The National Party of Australia, also known as The Nationals or The Nats, is an
Australian political party
The politics of Australia has a mild two-party system, with two dominant political groupings in the Australian political system, the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal/National Coalition. Federally, 16 of the 151 members of the lower house ( ...
. Traditionally representing graziers, farmers, and regional voters generally, it began as the Australian Country Party in 1920 at a
federal level
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
.
In 1975 it adopted the name National Country Party, before taking its current name in 1982. A
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
and
agrarian party, the Nationals combine
social conservatism
Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institutio ...
with
agrarian socialist
Agrarian socialism is a political ideology that promotes “the equal distribution of landed resources among collectivized peasant villages” This socialist system places agriculture at the center of the economy instead of the industrialization ...
economic policies. Ensuring support for farmers, either through government grants and subsidies or through community appeals, is a major focus of National Party policy. The process for obtaining these funds has come into question in recent years, such as during the
Sports Rorts Affair
The "sports rorts" affair was the name by which Australian media and political commentators came to refer to events during the second Keating ministry in late 1993 and early 1994, where the then Sports Minister, Ros Kelly, was unable to appropriat ...
. According to
Ian McAllister
Sir Ian Gerald McAllister (born 17 August 1943) is a Scottish businessman. Formerly Chairman of Ford Motor Company UK, he was Chairman of Network Rail from 2002 to 2009.
Biography
McAllister was born in Glasgow to Ian Thomas and Margaret Mar ...
, the Nationals are the only remaining party from the "wave of agrarian socialist parties set up around the Western world in the 1920s".
Federally and to various extents in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, the Nationals have been the minor party in
centre-right
Centre-right politics lean to the Right-wing politics, right of the Left–right politics, political spectrum, but are closer to the Centrism, centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure a ...
Coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
governments with the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
; its leader has usually served as
Deputy Prime Minister
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 Opposition the Coalition was usually maintained, but even otherwise the party still generally continued to work in co-operation with the Liberals (as had their predecessors the
Nationalist Party and
United Australia Party
The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...
). Due to the closeness and integration of the two parties, as well as the declining vote of the Nationals in recent years, it has been proposed several times that
the Liberals and the Nationals formally merge. In Queensland, for instance, the Country Party (later National Party) was the senior coalition party between 1925 and 2008, after which it merged with the junior Liberal Party to form the
Liberal National Party of Queensland
The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) is a major political party in Queensland, Australia. It was formed in 2008 by a merger of the Queensland divisions of the Liberal Party and the National Party. At a federal level and in most other ...
.
The current leader of the National Party is
David Littleproud
David Kelly Littleproud (born 4 September 1976) is an Australian politician who has been the leader of the National Party since May 2022. He has represented the Queensland seat of Maranoa since the 2016 federal election and was a cabinet mini ...
, representing the Queensland electorate of
Maranoa. He replaced
Barnaby Joyce
Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce (born 17 April 1967) is an Australian politician who served as the 17th deputy prime minister of Australia under Malcolm Turnbull from 2016 to 2018 and under Scott Morrison from 2021 to 2022. He was the leader of the ...
following a leadership spill in May 2022, after the Coalition's defeat in the
2022 federal election. The party's deputy leader is
Perin Davey
Perin McGregor Davey (born 5 February 1972) is an Australian politician who was elected as a Senator for New South Wales at the 2019 Australian federal election. She is a member of the National Party and is its Senate whip. On 30 May 2022, Da ...
, Senator for New South Wales.
History
![Sir_John_McEwen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Sir_John_McEwen.jpg)
The Country Party was formally founded in 1913 in Western Australia, and nationally in 1920, from a number of state-based parties such as the
Victorian Farmers' Union
The Victorian Farmers' Union (VFU) was an association of farmers and primary producers formed in 1914 in the Australian state of Victoria. Although initially formed as an "absolutely non-political" entity, the VFU became a political party in 1916 ...
(VFU) and the
Farmers and Settlers Party
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...
of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
.
[Aitkin, (1972); Graham, (1959)] Australia's first Country Party was founded in 1912 by
Harry J. Stephens
Harry James Stephens (c. 1866 – 25 August 1947) was an Australian journalist with a long career, mostly in Victoria and New South Wales agricultural districts. He was with '' The Farmer & Settler'' of Sydney for fourteen years and while editing ...
, editor of ''
The Farmer & Settler
''The Farmer & Settler'', later published as ''The Farmer & Settler and Livestock Breeders Journal'', was an English-language broadsheet newspaper published in Sydney, Australia between 1906 and 1957. It was primarily published weekly.
Histor ...
'', but, under fierce opposition from rival newspapers, failed to gain momentum.
The VFU won a seat in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
at the
Corangamite by-election held in December 1918, with the help of the newly introduced
preferential voting {{short description, Election systems
Preferential voting or preference voting (PV) may refer to different election systems or groups of election systems:
* Ranked voting methods, all election methods that involve ranking candidates in order of pr ...
system.
At the
1919 federal election the state-based Country Parties won federal seats in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. They also began to win seats in state parliaments. In 1920 the Country Party was established as a national party led by
William McWilliams
William James McWilliams (12 October 1856 – 22 October 1929) was an Australian politician who served as the inaugural leader of the Country Party, in office from 1920 to 1921. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1903 to 192 ...
from Tasmania. In his first speech as leader, McWilliams laid out the principles of the new party, stating "we crave no alliance, we spurn no support but we intend drastic action to secure closer attention to the needs of primary producers"
[Neilson, W. (1986) 'McWilliams, William James (1856–1929)', ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.] McWilliams was deposed as party leader in favour of
Earle Page
Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page (8 August 188020 December 1961) was an Australian surgeon and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, holding office for 19 days after the death of Joseph Lyons in 1939. He was the leade ...
in April 1921, following instances where McWilliams voted against the party line. McWilliams later left the Country Party to sit as an Independent.
According to historian B. D. Graham (1959), the graziers who operated the sheep stations were politically conservative. They disliked the Labor Party, which represented their workers, and feared that Labor governments would pass unfavorable legislation and listen to foreigners and communists. The graziers were satisfied with the marketing organisation of their industry, opposed any change in land tenure and labour relations, and advocated lower tariffs, low freight rates, and low taxes. On the other hand, Graham reports, the small farmers, not the graziers, founded the Country party. The farmers advocated government intervention in the market through price support schemes and marketing pools. The graziers often politically and financially supported the Country party, which in turn made the Country party more conservative.
The Country Party's first election as a united party, in
1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...
, saw it in an unexpected position of power. It won enough seats to deny the Nationalists an overall majority. It soon became apparent that the price for Country support would be a full-fledged coalition with the Nationalists. However, Page let it be known that his party would not serve under Hughes, and forced his resignation. Page then entered negotiations with the Nationalists' new leader,
Stanley Bruce
Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, (15 April 1883 – 25 August 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Australia from 1923 to 1929, as leader of the Nationalist Party.
Born ...
, for a coalition government. Page wanted five seats for his Country Party in a Cabinet of 11, including the
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury o ...
portfolio and the second rank in the ministry for himself. These terms were unusually stiff for a prospective junior coalition partner in a Westminster system, and especially so for such a new party. Nonetheless, with no other politically realistic coalition partner available, Bruce readily agreed, and the "Bruce-Page Ministry" was formed. This began the tradition of the Country Party leader ranking second in Coalition cabinets.
Page remained dominant in the party until 1939, and briefly served as caretaker Prime Minister between the death of
Joseph Lyons
Joseph Aloysius Lyons (15 September 1879 – 7 April 1939) was an Australian politician who served as the List of prime ministers of Australia by time in office, 10th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1932 until his death in 1939. He ...
and the election of
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 ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...
as his successor. However, Page gave up the leadership rather than serve under Menzies. The coalition was re-formed under
Archie Cameron
Archie Galbraith Cameron (22 March 18959 August 1956) was an Australian politician. He was a government minister under Joseph Lyons and Robert Menzies, leader of the Country Party from 1939 to 1940, and finally Speaker of the House of Represen ...
in 1940, and continued until October 1941 despite the election of
Arthur Fadden
Sir Arthur William Fadden, (13 April 189421 April 1973) was an Australian politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Australia from 29 August to 7 October 1941. He was the leader of the Country Party from 1940 to 1958 and also served ...
as leader after the 1940 election. Fadden was well regarded within conservative circles and proved to be a loyal deputy to Menzies in the difficult circumstances of 1941. When Menzies was forced to resign as Prime Minister, the UAP was so bereft of leadership that Fadden briefly succeeded him (despite the Country Party being the junior partner in the governing coalition). However, the two independents who had been propping up the government rejected Fadden's budget and brought the government down.
[Davey (2006)] Fadden stood down in favour of Labor leader
John Curtin
John Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945) was an Australian politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Australia from 1941 until his death in 1945. He led the country for the majority of World War II, including all but the last few ...
.
The Fadden-led Coalition made almost no headway against Curtin, and was severely defeated in the
1943 election. After that loss, Fadden became deputy Leader of the Opposition under Menzies, a role that continued after Menzies folded the UAP into 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 Au ...
in 1944. Fadden remained a loyal partner of Menzies, though he was still keen to assert the independence of his party. Indeed, in the lead up to the
1949 federal election, Fadden played a key role in the defeat of the Chifley Labor government, frequently making inflammatory claims about the "socialist" nature of the Labor Party, which Menzies could then "clarify" or repudiate as he saw fit, thus appearing more "moderate". In 1949, Fadden became Treasurer in the second Menzies government and remained so until his retirement in 1958. His successful partnership with Menzies was one of the elements that sustained the coalition, which remained in office until 1972 (Menzies himself retired in 1966).
![John_McEwen_Swearing_In](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/John_McEwen_Swearing_In.jpg)
Fadden's successor,
Trade Minister John McEwen
Sir John McEwen, (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980) was an Australian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia, holding office from 1967 to 1968 in a caretaker capacity after the disappearance of Harold Holt. He was the ...
, took the then unusual step of declining to serve as Treasurer, believing he could better ensure that the interests of Australian primary producers were safeguarded. Accordingly, McEwen personally supervised the signing of the first post-war trade treaty with Japan, new trade agreements with New Zealand and Britain, and Australia's first trade agreement with the USSR (1965). In addition to this, he insisted on developing an all-encompassing system of tariff protection that would encourage the development of those secondary industries that would "value add" Australia's primary produce. His success in this endeavour is sometimes dubbed "McEwenism". This was the period of the Country Party's greatest power, as was demonstrated in 1962 when McEwen was able to insist that Menzies sack a Liberal Minister who claimed that Britain's entry into the
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
was unlikely to severely impact the Australian economy as a whole.
![Gorton Reshuffle February 1971 (1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Gorton_Reshuffle_February_1971_%281%29.jpg)
Menzies retired in 1966 and was succeeded by
Harold Holt
Harold Edward Holt (5 August 190817 December 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party.
Holt was born in S ...
. McEwen thus became the longest-tenured member of the government, with the informal right to veto government policy. The most significant instance in which McEwen exercised this right came when Holt disappeared in December 1967.
John Gorton
Sir John Grey Gorton (9 September 1911 – 19 May 2002) was an Australian politician who served as the nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1968 to 1971. He led the Liberal Party during that time, having previously been a l ...
became the new Liberal Prime Minister in January 1968. McEwen was sworn in as interim Prime Minister pending the election of the new Liberal leader. Logically, the Liberals' deputy leader,
William McMahon
Sir William McMahon (23 February 190831 March 1988) was an Australian politician who served as the 20th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1971 to 1972 as leader of the Liberal Party. He was a government minister for over 21 years, t ...
, should have succeeded Holt. However, McMahon was a staunch free-trader, and there were also rumors that he was homosexual. As a result, McEwen told the Liberals that he and his party would not serve under McMahon. McMahon stood down in favour of
John Gorton
Sir John Grey Gorton (9 September 1911 – 19 May 2002) was an Australian politician who served as the nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1968 to 1971. He led the Liberal Party during that time, having previously been a l ...
. It was only after McEwen announced his retirement that MacMahon was able to successfully challenge Gorton for the Liberal leadership. McEwen's reputation for political toughness led to him being nicknamed "Black Jack" by his allies and enemies alike.
At the state level, from 1957 to 1989, the Country Party under
Frank Nicklin
Sir George Francis Reuben Nicklin, (6 August 1895 – 29 January 1978) was an Australian politician. He was the Premier of Queensland from 1957 to 1968, the first non-Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch), Labor Party premier since 1932. and
Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (13 January 191123 April 2005), known as Joh Bjelke-Petersen, was a conservative Australian politician. He was the longest-serving and longest-lived premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987, during ...
dominated governments in
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
—for the last six of those years ruling in its own right, without the Liberals. This was due to the
bjelkemander
The Bjelkemander was the term given to a system of malapportionment in the Australian state of Queensland in the 1970s and 1980s. Under the system, electorates were allocated to zones such as rural or metropolitan and electoral boundaries drawn ...
, a
malapportionment
Apportionment is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to representation. This page presents the general principles and issues related to apportionmen ...
in electorates which gave rural voters twice the voting power compared to voters within the city. It also took part in governments in New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia.
However, successive electoral redistributions after 1964 indicated that the Country Party was losing ground electorally to the Liberals as the rural population declined, and the nature of some parliamentary seats on the urban/rural fringe changed. A proposed merger with the
Democratic Labor Party (DLP) under the banner of
"National Alliance" was rejected when it failed to find favour with voters at the
1974 state election.
Also in 1974, the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
members of the party joined with its Liberal party members to form the independent
Country Liberal Party
The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP) is a centre-right political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In local politics it operates in a two-party system with the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It also contests federal ...
. This party continues to represent both parent parties in that territory. A separate party, the Joh-inspired NT Nationals, competed in the 1987 election with former Chief Minister
Ian Tuxworth
Ian Lindsay Tuxworth (18 June 1942 – 21 January 2020) was an Australian politician, who was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory of Australia from 17 October 1984 until his resignation on 10 May 1986.
Early life
Tuxworth was born on 18 Ju ...
winning his seat of
Barkly by a small margin. However, this splinter group was not endorsed by the national executive and soon disappeared from the political scene.
National Country Party and National Party
The National Party was confronted by the impact of demographic shifts from the 1970s: between 1971 and 1996, the population of Sydney and surrounds grew by 34%, with even larger growth in coastal New South Wales, while more remote rural areas grew by a mere 13%, further diminishing the National Party's base.
On 2 May 1975 at the federal convention in Canberra, the Country Party changed its name to the National Country Party of Australia as part of a strategy to expand into urban areas. This had some success in Queensland under
Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (13 January 191123 April 2005), known as Joh Bjelke-Petersen, was a conservative Australian politician. He was the longest-serving and longest-lived premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987, during ...
, but nowhere else. The party briefly walked out of the coalition agreement in Western Australia in May 1975, returning within the month. However, the party split in two over the decision and other factors in late 1978, with a new National Party forming and becoming independent, holding three seats in the Western Australian lower house, while the National Country Party remained in coalition and also held three seats. They reconciled after the Burke Labor government came to power in 1983.
The 1980s were dominated by the feud between Bjelke-Petersen and the federal party leadership. Bjelke-Petersen briefly triumphed in 1987, forcing the Nationals to tear up the Coalition agreement and support his bid to become Prime Minister. The "
Joh for Canberra
The Joh for Canberra campaign, initially known as the Joh for PM campaign, was an attempt by Queensland National Party of Australia, National Party premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen to become Prime Minister of Australia. The campaign was announced ...
" campaign backfired spectacularly when a large number of three-cornered contests allowed Labor to win a third term under
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and union organiser who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (A ...
; however, in 1987 the National Party won a bump in votes and recorded its highest vote in more than four decades, but it also recorded a new low in the proportion of seats won. The collapse of Joh for Canberra also proved to be the Queensland Nationals' last hurrah; Bjelke-Petersen was forced into retirement a few months after the federal election, and his party was heavily defeated in 1989. The federal National Party were badly defeated at the
1990 election, with leader
Charles Blunt
Charles William Blunt (born 19 January 1951) is a former Australian politician who served as leader of the National Party of Australia from 1989 to 1990.
Early life
Blunt was born in Sydney and graduated from the University of Sydney with a de ...
one of five MPs to lose his seat.
Blunt's successor as leader,
Tim Fischer
Timothy Andrew Fischer (3 May 1946 – 22 August 2019) was an Australian politician and diplomat who served as leader of the National Party from 1990 to 1999. He was Deputy Prime Minister in the Howard Government from 1996 to 1999.
Fischer ...
, recovered two seats at the
1993 election, but lost an additional 1.2% of the vote from its 1990 result. In 1996, as the Coalition won a significant victory over the
Keating Labor government, the National Party recovered another two seats, and Fischer became Deputy Prime Minister under
John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...
.
The Nationals experienced difficulties in the late 1990s from two fronts – firstly from the Liberal Party, who were winning seats on the basis that the Nationals were not seen to be a sufficiently separate party, and from the
One Nation Party
Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON or ONP), also known as One Nation or One Nation Party, is a right-wing populist political party in Australia. It is led by Pauline Hanson.
One Nation had electoral success in the late 1990s, before suffering ...
riding a swell of rural discontent with many of the policies such as
multiculturalism
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
and
gun control
Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.
Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...
embraced by all of the major parties. The rise of Labor in formerly safe National-held areas in rural Queensland, particularly on the coast, has been the biggest threat to the Queensland Nationals.
At the 1998 Federal election, the National Party recorded only 5.3% of the vote in the House of Representatives, its lowest ever, and won only 16 seats, at 10.8% its second lowest proportion of seats.
The National Party under Fischer and his successor, John Anderson, rarely engaged in public disagreements with the Liberal Party, which weakened the party's ability to present a separate image to rural and regional Australia. In 2001 the National Party recorded its second-worst result at 5.6% winning 13 seats, and its third lowest at 5.9% at the 2004 election, winning only 12 seats.
Australian
psephologist Antony Green
Antony John Green (born 2 March 1960) is an Australian psephologist and commentator. He is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's chief election analyst.
Early years and background
Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in northern England, Gree ...
argues that two important trends have driven the National Party's decline at a federal level: "the importance of the rural sector to the health of the nation's economy" and "the growing chasm between the values and attitudes of rural and urban Australia". Green has suggested that the result has been that "Both have resulted in rural and regional voters demanding more of the National Party, at exactly the time when its political influence has declined. While the National Party has never been the sole representative of rural Australia, it is the only party that has attempted to paint itself as representing rural voters above all else",
In June 2005 party leader John Anderson announced that he would resign from the ministry and as Leader of the Nationals due to a benign prostate condition, he was succeeded by Mark Vaile. At the following
2007 election, the Nationals vote declined further, with the party winning a mere 5.4% of the vote and securing only 10 seats.
Vaile announced his resignation as party leader which surprised his colleagues, as he had been expected to be re-elected unopposed following the election. He had planned the party leadership to go to
Peter McGauran
Peter John McGauran (born 16 November 1955) is a former Australian politician who served as a National Party member of the Australian House of Representatives. He represented the Division of Gippsland in Victoria from 5 March 1983 to 9 April 2 ...
but the latter declined to stand.
Warren Truss
Warren Errol Truss, (born 8 October 1948) is a former Australian politician who served as the 16th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development in the Abbott Government and the Turnbull Governm ...
and
Nigel Scullion
Nigel Gregory Scullion (born 4 May 1956) is a former Australian politician who was a Australian Senate, Senator for the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2019. He was a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) and sat with the National Party of A ...
were then elected unopposed as leader and deputy leader.
In 2010, under the leadership of Truss, the party received its lowest vote to date, at only 3.4%, however they secured a slight increase in seats from 10 to 12. At the following election in 2010 the national Party's fortunes improved slightly with a vote of 4.2% and an increase in seats from 12 to 15.
At the 2016 double dissolution election, under the leadership of Barnaby Joyce the party secured 4.6% of the vote and 16 seats. In 2018, reports emerged that the National Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce was expecting a child with his former communications staffer Vikki Campion. Joyce resigned after revelations that he had been engaged in an extramarital affair. Later in the same year it was revealed that the NSW National party and its youth wing, the
Young Nationals had been infiltrated by neo-Nazis with more than 30 members being investigated for alleged links to
neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
. Leader McCormack denounced the infiltration, and several suspected neo-Nazis were expelled from the party and its youth wing.
At the
2019 Australian federal election
The 2019 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 18 May 2019 to elect members of the 46th Parliament of Australia. The election had been called following the dissolution of the 45th Parliament as elected at the 2016 double dissolut ...
, despite severe drought, perceived inaction over the plight of the Murray–Darling Basin, a poor performance in the New South Wales state election and sex scandals surrounding the member for Mallee, Andrew Broad and former party leader Barnaby Joyce, the National Party saw only a small decline in vote, down 0.10% to attain 4.51% of the primary vote.
State and territory parties
The official state and territorial party organisations (or equivalents) of the National Party are:
Political role
![Embassy of Argentina in Canberra](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Embassy_of_Argentina_in_Canberra.jpg)
The Nationals see their main role as giving a voice to Australians who live outside the country's metropolitan areas.
Traditionally, the leader of the National Party serves as
Deputy Prime Minister
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, ...
when the Coalition is in government. This tradition dates back to the creation of the office in 1968.
The National Party's support base and membership are closely associated with the agricultural community. Historically anti-union, the party has vacillated between state support for primary industries ("
agrarian socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
") and free agricultural trade and has opposed tariff protection for Australia's manufacturing and service industries. It is usually in favor of industrial development, opposing green politics.
"Countrymindedness" was a slogan that summed up the ideology of the Country Party from 1920 through the early 1970s. It was an ideology that was
physiocratic
Physiocracy (; from the Greek for "government of nature") is an economic theory developed by a group of 18th-century Age of Enlightenment French economists who believed that the wealth of nations derived solely from the value of "land agricultur ...
,
populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...
, and decentralist; it fostered rural solidarity and justified demands for government subsidies. "Countrymindedness" grew out of the failure of the country areas to participate in the rapid economic and population expansions that occurred after 1890. The growth of the ideology into urban areas came as most country people migrated to jobs in the cities. Its decline was due mainly to the reduction of real and psychological differences between country and city brought about by the postwar expansion of the Australian urban population and to the increased affluence and technological changes that accompanied it.
The Nationals vote is in decline and its traditional supporters are turning instead to prominent independents such as
Bob Katter
Robert Bellarmine Carl Katter (born 22 May 1945) is an Australian politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1993. He was previously active in Queensland state politics from 1974 to 1992. Katter was a member of the ...
,
Tony Windsor
Antony Harold Curties Windsor, (born 2 September 1950) is a former Australian politician. Windsor was an independent member for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Tamworth from 1991 to 2001 − supporting the incumbent Greiner L ...
and
Peter Andren
Peter James Andren AM (28 August 1946 – 3 November 2007) was an Australian politician. He was an independent member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1996 until October 2007, representing the electorate of Calare, New Sou ...
in
Federal Parliament
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the governor-gen ...
and similar independents in the Parliaments of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
,
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
and
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
, many of whom are former members of the National Party. In fact since the
2004 Federal election, National Party candidates have received fewer first preference votes than the
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and th ...
.
Demographic changes are not helping, with fewer people living and employed on the land or in small towns, the continued growth of the larger provincial centres, and, in some cases, the arrival of left-leaning "city refugees" in rural areas. The Liberals have also gained support as the differences between the coalition partners on a federal level have become invisible. This was highlighted in January 2006, when Nationals Senator
Julian McGauran
Julian John James McGauran (born 5 March 1957) is a former Australian politician who served as a member of the Australian Senate, representing the state of Victoria. Elected as a member of the National Party, he resigned from the Nationals and ...
defected to the Liberals, saying that there was "no longer any real distinguishing policy or philosophical difference".
In Queensland, Nationals leader
Lawrence Springborg
Lawrence James Springborg (born 17 February 1968) is an Australian politician. He led the National Party in the Queensland Parliament from 2003 to 2006 and again in 2008, before becoming the first leader of the merged Liberal National Party ...
advocated merger of the National and Liberal parties at a state level in order to present a more effective opposition to the Labor Party. Previously this plan had been dismissed by the Queensland branch of the Liberal party, but the idea received in-principle support from the Liberals. Federal leader
Mark Vaile
Mark Anthony James Vaile (born 18 April 1956) is a former deputy prime minister of Australia and former leader of the National Party of Australia. Vaile is currently a non-executive director of a number of public listed corporations.
Early li ...
stated the Nationals will not merge with the Liberal Party at a federal level. The plan was opposed by key Queensland Senators
Ron Boswell
Ronald Leslie Doyle Boswell (born 9 December 1940) is an Australian former politician. He represented the Nationals in the Australian Senate for Queensland from 1983 to 2014 and led the party in the Senate from 1990 to 2007. He became Father ...
and
Barnaby Joyce
Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce (born 17 April 1967) is an Australian politician who served as the 17th deputy prime minister of Australia under Malcolm Turnbull from 2016 to 2018 and under Scott Morrison from 2021 to 2022. He was the leader of the ...
, and was scuttled in 2006. After suffering defeat in the 2006 Queensland poll, Lawrence Springborg was replaced by
Jeff Seeney
Jeffrey William Seeney (born 2 February 1957) is a former Australian politician and the former Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning of Queensland. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly ...
, who indicated he was not interested in merging with the Liberal Party until the issue is seriously raised at a Federal level.
In September 2008, Joyce replaced CLP Senator and Nationals deputy leader
Nigel Scullion
Nigel Gregory Scullion (born 4 May 1956) is a former Australian politician who was a Australian Senate, Senator for the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2019. He was a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) and sat with the National Party of A ...
as leader of the Nationals in the Senate, and stated that his party in the upper house would no longer necessarily vote with their Liberal counterparts in the upper house, which opened up another possible avenue for the
Rudd Labor Government
''Scardinius'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae commonly called rudds. Locally, the name "rudd" without any further qualifiers is also used for individual species, particularly the common rudd (''S. erythrophthalmus''). The ...
to get legislation through.
Joyce was elected leader in a party-room ballot on 11 February 2016, following the retirement of former leader and Deputy Prime Minister
Warren Truss
Warren Errol Truss, (born 8 October 1948) is a former Australian politician who served as the 16th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development in the Abbott Government and the Turnbull Governm ...
. Joyce was one of five politicians disqualified from parliament in October 2017
for holding dual citizenship, along with former deputy leader,
Fiona Nash
Fiona Joy Nash (née Morton; born 6 May 1965) is a former Australian politician. She served as a Senator for New South Wales from 2005 to 2017, representing the National Party. She was the party's deputy leader from 2016 to 2017 and was a ca ...
.
Queensland Liberal/National merger
Merger plans came to a head in May 2008, when the Queensland state Liberal Party gave an announcement not to wait for a federal blueprint but instead to merge immediately. The new party, the
Liberal National Party, was founded in July 2008.
Electoral results
Leadership
List of leaders
List of deputy leaders
List of Senate leaders
The Country Party's first senators began their terms in 1926, but the party had no official leader in the upper chamber until 1935. Instead, the party nominated a "representative" or "liaison officer" where necessary – usually
William Carroll. This was so that its members "were first and foremost representatives of their states, able to enjoy complete freedom of action and speech in the Senate and not beholden to the dictates of
..a party Senate leader". On 3 October 1935,
Charles Hardy
Sir Charles Hardy (c. 1714 – 18 May 1780) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1764 and 1780. He served as colonial governor of New York from 1755 to 1757.
Early career
Born at Portsmouth, the ...
was elected as Carroll's replacement and began using the title "Leader of the Country Party in the Senate". This usage was disputed by Carroll and
Bertie Johnston
Edward Bertram Johnston (11 January 1880 – 6 September 1942), known as Bertie Johnston, was the Western Australian Legislative Assembly member for Williams-Narrogin from 1911 to 1928, and a Senator from 1929 until 1942. His resignation fr ...
, but a subsequent party meeting on 10 October confirmed Hardy's position. However, after Hardy's term ended in 1938 (due to his defeat at the 1937 election), the party did not elect another Senate leader until 1949 – apparently due to its small number of senators.
Past premiers
Queensland
Victoria
Donors
For the 2015–2016 financial year, the top ten disclosed donors to the National Party were:
Manildra Group
The Manildra Group is an Australian agribusiness based in Sydney. It was formed in 1952 when Jack Honan purchased a flour mill in Manildra. In 1966 a starch and gluten plant was established in Auburn. In the early 1970s, further starch plants ope ...
($182,000), Ognis Pty Ltd ($100,000), Trepang Services ($70,000), Northwake Pty Ltd ($65,000),
Hancock Prospecting
Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd is a leading Australian owned mining and agricultural business run by Executive Chairman Gina Rinehart and CEO Garry Korte. At stages of its trading, the company has been known as Hancock Prospecting Ltd, Hancock Reso ...
($58,000), Bindaree Beef ($50,000), Mowburn Nominees ($50,000), Retail Guild of Australia ($48,000),
CropLife International
CropLife International is an international trade association of agrochemical companies founded in 2001. It was previously known as ''Global Crop Protection Federation'' and started out as ''International Group of National Associations of Manufactur ...
($43,000) and
Macquarie Group
Macquarie Group Limited () is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia (), Macquarie employs more than 17,000 staff in 33 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia' ...
($38,000).
The National Party also receives undisclosed funding through several methods, such as "associated entities". John McEwen House, Pilliwinks and Doogary are entities which have been used to funnel donations to the National Party without disclosing the source.
See also
*
Young Nationals (Australia)
The Young Nationals is the youth division of the National Party of Australia, with membership open to those between 15 and 35 years of age. Young Nationals also have full party membership, and partake in state and federal conferences with equal ...
*
Leader of the New South Wales National Party
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...
*
Katter's Australian Party
Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is an agrarian political party in Australia. It was founded by Bob Katter, an independent and former Nationals MP for the seat of Kennedy, with a registration application lodged to the Australian Electoral Co ...
*
National Party of Australia leadership spill, 2007
The leader of the National Party of Australia (former the Australian Country Party and National Country Party) is elected by majority vote of the federal parliamentary party. A deputy leader is elected in the same fashion. The party's longest-serv ...
Further reading
*Aitkin, Don. ''The country party in New South Wales'' (1972)
*Aitkin, Don. "'Countrymindedness': The Spread of an Idea", ''ACH: The Journal of the History of Culture in Australia'', April 1985, Vol. 4, pp 34–41
* Davey, Paul. ''The Nationals: the Progressive, Country, and National Party in New South Wales 1919–2006'' (2006)
* Davey, Paul. "Politics in the Blood – The Anthonys of Richmond" (2008)
* Davey, Paul. "Ninety Not Out – The Nationals 1920-2010" (2010)
* Davey, Paul. "The Country Party Prime Ministers – Their Trials and Tribulations" (2011)
* Duncan, C.J. "The demise of 'countrymindedness': New players or changing values in Australian rural politics?" ''Political Geography'', Sep 1992, Vol. 11 Issue 5, pp 430–448
* Graham, B. D. "Graziers in Politics, 1917 To 1929", ''Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand'', 1959, Vol. 8 Issue 32, pp 383–391
* Leithner, Christian. "Rational Behaviour, Economic Conditions and the Australian Country Party, 1922–1937", ''Australian Journal of Political Science'', July 1991, Vol. 26 Issue 2, pp 240–259
* Williams, John R. "The Organization of the Australian National Party", ''Australian Quarterly'', 1969, Vol. 41 Issue 2, pp 41–51,
*
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Party of Australia
Political parties established in 1920
Conservative parties in Australia
Agrarian parties in Australia
1920 establishments in Australia