List of political parties in Australia

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This article lists political parties in Australia.

The present day federal parliament has a number of distinctive features including compulsory voting, with full-preference instant-runoff voting in single-member seats to elect the lower house, the Australian House of Representatives, and the use of group ticket single transferable proportional voting to elect the upper house, the Australian Senate.

Australia has a mild two-party system, as illustrated by the two-party-preferred vote, with two dominant political groupings in the Australian political system, the Australian Labor Party, and the Liberal/National Coalition. Federally, the lower house currently has seven of 150 non-major party MPs, while the upper house has eleven of 76.

Contents

Federal parliamentary parties and their leaders [edit]

Name (English) Abbr. Leader Ideology Position International Association Votes (2010) Seats in House of Representatives Seats in Senate Notes
Australian Labor Party ALP Julia Gillard Social democracy Economic centre-left, social centrist Socialist International 38.0% 71 31
Liberal Party of Australia Lib Tony Abbott Conservatism, Economic Liberalism Economic centre-right, social right-wing International Democrat Union 39.9%* 66 29 In coalition since 1944 with the National Party of Australia
National Party of Australia Nat. Warren Truss Conservatism, Agrarianism Economic right-wing, social right-wing none 3.4% 6 5 In coalition since 1944 with the Liberal Party of Australia
Australian Greens GRN Christine Milne Green politics Economic left-wing, social left-wing Global Greens 11.8% 1 9
Katter's Australian Party KAP Bob Katter Agrarian socialism, Economic nationalism, Social conservatism Economic left-wing, social right-wing none N/A 1 0
Democratic Labor Party DLP John Madigan Social conservatism Economic centre-left, social right-wing none 0.04% 0 1
Palmer United Party PUP Clive Palmer Populism, Economic Liberalism Economic right-wing, social right-wing none N/A 0 0

Two political groups dominate the Australian political spectrum, forming a de facto two party system. One is the Australian Labor Party (ALP), a centre-right party which is formally linked to the Australian labour movement. Formed in 1893, it has been a major party federally since 1901, and has been one of the two major parties since the 1910 Federal election. Currently the ALP is in government federally, and also in South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.

The other group is a conservative grouping of parties that are in coalition at the Federal level, as well as in New South Wales and Victoria, but compete in Western Australia and South Australia. The main party in this group is the centre-right Liberal Party. The Liberal Party is the modern form of a conservative grouping that has existed since the fusion of the Protectionist Party and Free Trade Party into the Commonwealth Liberal Party in 1909. Although this group has changed its nomenclature, there has been a general continuity of MPs and structure between different forms of the party. In its modern form, it was founded by Robert Menzies in 1944. The party's philosophy is generally liberal conservatism.

Every elected Prime Minister of Australia since 1910 has been a member of either the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, or one of the Liberal Party's previous incarnations (the Commonwealth Liberal Party, the Nationalist Party of Australia, or the United Australia Party).

The Liberal Party is joined by the National Party, a party that seek to represent rural interests, especially agricultural ones. The Nationals contest a limited number of seats and does not generally directly compete with the Liberal Party. Its ideology is generally more socially-conservative than that of the Liberal Party. In 1987, the National Party made an abortive run for the prime ministership in its own right, in the Joh for Canberra campaign. However, it has generally not aspired to become the majority party in the coalition, and it is generally understood that the Prime Minister of Australia will be a member of either the Labor or Liberal parties. On two occasions (involving Earle Page in 1939, and John McEwen) from December 1967 - January 1968, the leader of the National Party (then known as the Country Party) became the Prime Minister temporarily, upon the death of the incumbent P.M. Sir Arthur Fadden was the only other Country Party P.M. He assumed office in August 1941 after the resignation of Sir Robert Menzies, and served as Prime Minister until October of that year.

The Liberal and National parties have merged in Queensland and the Northern Territory, although the resultant parties are different. The Liberal National Party of Queensland, formed in 2008, is a branch of the Liberal Party, but it is affiliated with the Nationals and members elected to federal parliament may sit as either Liberals or Nationals. The Country Liberal Party was formed in 1978 when the Northern Territory gained responsible government. It is a separate member of the federal coalition, but it is affiliated with the two major members and its president has voting rights in the National Party. The name refers to the older name of the National Party.

Federally, these parties are collectively known as the Coalition. The Coalition has existed continually (between the Nationals and their predecessors, and the Liberals and their predecessors) since 1923, with minor breaks in 1940, 1973, and 1987.

Historically, support for either the Coalition or the Labor Party was often viewed as being based around class, with the middle classes supporting the Coalition and the working class supporting Labor. In more recent times, this has been a less important factor because the 1970s and 1980s saw the Labor Party gain a significant bloc of middle-class support and the Coalition gain a significant bloc of working class support.[1]

The two-party duopoly has been relatively stable, with the two groupings (Labor and Coalition) gaining at least 70% of the primary vote in every election since 1910 (including the votes of autonomous state parties). Third parties have only rarely received more than 10% of the vote for the Australian House of Representatives in a Federal election, such as the Australian Greens in the 2010 Federal election and the Australian Democrats in the 1990 Federal election, which indicates the stability of the Australian two-party system.

Other parties [edit]

Besides the two major party groupings, two other parties are currently of some significance in Australian political system. The first is the Australian Greens, at present seen as being the "third force" in Australian politics. It is a left-wing and environmentalist party, generally achieving 7-13% of votes in elections conducted after 2004. The Greens party has superseded the formerly significant Australian Democrats, which was the largest third party between 1977 and 2004.

The Greens victory at the 2010 Federal election in the Federal seat of Melbourne was noteworthy. In the same election, the revived Democratic Labor Party won a Senate seat (held by John Madigan). In 2011, independent and former National Party MP Bob Katter formed Katter's Australian Party, which now holds seats both in the House of Representative and in the Queensland Parliament.

Other political parties which have been of some significance in the past (since World War II), in terms of shaping Australian politics, include the Democratic Labor Party, One Nation Party, Nuclear Disarmament Party, the Australia Party, the Liberal Movement, the Communist Party of Australia and Family First.

Currently, in order to register as a political party applicants must have a constitution outlining the basis of the party and either at least one member in Parliament or 500 members on the electoral roll.[2] Parties may be "deregistered" if they no longer meet these requirements.

Current parties [edit]

Registered for elections with the AEC [edit]

For latest details see: http://aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/Party_Registration/Registered_parties/index.htm

Registered with state electoral bodies only [edit]

Defunct parties [edit]

These organisations are no longer registered with any federal, state or territory political bodies, and can thus no longer contest elections. A number of these may still exist as organisations in some form, but none are any longer officially recognised as political parties.

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "OzPolitics.info". OzPolitics.info. Retrieved 2010-06-16. 
  2. ^ "overview". Aec.gov.au. 2007-12-07. Retrieved 2010-06-16. 
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