The Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division), branded as Liberal Victoria, and commonly known as the Victorian Liberals, is the state division of the
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Aus ...
in
Victoria. It was formed in 1949 as the Liberal and Country Party (LCP), and simplified its name to the Liberal Party in 1965.
There was a previous Victorian division of the Liberal Party when the Liberal Party was formed in 1945, but it ceased to exist and merged to form the LCP in March 1949.
History
Background
Robert Menzies
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, who was the
Prime Minister of Australia between 1939 and 1941, founded the Liberal Party during a conference held in Canberra in October 1944, uniting many non-Labor political organisations, including the
United Australia Party (UAP) and the
Australian Women's National League (AWNL).
The UAP was a major conservative party in Australia and last governed Victoria between May 1932 and April 1935 under
Stanley Argyle's leadership. Argyle lost premiership when the UAP's
coalition partner
United Country Party led by
Albert Dunstan broke off the coalition and formed a minority government with
Labor's support. After Argyle's death in late 1941,
Thomas Hollway became the leader of the UAP in Victoria. During his time as UAP leader, he was the
Deputy Premier
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
in the Dunstan coalition government since September 1943.
The AWNL was a conservative women's organisation founded and originally based in Victoria, but had expanded across Australia since
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. Its leaders included Dame
Elizabeth Couchman and future senator
Ivy Wedgwood, both of whom were from Victoria. During the October 1944 conference, the AWNL was recognised by Menzies as one of the long-standing non-Labor organisations in Victoria.
The Liberal Party in Victoria was established between December 1944 and January 1945, with the names of the provisional state executive revealed on 29 December 1944 and the first meeting held a week later on 5 January 1945. The state executive included AWNL's leaders Couchman and Wedgwood. The AWNL joined the Liberal Party on 30 January 1945. The UAP and its parliamentary members (including Hollway) joined the Liberal Party on 5 March 1945, with the state parliamentary UAP becoming the state parliamentary Liberal Party. As a result, Hollway became the first parliamentary leader of the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party.
Old Liberal Party Victorian Division
On 2 October 1945, deputy Liberal Party leader
Ian Macfarlan
Ian Macfarlan (born John Robert Macfarlan; 21 November 1881 – 19 March 1964) was the Deputy Leader of the Australian Liberal Party in the Australian state of Victoria during 1945. He was briefly commissioned as the 35th Premier of Vict ...
was commissioned by the
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Sir
Winston Dugan
Major General Winston Joseph Dugan, 1st Baron Dugan of Victoria, (3 September 1876 – 17 August 1951), known as Sir Winston Dugan between 1934 and 1949, was a British administrator and a career British Army officer. He served as Governor of S ...
to form government, when it was clear that the
Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne.
The presidin ...
would not grant supply to the Dunstan government. The Liberals were defeated in the
election a month later, which was won by Labor.
By the
1947 Victorian state election
The 1947 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday 8 November 1947 to elect 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.
Results
Legislative Assembly
See also
* Candidates of the 1947 Victor ...
, the Liberals were again in
coalition with the Country Party (renamed from United Country Party) and contested the election together. The coalition won the election and governed Victoria as majority government from 20 November 1947 to 3 December 1948, with Liberal leader Hollway as
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of govern ...
and Country leader
John McDonald as
Deputy Premier
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
.
Liberal and Country Party
Formation
During a series of transport strikes in 1948, the moderate Hollway had dealt amicably with the transport unions and the Trades Hall Council, and McDonald heavily criticised his conciliatory approach to the conservative parties' traditional enemies. Hollway forced McDonald to resign as deputy.
Wilfrid Kent Hughes, deputy leader of Liberal Party, was appointed as Deputy Premier.
In February 1949, the Liberal Party planned to form a new Liberal and Country Party (LCP), with metropolitan-country interests proposed to be represented on a 50-50 basis. Hollway hoped this would unite the two "anti-socialist" parties of Liberal Party and Country Party together, an idea supported by Liberal Party and Country Party voters. A merger of the Liberal and Country parties had already happened in South Australia with the formation of the
Liberal and Country League in 1932. The Liberal Party conference on 22 February 1949 endorsed the idea of a merger. However, the idea was reputed by the Country Party and argued it was a takeover attempt of the Country Party, and to eliminate the Country Party from Victorian politics entirely.
On 22 March 1949, the Victorian Liberal Party ceased to exist and formed the Liberal and Country Party (LCP) with six Country MPs.
[Costar, B. J.]
'McDonald, Sir John Gladstone Black (Jack) (1898–1977)'
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 22 February 2012.[ Hollway was chosen as leader of the new party and continued to be Premier. Hughes also continued to be deputy leader of the new party and Deputy Premier. The six former Country MPs were eligible for Cabinet positions in the new LCP government, but turned them down since "the present cabinet had prepared legislation for the new parliamentary session" and "should carry on with it". As such, the incumbent cabinet composition was unchanged. The LCP succeeded the old Victorian Liberal Party to be the Victorian division of the Liberal Party of Australia, and federal members endorsed by the LCP sat with the Liberals in Canberra and belong in the federal parliamentary Liberal Party.
Future Prime Minister John Gorton was one of those appointed to the state executive of the LCP.][ He used to support the Country Party since before the war, but became frustrated with the party's squabbles with the Liberal Party and willingness to co-opoerate with the Labor Party. While being part of the LCP state executive, he had addressed Country Party gatherings in a few occasions, urging its members to join the new party and stressing that it would not neglect rural interests, as many feared. However, the Country Party were not convinced and never joined the new party.
The LCP, Country Party and Labor Party contested against one another in the 1949 Legislative Council election in June. ]John Lienhop
Sir John Herman (Henry) Lienhop (3 February 1886 – 27 April 1967) was an Australian politician and grazier. He was the member of the Victorian Legislative Council for Bendigo Province from June 1937 to February 1951.
Lienhop was born in Kang ...
, who was a member of the Bendigo Province and previously elected as a Country Party member, contested the electorate as an LCP member and managed to retain the seat.
Despite their differences, the LCP and Country Party agreed to endorse the same candidates for 10 seats in Victoria for the 1949 federal election in December, minimising three-cornered contests. The federal Liberal/Country coalition
The Liberal–National Coalition, commonly known simply as "the Coalition" or informally as the LNP, is an alliance of centre-right political parties that forms one of the two major groupings in Australian federal politics. The two partners in ...
led by Robert Menzies
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
won the election, winning 20 out of the 33 lower house seats in Victoria.
Loss of government
The LCP continued to govern Victoria independently as a minority government until 27 June 1950, when the Victorian Labor agreed to support a minority Country Party government led by McDonald.
In December 1951, Hollway and his deputy Trevor Oldham were replaced by Les Norman and Henry Bolte
Sir Henry Edward Bolte GCMG (20 May 1908 – 4 January 1990) was an Australian politician who served as the 38th Premier of Victoria. To date he is the longest-serving Victorian premier, having been in office for over 17 consecutive years.
...
as party leader and deputy leader respectively. In September 1952, Hollway and 7 LCP members were expelled from the LCP after a dispute over electoral reform issues. In October, Labor Party moved to defeat the McDonald government by working with two of Hollway's supporters in the Victorian Legislative Council to block supply in the upper house. Hollway was commissioned by Governor Sir Dallas Brooks to form a minority government with the 7 former LCP members, known as the Electoral Reform League, with the backing of the Labor Party on confidence and supply. However, 70 hours later, Brooks forced Hollway to resign and recommissioned McDonald as Premier.
At the state election two months later in December 1952, Hollway contested Norman's seat of Glen Iris and won. Neither Country Party, LCP nor the Electoral Reform League won enough seats to form government. With Norman losing his seat, Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, w ...
was elected as leader and Bolte remained the deputy leader. Oldham and his wife died in a plane crash in India on 2 May 1953, on their way to England to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
The coronation of Elizabeth II took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. She acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed queen by her privy and execu ...
, and Bolte succeeded him as LCP leader.
In 1954, Hollway and his supporters formed the Victorian Liberal Party
The Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division), branded as Liberal Victoria, and commonly known as the Victorian Liberals, is the state division of the Liberal Party of Australia in Victoria. It was formed in 1949 as the Liberal and Coun ...
, replacing the Electoral Reform League. Despite the name, it was a separate party to the LCP or the Liberal Party.
Following the Australian Labor Party split of 1955 that led to the weakening of the governing Victorian Labor, the LCP led by Bolte won the 1955 Victorian state election and formed government for the next 27 years independently without a coalition with the Country Party. All members of Hollway's Victorian Liberal Party including Hollway lost all their seats in this election, and the party ceased to exist.
Liberal Party
Change of name to Liberal Party
As one of the conditions of the Country Party supporting the government's supply bill in the Legislative Council on 27 October 1964, the 'and Country' was to be dropped from the name of the Liberal and Country Party. During the party's State Council in March 1965, the party debated for more than an hour on its party name. It was revealed through a letter from Menzies that he did not like the "Liberal and Country Party" name because "liberalism catered for people in the city and in the country".[ With the letter, Bolte managed to persuade the party to support the motion of change of name back to the original name of Liberal Party.
]Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Fraser was raised on hi ...
, the Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
between 1975 and 1983, is to date the last Liberal Prime Minister from Victoria. His immediate successor Andrew Peacock, who served from 1983 to 1985, and again from 1989 to 1990, is the most recent Victorian federal Liberal leader.
The Liberal Party continued to hold government in the Victorian state parliament until 1982 under the leaderships of Bolte, Rupert Hamer and Lindsay Thompson.
Opposition (1982–1992)
The Liberals were defeated in the 1982 Victorian state election after governing Victoria for 27 years. Following the Liberals' defeat, Jeff Kennett
Jeffrey Gibb Kennett (born 2 March 1948) is a former Australian politician who was the 43rd Premier of Victoria between 1992 and 1999, and currently a media commentator. He was previously the president of the Hawthorn Football Club, servi ...
became the leader of the party. Kennett was deposed as leader following the 1988 Victorian state election, and was replaced by Alan Brown. During Brown's leadership, the Liberals reached a new Coalition agreement with the Victorian Nationals, led by Pat McNamara since 1988.
Kennett became party leader again in 1991 and led the Coalition to victory in the 1992 Victorian state election. The Liberals actually won majorities in their own right. Although Kennett thus had no need for the support of the Nationals, he retained the Coalition, with McNamara as Deputy Premier.
Kennett government
The Liberal and National Coalition held government from 1992 to 1999 under Kennett's leadership. The Kennett government privatised many government services, including closing down over three hundred schools. The Liberals and Nationals fought as a Coalition in the 1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...
, which the LIberals won majority in its own right again, and 1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...
, which the Coalition was defeated.
Opposition (1999–2010)
McNamara's successor as Nationals leader, Peter Ryan, ended the Coalition agreement. Since then, Liberals and Nationals had a strained relationship. Ryan uttered several sharp criticisms of the Liberals' most prominent figures, particularly their no-tolls policy on the Melbourne Eastlink freeway and on former leader Robert Doyle's remarks that the Liberals were twenty seats from government, a statement that assumed that the Nationals would support a Liberal government. Relations soured further at the beginning of 2006 when Victorian Senator Julian McGauran defected from the Nationals to the Liberals.
The Liberal Party was the sole opposition party in Victoria until 2008, when Liberals under Ted Baillieu formed a new Coalition agreement with the Nationals.
Baillieu & Napthine governments
After the 2010 Victorian state election
The 2010 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 27 November 2010, was for the 57th Parliament of Victoria. The election was to elect all 88 members of the Legislative Assembly and all 40 members of the Legislative Council. The incumbent ce ...
, the Liberal and National Coalition held government under Baillieu's leadership. On 7 March 2013 Baillieu resigned from his position of Premier of Victoria and he was replaced by Denis Napthine. Napthine led the Coalition to a defeat in the 2014 Victorian state election
The 2014 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 29 November 2014, was for the 58th Parliament of Victoria. All 88 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly and 40 seats in the Victorian Legislative Council were up for election. The incum ...
.
Opposition and shift further to the right (since 2014)
After the 2014 election, Matthew Guy
Matthew Jason Guy (born 6 March 1974) is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party of Australia Member of the Parliament of Victoria since 2006, representing Northern Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council (2006–2014) an ...
was elected leader. The Coalition arrangement was maintained while the Liberals and Nationals were in opposition. The coalition lost the 2018 election
The following elections are scheduled to occur in 2018. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world.
Africa
*2018 Djiboutian parliamentary election 23 February 2018
*2018 Sierra Leonean general elect ...
and suffered a significant swing against it, leading to the resignation of Guy as leader of the Liberal Party. He was replaced by Michael O'Brien Michael or Mike O'Brien may refer to:
Politicians
* Michael O'Brien (Fianna Fáil politician), Irish former councillor and mayor of Clonmel
* Michael O'Brien (Ohio politician) (born 1955), American politician in the state of Ohio
* Michael O'Brien ...
as party leader.
Branch stacking allegations in the party had been linked to conservative powerbroker Marcus Bastiaan since 2016. In late August 2020, his activities in branch stacking were revealed by Nine/The Age, which included directing taxpayer-funded electorate staff working for federal MP Kevin Andrews to be involved with party activities such as recruitment of party members, which is illegal by federal or state law, recruiting members to the party by paying for their membership, and adding party members to seats under fake residential addresses. Bastiaan's activities were allegedly endorsed by Michael Sukkar, another conservative federal MP who was a minister within the Morrison ministry. Just a week earlier, internal audit by the party found some members breached party rules by paying for other people's membership fees.
On 6 September 2021, a few Liberal MPs including Guy resigned from O'Brien's shadow cabinet or from parliamentary party positions. O'Brien refused to step down as party leader as "he believed he had the support of the majority of MPs" ahead of a possible leadership challenge. The following day, Guy replaced O'Brien as party leader in a leadership spill. Cindy McLeish was replaced by David Southwick as deputy party leader.
According to ''The Age'', between November 2018 and November 2021, the Coalition's Legislative Council members voted with the Andrews Government's position 28.9% of the time; of the parties in the Legislative Council, only the Liberal Democratic Party had a lower figure (22.1%).
Victorian Liberal leaders
Victorian Liberal deputy leaders
Senior Figures
State presidents of the Victorian Liberal Party
1945–1948: William Anderson
1948–1949: Magnus Cormack
1949–1950: Dan Mackinnon
Ewen Daniel Mackinnon (11 February 1903 – 7 June 1983) was an Australian politician. The son of state MLA Donald Mackinnon, he was born in Melbourne and educated at Geelong Grammar School and then attended Oxford University. He returned to ...
1950–1952: William Anderson
1952–1956: John Anderson
1956–1959: Rutherford Guthrie
Sir Rutherford Campbell Guthrie (28 November 1899 – 20 February 1990) was an Australian politician.
He was born in Donald to grazier Thomas Oliver Guthrie, brother of Senator James Guthrie, and Jenny Hannah. He attended Melbourne Gramm ...
1959–1962: John Buchan
1962–1965: William Snell
1965–1966: Andrew Peacock
1966–1970: Robert Southey
1970–1973: Phillip Russell
1973–1976: Peter Hardie
1976–1979: Joy Mein
1979–1982: Richard Alston
1982–1984: Stewart McArthur
1984–1987: Eda Ritchie
1987–1992: Michael Kroger
1992–1998: Ted Baillieu
1997–2000: Joy Howley
2000–2003: Ian Carson
2003–2006: Helen Kroger
2006–2007: Russell Hannan
2007–2011: David Kemp
2011–2015: Tony Snell
2015–2018: Michael Kroger
2019–2022: Robert Clark
2022-Current: Greg Mirabella
Gregory Francis Mirabella (born 5 July 1960) is an Australian politician and farmer who was a Senator for Victoria from December 2021 to June 2022, representing the Liberal Party. He is the husband of former federal MP Sophie Mirabella. His ter ...
State Directors of the Victorian Liberal Party
1945–1971: J V McConnell
1971–1974: Leo Hawkins
1975–1976: Timothy Pascoe
1976–1977: Graham Jennings
1977–1983: Neville Hughes
1984–1987: John Ridley
1987–1988: David Kemp
1989–1994: Petro Georgiou
1994–2000: Peter Poggioli
2000–2003: Brian Loughnane
2003–2008: Julian Sheezel
2008–2011: Tony Nutt
2011–2015: Damien Mantach
Damien Mantach is a former Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Vic ...
2015–2017: Simon Frost
2017–2019: Nick Demiris
2019–present: Sam McQuestin
Election results
Liberal Party (1945–1949)
Liberal and Country Party (1949–1965) & Liberal Party (since 1965)
Federal Elections
See also
* National Party of Australia – Victoria
The National Party of Australia – Victoria is a political party in Victoria, which forms the state branch of the federal Nationals. Historically, it represented graziers, farmers and rural voters. However, the modern National Party no longer ...
References
Notes
Citations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liberal Party Of Australia (Victoria)
Parliament of Victoria
Victoria
Political parties in Victoria (Australia)