The Tasmanian Nationals are a political party in the Australian state of
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, aligned with the
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia, also known as The Nationals or The Nats, is an List of political parties in Australia, Australian political party. Traditionally representing graziers, farmers, and regional voters generally, it began as the Au ...
. The party is not currently registered with the
Tasmanian Electoral Commission
The Tasmanian Electoral Commission (TEC) in Tasmania, Australia, established in 2005, is an independent office which conducts parliamentary and local government elections in Tasmania. Elections for the House of Assembly take place every four year ...
, and is not separately registered with the
Australian Electoral Commission
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent federal agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums.
Responsibilities
The AEC's main responsibility is to ...
, unlike the other state branches of the Nationals.
The party has a history in Tasmania dating back to 1922, and has previously used the names Country Party, Centre Party, and National Country Party. It has had limited electoral success and has dissolved itself or disappeared on a number of occasions, sometimes for several decades.
[Petrow, Stefan]
Country Party
''The Companion to Tasmanian History'' (University of Tasmania
The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College, one of the university's residential colleges, first pro ...
). The party's current iteration was established in 2018, after independent senator
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominated ...
joined the Nationals. He is the first member of the party in federal parliament since the 1920s.
History
1920s
No state country party organisation yet existed in Tasmania prior to 1922, although in the
1919 federal election former MP
Norman Cameron sought to regain the
Division of Wilmot
The Division of Wilmot was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Tasmania. It was located in central Tasmania, and was named after Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, the sixth Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania. At various times it included th ...
as a country candidate. In 1920 members of the
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia.
The term of members of the ...
elected from other state country parties came together to form the
Country Party, with long-serving Tasmanian MP
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 ...
, the sitting member for the
Division of Franklin
The Division of Franklin is an Australian electoral division in Tasmania.
The division is located in southern Tasmania around the state capital, Hobart. It is the only non-contiguous federal electoral division in Australia, with the two part ...
, assisting in the formation of the party and serving as its initial leader. The party was also joined by
Llewellyn Atkinson
Llewellyn Atkinson (18 December 1867 – 1 November 1945) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1906 to 1929 and a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1931 to 1934, representing ...
, the sitting member for Wilmot. McWilliams was replaced as leader in 1921 and defeated in the
1922 election but the Country Party gained
Darwin with
Joshua Whitsitt
Joshua Thomas Hoskins Whitsitt (26 September 1869 – 14 September 1943) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1909 to 1922 and a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1922 to 1925 ...
.
1922 saw the creation of a state party by the
Tasmanian Farmers, Stockowners and Orchardists' Association. It was joined by several sitting members of the
Tasmanian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly, or Lower House, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. The other is the Legislative Council or Upper House. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Hobart.
The Assembly has 25 m ...
including
Nationalists
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
Ernest Blyth (
Division of Lyons
The Division of Lyons is an Australian electoral division in Tasmania.
Geography
Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian ...
)
William Dixon (
Franklin
Franklin may refer to:
People
* Franklin (given name)
* Franklin (surname)
* Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class
Places Australia
* Franklin, Tasmania, a township
* Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...
),
Edward Hobbs (
Darwin), and independent Joshua Whitsitt (Darwin). At the
1922 state election Whitsitt stood down to transfer to federal politics and Dixon was defeated but Blyth led the party to gain three further members
Richard Franks (Darwin, holding Whitsitt's seat),
John Piggott (Franklin, taking Dixon's seat) and
Albert Bendall (Wilmot). The overall result gave the Country Party the balance of power and they were able to force the replacement of
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 governm ...
Walter Lee with
John Hayes at the head of 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 ...
with Blyth as minister for lands and mines.
[Scott Bennett,]
Hayes, John Blyth (1868–1956)
, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1983, accessed online 31 May 2018.
However the party was to soon fall apart during the Assembly's term, with Piggott sitting as an Independent, Blyth and Bendall moving to the Nationalists and Hobbs joining a "Liberal" grouping based on Lee. Franks retired at the
1925 election. At the federal level Whitsitt retired
in 1925 with no Country Party candidate defending Darwin. Atkinson continued to sit for the Country Party as late as at least 1926, but by the
1928 election he had joined the Nationalists. The Country Party ceased to exist in the state.
1960s to 1970s
For the next few decades there was virtually no Country Party electoral activity in the state bar a single candidacy in Franklin in the
1934 federal election. In 1962 a new Country Party organisation was formed in the state which would last until 1975.
It contested the
1964 state election but won no seats. In the run up to the
1969 election Kevin Lyons
Kevin Orchard Lyons (7 February 1923 – 24 May 2000) was an Australian politician and member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly representing the seat of Darwin (later renamed Braddon).
Biography Early life
Born in 1923 in Hobart, he was th ...
, a former
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
turned independent member of the Assembly for
Braddon, became the party's leader and reorganised it as the Centre Party. Lyons retained his seat at the election, which resulted in a hung parliament. He threw his support to his former Liberal colleagues, and served 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, ...
under
Angus Bethune Angus Bethune may refer to:
* Angus Bethune (fur trader) (1783–1858), Canadian fur trader
* Angus Bethune (politician)
Sir Walter Angus Bethune (10 September 1908 – 22 August 2004) was an Australian politician and member of the Tasmanian Ho ...
until 1972 when Lyons withdrew support, collapsing the coalition.
The Centre Party did not contest the resulting election.
The party contested the Senate in the
1974 federal election and then stood for both the Senate and House in the
1975 federal election (by now as the National Country Party) but had no success. The party disappeared that year.
Later appearances
The party was formed again in 1994 and in 1996 contested the
state election, and the
federal election in both the House and Senate but once again secured only a small vote with rural interests preferring the Liberals instead.
The party was registered federally with the
Australian Electoral Commission
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent federal agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums.
Responsibilities
The AEC's main responsibility is to ...
(AEC) from October 1995 to April 1998, under the name "National Party of Australia – Tasmania".
The party reorganised and registered in the state in 2013 and were subsequently joined by former
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the la ...
minister
Allison Ritchie
Allison Maree Ritchie (born 28 July 1974 in Hobart) was a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council (upper house) for Pembroke from 2001 to 2009. Since 2022, Ritchie has served as Deputy Mayor of the City of Clarence.
Life before Parliament
...
. However disagreements with the federal party over strategy led to the latter distancing itself. Scott Mitchell, the federal director of the Nationals, stated in January 2014 that "we don't want them using our brand and promoting policies that people could see as Nationals' policies". Following poor results in the
2014 state election, some members decided to rename the party, the Tasmania Party. However it was instead deregistered in the state.
In May 2018
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominated ...
, a Senator originally elected for the
Jacqui Lambie Network
The Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN) is a political party in Australia, formed in May 2015. Bearing the name of its founder, Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie, it has served as the political vehicle for the former independent.
The JLN was formed to al ...
who had subsequently been expelled, joined the Nationals, giving them their first federal representative in the state in ninety years. Martin declared he was seeking to relaunch the party in the state.
In October 2018, the re-established party held its first state conference in Launceston, which was attended by the party's federal leader
Michael McCormack. At the conference, Steve Martin announced that he would stand for re-election at the
2019 federal election and stated that the party hoped to field additional candidates. In January 2019, the party announced it would field a candidate in
Bass. The Nationals also contested the seats of
Braddon and
Lyons
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...
.
Steve Martin failed in his bid to win election to the Senate, polling just over one percent of the statewide vote. The Nationals performed best in Lyons, where they received 15.7% of the vote, where the Liberal candidate was disendorsed.
State election results
See also
*
:National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Tasmania
References
Bibliography
* Davey, Paul. ''Ninety Not Out – The Nationals 1920-2010'' (2010)
* Petrow, Stefan
Country Party ''The Companion to Tasmanian History'' (
University of Tasmania
The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College, one of the university's residential colleges, first pro ...
).
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Party Of Australia Tasmania
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
Political parties established in 1922
1922 establishments in Australia
Defunct political parties in Tasmania
Defunct agrarian political parties
Agrarian parties in Australia