Australian People's Party

The Australian People's Party is a name shared by a number of short-lived political parties in Australia's history.

From Federation to 1911 a party of that name existed contesting rural seats. It merged with the Commonwealth Liberal Party to form the People's Liberal Party.

In 1929, a party of that name endorsed a candidate in the Division of Martin in the Australian elections held that year attracting 4,450 votes which was 7.5% of the vote in that election [1].

George Apap of the Australian Workers' Union formed a party of the same name after an unsuccessful bid for the presidency of the South Australian Australian Labor Party [2]. In 1996, a candidate for the Australian People's Party contested the seat Joondalup in the West Australian election in 1996 achieving just over 300 votes [3].

The Australian People's Party appeared as a fictional political party in the 2003 film The Honourable Wally Norman, where it mistakenly nominates meatworker Wally Norman as a candidate in a Federal election.[4] The party has been widely thought to be based on the Labor Party.

In January 2010 the Australian People's Party is being established again. This time Nathan Jones a teacher from NSW is aiming to form a new political party that is for the people of Australia and not a party for the politicians of Australia.

The main goal of the Australian People's party is to get rid of State Governments in Australia so there is only a Federal government and regional governments (local councils). The new website is www.australianpeoplesparty.com

Footnotes

  1. ^ Results for the 1929 Federal election in the Division of Martin published by Adam Carr
  2. ^ Macquarie Library, Encyclopedia of Australian Events 1997 retrieved from Macquarie Net 29 November 2005
  3. ^ Australian Parliamentary Library, Background Paper 15 of 1996-97 on the West Australian elections of 1996
  4. ^ The Australian Peoples Party by Stewart Ulrich
  5. ^ New York Times Movies article on The Honourable Wally Norman and ABC Tasmania review of the Honorable Wally Norman