Voter's Guide/Australia/Party Guide/Australian Liberal Party

The Australian Liberal Party is one of the major political parties at a federal level in Australia with it being the second oldest political party in Australia and primary opposition to the Australia Labour Party as a Centre-Right Party

History

Foundation

The Liberal Party was founded on October 16th, 1944, in Sydney. it was formed from coalitions with conservative groups including United Australia Party (UAP) and Centre-Right political parties its first Leader was Robert Menzies (born 20th December 1894 - died 15th May 1978) an Australian Politician and Lawyer (before his career in politics) from Jeparit, Victoria Robert Menzies sought to unite the various conservative parties and anti-labour forces with businessmen, farmers and old-style conservatives as Menzies wanted a more modern and unified conservative force in the Australian political landscape against the Australian Labour Party (ALP), with the Liberal Party emerging from the consolidation of several smaller parties and including the United Australia Party (UAP) and the Country Party.

Post War Era and Menzies Era

After the Second World War the Liberal Party won the 1949 Election winning 74 seats, 2.3 million votes and 51% in TPP joined by the Country Party in a coalition allowing Menzies Robert to serve his 2nd Term as the 13th Prime Minister of Australia between 1949 and 1966 (his 1st term was between 1939 and 1941) his term as Prime Minister in the 50's and 60's were characterized by economic growth and industrial development Robert Menzies served as Prime Ministers until 1966 making him the longest serving Prime Minister in Australian History. successor of the Liberal Party leaders continued to govern for number of years though the part began to face challenge as the Australian Labour Party influence in.

Menzies and the Liberal Party government introduced the following:

1949 White Australia Policy: In 1949 the Menzies government re-introduced the "White Australia Policy" which would restrict the immigration of non-European people migrating into Australia as Australia saw an estimate of 100,000 people immigrated to Australia between 1947 and 1961 and between 1947 and in 1963 the population was raised by 2 million

Bjelke-Petersen Era

In 1966 the Liberal Party won a narrow victory in the 1966 Federal Election