United Kingdom before World War II, the United States afterward), sometimes to the detriment of multilateralism. "Small-l" liberals often tend to repudiate this aspect: the Democrats were strongly critical of both Iraq Wars and Fraser, despite supporting it while in office, has called for an end to the ANZUS alliance.
Attitudes ranging from mild to extreme antipathy towards the trade union movement.

Again, all these currents are only apparent inasmuch as they are a point of difference with Labor: advancing these ideas to deride Labor as socialist, unpatriotic, or under the thrall of powerful unions.

[edit] The timeline

[edit] From Protectionist Party to Liberal Party of Australia

1880s: The Protectionist Party is formed
1908: The Protectionists merge with ⇒ the Free Trade Party into the Commonwealth Liberal Party
1917: The party merges with the National Labor Party of Billy Hughes into the conservative Nationalist Party of Australia.
1932: The Nationalist party absorbs dissidents of the Australian Labor Party and is renamed the United Australia Party.
1945: The party is reorganized into the Liberal Party of Australia.

[edit] Free Trade Party

1880s: The Free Trade Party is formed
1909: The FTP merged with the ⇒ Protectionist Party into the ⇒ Commonwealth Liberal Party

[edit] From Liberal Reform Group to Australian Democrats

1966: The Liberal Reform Group seceded from the conservative Liberal Party of Australia. it is renamed Liberal Reform Movement in 1969 and Australia Party in 1969
1977: The AP merged with dissident members of the Liberal Party of Australia into present-day Australian Democrats
2003: A faction formed the ⇒ Australian Progressive Alliance