Liberal Party of Australia

Liberal Party of Australia
Leader	Tony Abbott MP
President	Alan Stockdale
Deputy Leader	Julie Bishop MP
Founded	1944
Headquarters	Cnr Blackall & Macquarie St Barton ACT 2600
Ideology	Conservative liberalism, Liberal conservatism, New Right
Political position	Centre-right
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
Official colours	Blue
House of Representatives	44 / 150
Senate	32 / 76
Website
http://www.liberal.org.au/
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.

Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office. When in government it traditionally governs in a coalition with the National Party.

In federal politics, the Liberal Party is in opposition since losing the 2007 federal election, having held power since the 1996 election. At the state and territory level, the Liberals hold government only in one jurisdiction, a minority government in Western Australia.

Since the Liberal Party of Australia leadership election of 2009, the fourth federal leader of the party since December 2007 has been Tony Abbott, with Julie Bishop as deputy.

Philosophies and Factionalism

Modern Liberalism in Australia is represented in the vast majority by the Liberal Party of Australia, who are generally an advocate of economic liberalism (see New Right). However, during Liberal governments prior to the Howard Government, the party was quite interventionist in its economic policy and maintained Australia's high tariff levels. At that time, the Liberals' coalition partner, the Country Party, the older of the two in the coalition (now known as the "National Party"), had considerable influence over the Government's economic policies.

The Liberal Party has more recently been a conservative party, although it has always had a social liberal wing. In recent years, during the Prime Ministership of John Howard, the party moved to a more socially conservative policy agenda. The party has mainly two unorganised factions, the majority conservative right and the minority moderate left. Historically, moderates have at times formed their own parties, most notably the Australian Democrats who gave voice to what is termed small-l liberalism in Australia.

History

Tony Abbott, Leader of the Liberal Party since 2009.

Sir Robert Menzies, founder of the Liberal Party of Australia and Prime Minister of Australia 1939-41 (UAP) and 1949-66

Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia 1966-67

Sir John Gorton, Prime Minister of Australia 1968-71

Sir William McMahon, Prime Minister of Australia 1971-72

Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia 1975-83

John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia 1996-2007

The Liberals' immediate predecessor was the United Australia Party, formed in 1931. The UAP, led by Billy Hughes, disintegrated after suffering a heavy defeat in the 1943 election. More broadly, the party's ideological ancestry stretched back to the anti-Labor groupings in the first Commonwealth Parliaments. The Commonwealth Liberal Party was a fusion of the Free Trade Party and the Protectionist Party in 1909 by second Prime Minister Alfred Deakin in response to Labor's growing electoral prominence. The Commonwealth Liberal Party was replaced by the Nationalist Party of Australia in 1917, which was replaced by the UAP in 1931.

Menzies called a conference of Conservative parties and other groups opposed to the ruling Australian Labor Party which met in Canberra on 13 October 1944, and again in Albury in December 1944.^[1][2] The formation of the party was formally announced at Sydney Town Hall on 31 August 1945.^[2] The Liberal Party absorbed several former conservative parties, principally the United Australia Party. The Australian Women's National League, a powerful conservative women's organisation, also merged with the new party. A conservative youth group Menzies had set up, the Young Nationalists, was also merged into the new party. It became the Liberal Party's youth division, the Young Liberals. By September 1945 there were more than 90,000 members, many of whom had not previously been members of any political party.^[2]

After an initial failure to defeat Labor at the 1946 election, Menzies led the Liberals to victory at the 1949 election, and they stayed in office for a record 23 years. After the retirement of Menzies in 1966 and the death of his successor, Harold Holt, in 1967, the Liberals went into decline, and were defeated in 1972. After the dismissal of 1975 they returned to office under Malcolm Fraser, and stayed in power for eight years. Losing government in 1983, the Liberals returned to power in 1996 under John Howard, and governed until their electoral defeat in 2007.

At the state level, the Liberals have been dominant for long periods in all states except Queensland, where they have always held fewer seats than the National Party (not to be confused with the old Nationalist Party). The Liberals were in power in Victoria from 1955 to 1982. Initially a Liberal and Country Party affiliated party, the Liberal and Country League reigned in South Australia from 1932 to 1965, though with assistance from the Playmander. The similarly dual aligned Country Liberal Party ruled the Northern Territory from 1972 to 2001.

Throughout their history, the Liberals have been in electoral terms largely the party of the middle class (whom Menzies, in the era of the party's formation called "the forgotten people"), though such class-based voting patterns are no longer as clear as they once were. In the 1970s a left-wing middle class emerged that no longer voted Liberal. One effect of this was the success of a breakaway party, the Australian Democrats, founded in 1977 by former Liberal minister Don Chipp and members of minor liberal parties; other members of the left-leaning section of the middle-class became Labor supporters. On the other hand, the Liberals have done increasingly well among socially conservative working-class voters in recent years. In country areas they either compete or have a truce with the Nationals, depending on various factors.

The Liberal Party is a member of the International Democrat Union, the only party name of Liberal to do so, rather than Liberal International. Strong opposition to socialism and communism in Australia and internationally was one of the foundation principles of the Liberal Party, named by Menzies after the early Commonwealth Liberal Party. Menzies came to power the year the Communist Party of Australia had led a coal strike to improve pit miners working conditions in Australia; and the same year that Stalin's Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb, and that Mao Zedong led the Communist Party of China to power in China; and just a year before the invasion of South Korea by Communist North Korea. By 1955 the Labor Party had split over the issue of Communist influence over certain Unions and anti-communism was successfully exploited through the 1950s and 1960s by Menzies and his political successors (see Democratic Labor Party^[3]). During the Korean War, Menzies went so far as to attempt to ban the Communist Party via unsuccessful 1951 legislation and a subsequently unsuccessful referendum. Menzies was an ardent royalist, devoted to maintaining Australia as a constitutional monarchy. Today the party is divided on the monarchy, with some being minimalist republicans while others, such as Tony Abbott remain monarchists. The Liberals have also sought to portray themselves as the party most committed to the alliance with the United States.

Domestically, Menzies presided over a fairly regulated economy in which utilities were publicly owned, and commercial activity was highly regulated through centralised wage-fixing and high tariff protection. It was not until the late 1970s and through their period out of power federally in the 1980s that the party came to be influenced by what was known as the "New Right" - neo-liberal group who advocated market deregulation, privatisation of public utilities, reductions in the size of government programs and tax cuts. This program was largely implemented by the Howard government of 1996-2007.

Socially, while liberty and freedom of enterprise form the basis of its beliefs, elements of the party have wavered between what is termed "small-l liberalism" and social conservatism. Historically, Liberal Governments have been responsible for the carriage of a number of notable "socially liberal" reforms, including Harold Holt's 1967 Referendum on Aboriginal Rights;^[4] Sir John Gorton's 1968 establishment of the Australian Film Development Corporation;^[5] selection of the first Aboriginal Senator, Neville Bonner, in 1971;^[6] Malcolm Fraser's Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 and John Howard's gun control reform of 1997.^[7]

The Liberal Party's organisation is dominated by the six state divisions, reflecting the party's original commitment to a federalised system of government (a commitment which was strongly maintained by all Liberal governments until 1983, but had been to a large extent abandoned by the Howard government, which had shown strong centralising tendencies). Menzies deliberately created a weak national party machine and strong state divisions. Party policy is made almost entirely by the parliamentary parties, not by the party's rank-and-file members, although Liberal party members do have a degree of influence over party policy.

In the 2004 Federal elections the party strengthened its majority in the Lower House and, with its coalition partners, became the first federal government in twenty years to gain an absolute majority in the Senate. This control of both houses permitted their passing of legislation without the need to negotiate with independents or minor parties, exemplified by industrial relations legislation known as WorkChoices.

The 2007 federal election saw the defeat of the Howard federal government, and the Liberal Party was in opposition throughout Australia at the state and federal level; the highest Liberal office-holder at the time was Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman. This ended after the Western Australian state election, 2008, when Colin Barnett became Premier of that state.

The Liberal Party does not officially contest most local government elections, although many members do run for office in local government as independents. An exception is the Brisbane City Council, where both Sallyanne Atkinson and Campbell Newman (the incumbent) have been elected Lord Mayor of Brisbane.^[8]

Liberal/National Merger

Merger plans came to a head in May 2008, when the Queensland state Liberal Party gave an announcement not to wait for a federal blueprint but instead to merge now. The new party, the Liberal National Party was formed on 26 July following a joint Convention of the Queensland Liberal and National Parties. However, despite the change of name, the party continues to be the Queensland Division of the Liberal Party of Australia.

Liberal Federal Leaders

Shown by default in chronological order of leadership

Liberal Federal Deputy Leaders

Shown in chronological order of leadership

Current Liberal State and Territory Parliamentary Leaders

¹ The Northern Territory is represented by the Country Liberal Party, which is endorsed as the Territory division of the Liberal Party.

² Queensland is represented by the Liberal National Party of Queensland, this party is the result of a merger of the Queensland Division of the Liberal Party and the Queensland National Party to contest elections as a single party.

Past Liberal State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers

Liberal Federal Presidents

Shown in chronological order of presidency

• 1945 – Sir Malcolm Ritchie (first term)
• 1947 – Richard Casey, Baron Casey
• 1950 – Sir Malcolm Ritchie (second term)
• 1951 – Sir William Anderson
• 1956 – Lyle Moore
• 1960 – Sir Philip McBride
• 1965 – Sir John Pagan
• 1970 – Sir Robert Southey
• 1975 – Sir John Atwill
• 1982 – Dr Jim Forbes
• 1985 – John Valder
• 1987 – John Elliott
• 1990 – Prof Ashley Goldsworthy
• 1993 – Tony Staley
• 1999 – Shane Stone
• 2005 – Chris McDiven
• 2008 – Alan Stockdale

See also

• Country Liberal Party (Northern Territory)
• Young Liberal Movement of Australia
• History of Australia
• Liberal conservatism
• Liberalism in Australia
• List of political parties in Australia
• Centre-Right
• Shadow Cabinet of Australia
• New South Wales Division of the Liberal Party

Further reading

• Henderson, Gerard (1994). Menzies' Child: The Liberal Party of Australia 1944-1994, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, New South Wales.
• Jaensch, Dean (1994) The Liberals, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, New South Wales.
• Nethercote, John (ed.)(2001), Liberalism and the Australian Federation, Federation Press, Annandale, New South Wales. ISBN 1862874026
• Simms, Marian (1982) A Liberal Nation: The Liberal Party and Australian Politics, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, New South Wales. ISBN 086806033X
• Starr, Graeme (1980) The Liberal Party of Australia: A Documentary History, Drummond/Heinemann, Richmond, Victoria. ISBN 0 85859 223 1
• Tiver, P.G. (1978), The Liberal Party. Principles and Performance, Jacaranda, Milton, Queensland. ISBN 0 7016 0996 6

References

External links

• Liberal Party of Australia official site
• Liberal Party of Australia ephemera digitised and held by the National Library of Australia
• Records of the Victorian division of the Liberal Party held at the University of Melbourne Archives

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