Liberals for Forests was an Australian political minor party. It contested both state and federal elections between 2002 and 2008, but only ever achieved one elected representative –
Janet Woollard
Janet May Woollard (born 13 February 1955) is an Australian former politician who served as a member for the seat of Alfred Cove in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2013.
Woollard successfully contested the seat in the ...
(elected as an Independent) in
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...
. It never achieved representation at the federal level.
The party was founded in 2001 by Dr
Keith Woollard, husband of Janet Woollard and an ex-
AMA
Ama or AMA may refer to:
Ama Languages
* Ama language (New Guinea)
* Ama language (Sudan)
People
* Ama (Ama Kōhei), former ring name for sumo wrestler Harumafuji Kōhei
* Mary Ama, a New Zealand artist
* Shola Ama, a British singer
* Ām ...
president. Janet successfully contested a seat in the
February 2001 state election, was re-elected at the
2005 election and again at the
2008 election
This electoral calendar 2008 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2008 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, even though they are not elections. By-elections are ...
.
The party generally professed itself to be ideologically aligned with the centre-right sympathies 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 A ...
, but was aligned with the ALP in certain states such as NSW but with a greater regard to
environmentalism
Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment (biophysical), environment, par ...
.
Despite its low profile, the party gained a respectable proportion of the primary senate vote in some states. For example, in the 2004 election it received only a few hundred votes less than the
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party dissenting splinter groups, it was Austral ...
in Victoria.
Name
The registered party name at 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 ...
and the
Western Australian Electoral Commission was "liberals for forests" (uncapitalised), but it was known in newspapers as "Liberals for Forests". By late 2009, Liberals for Forests was no longer a registered political party anywhere in Australia.
See also
*
Small-l liberal – a term used by LFF candidates to describe themselves in order to attract the support of mildly disenchanted coalition voters
References
External links
official site(Internet Archive – snapshot 2006)
Liberal parties in Australia
Political parties established in 2001
Green political parties
Green conservative parties
2001 establishments in Australia
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