Young Nationals (Australia)

Young Nationals
President	Cameron O'Neil
Vice President	Ruby Cameron
Founded	1970
Headquarters	7 National Circuit, Barton, ACT, 2600
Ideology	Conservatism Agrarianism
Mother party	National Party of Australia
Website
www.youngnationals.org.au

The Young Nationals, is the youth division of the National Party of Australia, and membership is open to those between 18 and 35 years of age. Young Nationals also have full party membership, and partake in state and federal conferences with equal rights to members of the senior party. They are active in National Party campaigning during all state and federal elections.

Young Nationals and Party leaders at the 2010 Conference

The movement is predominantly organized on the state division level, with each state organising its own events and policy and electing its own executive. In 2007 the Queensland Division of the Liberal Party of Australia and the Queensland National Party merged to become the Liberal National Party of Queensland (A division of the Federal Liberal Party and an affiliate of the Federal National Party). As part of this merger process, the Queensland Young Liberals and the Queensland Young Nationals were merged to become the Young Liberal National Party (Young LNP). The Young LNP is effectively the Queensland division of both the federal Young Liberals and the federal Young Nationals, and is the largest division of each of these movements. The federal executive of the Young Nationals comprises members elected from delegations from each affiliated state Young Nationals organisation, and the President of each affiliate. Policy can also be adopted by the movement's federal body. These policies are often then advocated by the Federal Young Nationals on the floor of the Federal Council of the National Party of Australia, as well as in representations made directly to Members of Parliament.

Political Impact

Politically, the Young Nationals have had an increasingly significant impact on overall National Party policy and machinations in recent years. Young Nationals notably changed the party platform to oppose any form of mandatory ISP-level internet censorship^[1] and have also expressed strong federalist sentiments, having spearheaded a push to abolish the national curriculum.^[2] The movement has also been one of the stronger elements in the National Party that has expressed support for voluntary student unionism,^[3][4] eventually persuading Senator Fiona Nash to ditch the parliamentary party's opposition to VSU.^[5]

Current Federal Executive

Past presidents

External links

• Young Nationals
  • Queensland Division
• National Party of Australia

References