Liberalism in Australia

Liberalism in Australia dates back to the earliest pioneers of the area, and has maintained a strong foothold to this day.

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, composed of Joseph Cook's Anti-Socialist Party (formerly Free Trade Party), and conservative 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. Malcolm Fraser, quoting from Menzies' memoir, Afternoon Light, described the decision to call the party "Liberal" in these terms,

We chose the word 'Liberal' because we want to be a progressive party, in no way conservative, in no way reactionary.[1]

However, previous Liberal Prime Minister, John Howard, is reported to have described himself the most conservative leader the Liberal Party had ever had.[2]

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[3][4] forces led by Don Chipp created the Australian Democrats.

Contemporary Australian liberalism

From the early 1990s, monetarism and social conservatism has characterised the Liberal Party's actions in Government and policy development.[5] Former Prime Minister John Howard in a 2005 speech described the modern position:[6]

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.

Federal "small-l liberals", such as Joe Hockey[7][8] and Malcolm Turnbull were Cabinet ministers in the Howard government. Christopher Pyne, George Brandis and Bruce Billson served in the outer ministry. At the state level, "small-l liberals" have substantial influence particularly in Victoria and South Australia .

The Democrats, fractured under the leadership of Cheryl Kernot and Natasha Stott-Despoja, moved to 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.

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 (1949–1966), Gorton (1968–1971) Fraser (1975–1983) and Howard (1996–2007) differed from each other in both social and economic approaches.

Unifying threads of Australian liberalism, have included:

The timeline

From Protectionist Party and Free Trade Party to (Commonwealth) Liberal Party

From Australian Women's National League to Liberal Party of Australia

From state farmers' parties to National Party of Australia

From Australian Liberal Union to Liberal Party of Australia

From Commonwealth Liberal Party and ALP dissidents to Nationalist Party of Australia

From Nationalist Party of Australia and ALP dissidents to Liberal Party of Australia

From Liberal Party of Australia dissidents to Australian Democrats

Australian Democrats offshoots

From Country Party and Liberal Party of Australia dissidents to Country Liberal Party

Liberal Democratic Party

Liberal leaders

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Malcolm Fraser". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2004-05-20. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  2. ↑ "John Howard And The Conservative Tradition". www.readings.com.au. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  3. ↑ Andrews, Cameron (2002-07-29). "Wither the Democrats". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  4. ↑ "Only vision will snare Lees the small-l voters". Sydney Morning Herald. 2003-05-02. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  5. ↑ "TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP ADDRESS TO THE 'AUSTRALIA UNLIMITED ROUNDTABLE'". Vicnet. 2007-02-09. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  6. ↑ "pm.gov.au_News_Speeches_speech2005". Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  7. ↑ "Joe Hockey - Speeches - Maiden Speech". www.joehockey.com. 1997-10-20. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
  8. ↑ Dodson, Louise (2004-10-23). "Labor bickers as PM opts for slow change". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
  9. ↑ "Predicted Senate results for NSW". ABC.net.au. 8 September 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2013.

External links