Liberal Party (Australia)

Liberal Party
Abbreviation	LP, LIB, LPA[1]
Leader	Peter Dutton
Deputy Leader	Sussan Ley
Senate Leader	Simon Birmingham
Deputy Senate Leader	Michaelia Cash
President	John Olsen
Founder	Robert Menzies[a]
Founded	13 October 1944; 80 years ago (13 October 1944)[b]
Preceded by	United Australia
Headquarters	R. G. Menzies House, Barton, Australian Capital Territory
Think tank	Menzies Research Centre
Student wing	Liberal Students' Federation
Youth wing	Young Liberals
Women's wing	Federal Women's Committee
Overseas wing	Australian Liberals Abroad[9]
Membership (2020)	70–80,000[10][11]
Ideology	Liberalism (Australian)[12][13][14][15] Conservatism (Australian)[16][17] Liberal conservatism[18]
Political position	Centre-right
National affiliation	Liberal–National Coalition
Regional affiliation	Asia Pacific Democrat Union
International affiliation	International Democracy Union
Colours	Blue
Governing body	Federal Council
Party branches	ACT NSW NT Qld[c] SA Tas Vic WA
House of Representatives	40 / 151 [note 1]
Senate	25 / 76 [note 2]
State and territorial governments	1 / 8
State and territorial lower house members	166 / 455
State upper house members	41 / 155
Website
www.liberal.org.au
Politics of Australia Political parties

The Liberal Party of Australia (Liberals, or LIB for short), in coalition with the National Party of Australia (Nationals, or NAT for short), is a center-right party that is one of the two main political groups in Australian politics (the other being the Social Democratic Australian Labor Party (ALP). The Liberals/Nationals are the more conservative of the two main parties. It was founded by Sir Robert Menzies in 1944. They lost government to the ALP in the Australian federal election held on 24 November 2007. This was after 11 years in government under the previous Liberal leader, John Howard.

The Liberal/National coalition were in control in the Federal Parliament of Australia after beating the ALP during an election on 7 September 2013. They lost control after losing many seats in the 2022 election.

The current party leader is Peter Dutton since 30 May 2022.^[21]

1. ↑ "Political party name abbreviations & codes, demographic ratings and seat status". Australian Electoral Commission. 18 January 2016. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
2. ↑ Brandis, George (24 October 2022). "Taking liberties with Menzies' politics betrays his life and legacy". smh.com.au. The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2023. One of the most important differences between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party is a historical one. Labor traces its roots to the trade union movement of the late 19th century; it does not point to any one great figure as its founder. The Liberal Party, by contrast, is unquestionably the creation of a single man, Robert Menzies – its founder and longest-serving leader and Australia's longest-serving prime minister. Both sides of politics acknowledge this: Paul Keating, in a savage speech, once spoke of his desire "to destroy Menzies' creation".
3. ↑ Hutchens, Gareth (3 October 2021). "Robert Menzies wouldn't recognise the Liberal Party's employment policies today". ABC News. Archived from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2023. It's why the "father" of the Liberal Party, Robert Menzies, would hardly recognise his party's economic policies today.
4. ↑ Walker, Tony (28 August 2018). "Malcolm Fraser's political manifesto would make good reading for the Morrison government". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2023. Menzies' "forgotten people" were defined as those caught between a union-dominated Labor Party and a conservative establishment. What the father of the Liberal Party had in mind was the artisan and small business class, broadly defined.
5. ↑ "Our History". liberal.org.au. Liberal Party of Australia. 12 June 2013. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
6. ↑ "Forming the Liberal Party of Australia – Record of the Conference of Representatives of Non-Labor Organisations" (PDF). 16 October 1944. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 November 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
7. ↑ "Formation of the Liberal Party of Australia". Party History. Liberal Party of Australia—Queensland Division. Archived from the original on 26 April 2007. Retrieved 11 April 2007.
8. ↑ Ian Hancock. "The Origins of the Modern Liberal Party". Harold White Fellowships. National Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2007.
9. ↑ "Australian Liberals Abroad". 12 June 2013.
10. ↑ "Our Structure". Liberal Party of Australia. 2013-06-12. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
11. ↑ Davies, Anne (13 December 2020). "Party hardly: why Australia's big political parties are struggling to compete with grassroots campaigns". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
12. ↑ Hancock, Ian (1994). "The Origins of the Modern Liberal Party". Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2021. History of Liberalism in Australia
13. ↑ Steketee, Mike (2021-03-12). "The revolt of the Liberal moderates". The Canberra Times. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
14. ↑ Philip Mendes, ed. (2007). Australia's Welfare Wars Revisited: The Players, the Politics and the Ideologies. Springer Nature. p. 123. ISBN 9780868409917.
15. ↑ Rodney Smith; Ariadne Vromen; Ian Cook, eds. (2006). Keywords in Australian Politics. Cambridge University Press. p. 103. ISBN 9780521672832. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023. The ideology of the Liberal Party has in fact always been a mixture of conservatism, social liberalism and classical or neo-liberalism ...
16. ↑ Williams, John R. (1967). "The Emergence of the Liberal Party of Australia". The Australian Quarterly. 39 (1). JSTOR: 7–27. doi:10.2307/20634106. JSTOR 20634106. Archived from the original on 4 September 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
17. ↑ Massola, James (2021-03-20). "Who's who in the Liberals' left, right and centre factions?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
18. ↑ Nicole A. Thomas; Tobias Loetscher; Danielle Clode; Mike Nicholls (2012). "Right-Wing Politicians Prefer the Emotional Left". PLOS ONE. 7 (5): 4. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...736552T. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.270.2043. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036552. PMC 3342249. PMID 22567166. The Liberal Party of Australia has an ideology in line with liberal conservatism and is therefore right of centre.
19. ↑ Ferguson, Richard (14 April 2021). "Liberals' flag fiasco". The Australian. Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
20. ↑ Wilkinson, Jamie (27 June 2016). "A short history of political party branding – Liberals". news.canningspurple.com.au. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
21. ↑ "Peter Dutton elected as opposition leader". ABC News. 30 May 2022.