Political Parties in Australias

8/11/2019 Political Parties in Australias

1/6

Political Parties in Australia

Liberal Party of Australia

History

A very important 3 day meeting held in a small hall not far from Parliament in 1944.

This meeting would affect Australias political landscape for eternity as it introduced

the Liberal Party of Australia. The meeting was organised by Sir Robert Menzies who

was then the leader of the opposition for the United Australia Party and had already

been Prime Minister from 1939. Menzies strongly believed that all non-Labor parties

should unite to provide an alternative to Labors unpopular post-war socialist

reforms. Eighty men and women from 18 non-Labor parties and organisations united

under the belief that mainstream Australians whose goals, needs and aspirations

that had been ignored by the Labor Party needed to be addressed.On October 16,

1944, the name The Liberal Party of Australia was adopted, the word Liberal was

chosen deliberately for its associations with progressive nineteenth century free

enterprise and social equality.

Core Beliefs and Ideology

The core beliefs and ideology of Liberal is better stated by what it does not support.

It does not support Socialism in its place the party applies economic liberalism. What

socialists see as helping therich the rich get richer, Liberals seem this as helping

everyone get richer as a strong economy in the Liberals opinion takes care of its

people. Aside from the free-market reforms, Liberals also believe in social

conservatism in the preservation of peoples freedom from government interference,

choice of mutual obligation and maintenance of traditional family values.

Current Policies

One of the major Liberal Party policies is the creation of a diverse 5-pillar economy in

which the government aims to build on Australia economic strengths in

Manufacturing Innovations, Agriculture Exports, Advanced Services, world-classeducation and research and finally Mining Exports. This 5-pillar economy aims to

deliver 1-million new jobs over the next five year. The Liberal party has issues it

wants to address in each of its pillars such as repealing the carbon tax in the

manufacturing pillar.

Current Party Member

Joe Hockey

Joe Hockey is the Member of Parliament for North Sydney and the current treasurerof Australia. Hockey was born in North Sydney and attended St Aloysius' College,


2/6

Milson's Point and the University of Sydney graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a

Bachelor of Laws.Upon graduating, Hockey worked as a banking and finance lawyer

at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and subsequently as the Director of Policy to the

Premier of New South Wales, before entering politics.Hockey became Shadow

Treasurer in February 2009 when Julie Bishop stepped down from the portfolio andwhen the Liberals assumed government in 2013, Hockey became Federal Treasurer.

Liberal Representation Status in federal and state parliament

The Federal Liberal is currently in a collation-government with Tony Abbott as the

prime minister. The party itself has 58 seats in the House of Representatives and 23

Seats in the Senate. The NSW Liberal party is also a collation government with Mike

Baird as the Premier. The party has 59 seats in the legislative assembly and 12 seats

in the legislative council.

Major issues facing the Liberal Party

The major issues facing the Federal Party mainly stem from the introduction of the

2014 Federal Budget. The tough fiscal message in the Budget saw the Liberal fall

behind in 2 party preferred polls to 55-45 in favour of Labour and PM Abbotts

popularity rating being reduced to 31%. The tough economical measures introducedin the Budget take government funding away almost all citizens in Australia in order

to help cut back Australias debt for future generations however many voters with

selfish ambitions are unable to appreciate what the government is trying to do

hence the poll ratings fall. This is not aided by policies displeasing different

organisations all around Australia such as environmentalist, university graduates and

healthcare advocates with the repealing of the Carbon Tax, deregulations of

university fee and $7 co-payments for GP visits. With these major issues at hand, PM

Abbott faces a tough uphill climb to show Australia that his policies are correct and

improve his popular rating.


3/6

Australian Labour Party

History

Up until the 1890s, workers in Australia relied on trade union organisations to fight

for workers rights, pay and working conditions. At this time, the major political

parties (the Free Traders and the Protectionists) represented the interests of

employers. Their influence in politics where then used to oppose the workers

demands and act to weaken the power of organised labour; that is, the trade unions.

To better represent their concerns, in 1891 workers decided to form their own

political party: the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The ALP became a federal party

when the former Australian colonies federated in 1901.

Core Beliefs and Ideology

The ALP core beliefs and ideology stems from its existence as a social democratic

party. In the democratic socialist world in which it presides, Labor believes that byre-distributing the nations wealth into government programs that ensure we all

enjoy the same quality of life we as a nation will all enjoy the same rights and

opportunities.

Current Platform

The policy of the Australian Labor Party is contained in its National Platform, which is

approved by delegates to Labor's National Conference, held every three years. The

last labour platform was held back in December 2011. Labors key priorities over the

coming years are:

Supporting hardworking families- labor attempts to achieve this by installingchildcare rebates, tax cuts and investments in Paid Parental Leave, disability

support and pensions

Supporting jobsand a growing economy- for Labor aims to maintain

economic discipline to ensure that our economy has continued to grow, jobs

have been created, unemployment has remained low and interest rates

remain steady

Investing in Australias future- Labor wants to deliver new infrastructure

now to empower our economy and maintain fairness in schools, hospitals

and local communities across the nation

Current Party Member

Bill Shorten

William Richard Shorten is the member for parliament for Maribyrnong, Victoria and

is currently the leader of the Australian Labor Party and the leader of the opposition.

Shorten was born in Melbourne and was educated at Xavier College and Monash

University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws.In

2005, Shorten announced that he would seek selection as the Labor candidate for

the seat of Maribyrnong, which was already held by Labor MP and Shadow Minister

Bob Sercombe. At the election on 24 November 2007, Shorten was elected to the

House of Representatives as the Labor Member for Maribyrnong. Upon the defeat ofthe Labor Government in the 2013 election, the current leader of the ALP, Kevin


4/6

Rudd, announced that he would stand down from the position. Shorten at that time

then declared that he would declare that he would be a candidate to be Rudds

successor. Shorten then assumed the role of the Opposition Leader and Labor leader

after defeating Anthony Albanese with 52% of the votes from inside Labor.

Labor Representation Status in federal and state parliament

The Australian Labor Party is currently in opposition with Bill Shorten as the leader of

the opposition. At the last federal election in 2013, Labor managed to secure 55

seats in the House of Representatives and it currently still has 25 seats in the Senate

as well. The NSW Branch of the ALP like its federal counterpart is also in opposition

after the 2011 election which saw Labor only managing to hold on to 21 seats in the

Legislative Assembly and it currently has 14 seats in the Legislative Council

Major issues facing the Labor Party

If I was to choose between the major parties in the ALP or the LNP collation I would

choose neither of them, both major parties have major unpopular drawbacks in their

policies. For Labor, we will focus on the economy. Labor is a social democratic party

therefore it wishes to distribute wealth among citizens, however it is the way in

which Labor is applying socialism that may have been a factor in the 2013 election

loss. Labor had installed several socialist measures such as National Disability

Insurance Scheme hoping these schemes would work as catalyst in the economy to

generate more tax to fund the scheme which it installed in the first place. However

the risks which Labor have taken have not yielded results meaning it left a $257

billion gross debt when it lost power in 2013. Furthermore, Labor in attempt to payfor these debts resorted to creating unpopular taxes such as the Mining and Carbon

Taxes as well as creating unpopular taxes Labor shelved some of its election

promises such as the 2650 promised trades training centres promised at the 2007

Election. Although these economic woes might have happened some time ago

however it leaves the reputation of Labors ability to govern the economy in tatters.

Despite the Liberals losing ground in the in the two party preferred section, Labor

still has a long way to go before the Australian public can trust Labor with the

economy.


5/6

Australian Greens

History

A national Getting Together conference was held in 1986 in the University of Sydney

at which 500 green activists from various environmental groups around Australia inorder to unite and form a green-based political party. However things didnt run

smoothly, a lack of unity and diverse interests resulted in the derailment of plans for

unification. In 1992, these differences were overcome as the greens from New South

Wales, Queensland and Tasmania agreed to merge their state based organisations

into a single national organisation: the Australian Greens party. These states were

soon followed by the remaining states and as observed today, the federal greens

party confederation includes the greens from all states and territory.

Core beliefs and ideology

The Greens ideology revolves around 4 pillars:

o Ecological Sustainability- taking good care of the Earth to preserve for the

future

o Grassroots participatory democracy- all the Greens campaigns are run by

thousands of ordinary people volunteering their time, skills and support

which interact with the community inside of exclusive executives in offices

o Social Justice- the greens believe that social problems such as crime,

discrimination, disease and poverty can be eliminated by reducing extreme

inequality in Australia

o Peace and non-violence- the greens believe that Australias foreign policy

should be based on dialogue, diplomacy and cooperation, not aggression as

they believe that violence simply does not solve problems

Current platform

The Greens party platform are policies which a based around its core beliefs. The

Greens aim to address each of their beliefs through different policies, some of which

are listed below:

Minimise animal cruelty

Zero waste goal

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Make polluters pay

No tax cuts for the rich

Zero-carbon industriesSustainable development

Support the CSIRO

Current Member

Adam Brandt

Adam Paul Brandt is the member for Melbourne in the House of Representatives and

is also the deputy leader of the Greens. Adam Brandt was born in Adelaide, South

Australia and his family moved to Perth, Western Australia where he attended high

school and university, before moving to Melbourne. In the federal election in 2010

Brandt received 36.2% of the primary vote and won the seat of Melbourne for the


6/6

Australian Greens. In the 2013 election Brandt retained his seat and became the only

representative for the Greens in the lower house.

Greens in Federal and State parliament

The Australian Greens Party only managed to take 1 seat in the 2013 election but it

still has 10 senators still in service. The State greens also have one seat in the

legislative assembly but have 5 senators in the legislative council.

Issues facing the greens

The Greens had the worst election imaginable in 2013; they lost almost 450,000

voters from all over Australia. There are many factors for these poor results one of

them may be because of the resignation of Dr Bob Brown who was leader for 12

years. Another more relatable issue is the forceful nature by which they forced the

introduction of the Carbon tax by the ALP in return for agreeing to support Labor in

what was a hung parliament. Many workers and citizens did not like the economical

consequences of the Carbon Tax thus many pointed the finger at the Greens.

Although the Carbon tax is now repealed the attitudes towards the Greens certainly

has not repeal and the Greens too face a difficult journey in terms of bouncing back

Documents

Political Parties in Australias