Australian politics

Political parties

Australian politics has mostly been a de factotwo-party system, as a result of the long-standing coalition between the Liberal Party and National Party. The Greens are major 4th party with a high presence in the senate. Additionally there are also other groups like Teal Independents and other minor parties in Parliament. The coalition also exists at state level in all states except WA. The two parties are official merged as the LNP in Queensland and the separate CLP competes in the Northern Territory, which is affiliated with both coalition parties. Internal party discipline has historically been tight, unlike the situation in other countries such as the United States. Australia's political system has not always been a two-party system. In the early years of Federation, the emerging Australian Parliament was a "substantial arena" of various fragmented political parties, and it was not until 1909, as parliamentary politics became increasingly bipolar, that the merger occurred and the party system coalesced into the Labor Party and a non-Labor bloc.