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Liberal Party of Australia

This article is about the modern federal Liberal Party. For state and territory Liberal Party articles, see List of state divisions of the Liberal Party of Australia. For the Liberal party active in Australia from 1909 to 1916, see Liberal Party (Australia, 1909).

Liberal Party of Australia
Abbreviation
  • LP
  • LIB
LeaderSussan Ley[1]
Deputy LeaderTed O'Brien
Senate LeaderMichaelia Cash
Deputy Senate LeaderAnne Ruston
PresidentJohn Olsen
FounderRobert Menzies[a]
Founded13 October 1944 (13 October 1944)[b]
Preceded byUnited Australia
HeadquartersR. G. Menzies House, Barton, Australian Capital Territory
Think tankMenzies Research Centre
Student wingLiberal Students' Federation
Youth wingYoung Liberals
Women's wingFederal Women's Committee
Overseas wingAustralian Liberals Abroad[9]
Membership (2020)Increase 70,000–80,000[10][11]
Ideology
Political positionCentre-right to right-wing
National affiliationLiberal–National Coalition
Regional affiliationAsia Pacific Democracy Union
International affiliationInternational Democracy Union
FactionsCentrists
Moderates
Centre Right
National Right
Colours  Blue
Governing bodyFederal Council
Party branches
House of Representatives
28 / 150
[e]
Senate
25 / 76
[f]
State and territorial governments
3 / 8
State and territorial lower house members
165 / 465
State upper house members
41 / 156
Website
www.liberal.org.au

The Liberal Party of Australia (LP)[14] is the prominent centre-right[15][16] political party in Australia.[17] It is considered one of the two major parties in Australian politics, the other being the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The Liberal Party was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Australia Party. Historically the most electorally successful party in Australia's history, the Liberal Party is now in opposition at a federal level, although it presently holds government in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Tasmania at a sub-national level.

The Liberal Party is the largest partner in a centre-right grouping known in Australian politics as the Coalition, accompanied by the regional-based National Party, which is typically focussed on issues pertinent to regional Australia.[18] The Liberal Party last governed Australia, in coalition with the Nationals, between 2013 and 2022, forming the Abbott (2013–2015), Turnbull (2015–2018) and Morrison (2018–2022) governments. The Coalition has been suspended on occasion throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, though as of 2025 the two parties form a shadow ministry under the leadership of Sussan Ley.

As leader of the Liberal Party, Ley is also the Leader of the Opposition. A member of the party's moderate faction, she was elected leader in May 2025 and is the first woman to hold the position.[19] Two past leaders of the party, Sir Robert Menzies and John Howard, are Australia's two longest-serving Prime Ministers.

The Liberal Party has a federal structure, with autonomous divisions in all six states and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The Country Liberal Party (CLP) of the Northern Territory is an affiliate.[20] Both the CLP and the Liberal National Party (LNP), the Queensland state division, were formed through mergers of the local Liberal and National parties. At state and territory level, the Liberal Party is in office in two states and one territory. The party is in opposition in the states of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia, and in the ACT.

The party's ideology has been referred to as liberal,[21][22][23] conservative,[24][25][26] liberal-conservative,[27] conservative-liberal,[28] and classical liberal.[29] The Liberal Party tends to promote economic liberalism[26] and social conservatism.[30] The Moderates faction has been referred to as centrist,[31][32][33] while the National Right faction has also been referred to as right-wing.[34][35][36]

  1. ^ "Sussan Ley becomes first woman to lead Liberal Party". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 13 May 2025.
  2. ^ Brandis, George (24 October 2022). "Taking liberties with Menzies' politics betrays his life and legacy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2023. One of the most important differences between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party is a historical one. Labor traces its roots to the trade union movement of the late 19th century; it does not point to any one great figure as its founder. The Liberal Party, by contrast, is unquestionably the creation of a single man, Robert Menzies – its founder and longest-serving leader and Australia's longest-serving prime minister. Both sides of politics acknowledge this: Paul Keating, in a savage speech, once spoke of his desire "to destroy Menzies' creation".
  3. ^ Hutchens, Gareth (3 October 2021). "Robert Menzies wouldn't recognise the Liberal Party's employment policies today". ABC News. Archived from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2023. It's why the "father" of the Liberal Party, Robert Menzies, would hardly recognise his party's economic policies today.
  4. ^ Walker, Tony (28 August 2018). "Malcolm Fraser's political manifesto would make good reading for the Morrison government". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2023. Menzies' "forgotten people" were defined as those caught between a union-dominated Labor Party and a conservative establishment. What the father of the Liberal Party had in mind was the artisan and small business class, broadly defined.
  5. ^ "Our History". liberal.org.au. Liberal Party of Australia. 12 June 2013. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  6. ^ "Forming the Liberal Party of Australia – Record of the Conference of Representatives of Non-Labor Organisations" (PDF). 16 October 1944. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 November 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  7. ^ "Formation of the Liberal Party of Australia". Party History. Liberal Party of Australia—Queensland Division. Archived from the original on 26 April 2007. Retrieved 11 April 2007.
  8. ^ Ian Hancock. "The Origins of the Modern Liberal Party". Harold White Fellowships. National Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2007.
  9. ^ "Australian Liberals Abroad". 12 June 2013. Archived from the original on 24 September 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  10. ^ "Our Structure". Liberal Party of Australia. 12 June 2013. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  11. ^ Davies, Anne (13 December 2020). "Party hardly: why Australia's big political parties are struggling to compete with grassroots campaigns". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  12. ^ Ferguson, Richard (14 April 2021). "Liberals' flag fiasco". The Australian. Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  13. ^ Wilkinson, Jamie (27 June 2016). "A short history of political party branding – Liberals". news.canningspurple.com.au. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  14. ^ "Political party name abbreviations & codes, demographic ratings and seat status". Australian Electoral Commission. 18 January 2016. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference factions1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference factions2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Glynn, Irial (2016). Asylum Policy, Boat People and Political Discourse: Boats, Votes and Asylum in Australia and Italy. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-137-51733-3. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  18. ^ corporateName=Commonwealth Parliament; address=Parliament House, Canberra. "Infosheet 22 - Political parties". www.aph.gov.au. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ Truu, Maani (13 May 2025). "Sussan Ley becomes first woman to lead Liberal Party". ABC News. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
  20. ^ "Our structure". Liberal Party of Australia. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2020. There is one Division for each of the six states, as well as the Australian Capital Territory. The Northern Territory Country Liberal Party is an affiliate of the Liberal Party. Each of the Liberal Party's seven Divisions is autonomous and has their own constitutions.
  21. ^ Steketee, Mike (12 March 2021). "The revolt of the Liberal moderates". The Canberra Times. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  22. ^ Philip Mendes, ed. (2007). Australia's Welfare Wars Revisited: The Players, the Politics and the Ideologies. Springer Nature. p. 123. ISBN 9780868409917.
  23. ^ Rodney Smith; Ariadne Vromen; Ian Cook, eds. (2006). Keywords in Australian Politics. Cambridge University Press. p. 103. ISBN 9780521672832. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023. The ideology of the Liberal Party has in fact always been a mixture of conservatism, social liberalism and classical or neo-liberalism ...
  24. ^ James C. Docherty (2010). The A to Z of Australia. Scarecrow Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-4616-7175-6. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  25. ^ Williams, John R. (1967). "The Emergence of the Liberal Party of Australia". The Australian Quarterly. 39 (1). JSTOR: 7–27. doi:10.2307/20634106. JSTOR 20634106. Archived from the original on 4 September 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  26. ^ a b Massola, James (20 March 2021). "Who's who in the Liberals' left, right and centre factions?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  27. ^ Nicole A. Thomas; Tobias Loetscher; Danielle Clode; Mike Nicholls (2012). "Right-Wing Politicians Prefer the Emotional Left". PLOS ONE. 7 (5): 4. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...736552T. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.270.2043. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036552. PMC 3342249. PMID 22567166. The Liberal Party of Australia has an ideology in line with liberal conservatism and is therefore right of centre.
  28. ^ Peter Starke; Alexandra Kaasch; Franca Van Hooren (2013). The Welfare State as Crisis Manager: Explaining the Diversity of Policy Responses to Economic Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-137-31484-0. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  29. ^ Liou, Kuo-Tsai (1998). Handbook of Economic Development. CRC Press. p. 357. ISBN 978-1-4616-7175-6. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  30. ^ Dennis Raphael (2012). Tackling Health Inequalities: Lessons from International Experiences. Canadian Scholars' Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-55130-412-0. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  31. ^ "Centrist Liberals need stronger voice". 20 March 2014.
  32. ^ "Turnbull is right to link the Liberals with the centre – but is the centre where it used to be?". 12 July 2017.
  33. ^ "Malcolm Turnbull hits back at right-wing Liberals, says party was never intended to be conservative". 11 July 2017.
  34. ^ Bourke, Latika (19 January 2018). "'Arrogantly ignored': Right-wing Liberals hit back at Ruddock 'unity' ticket". The Sydney Morning Herald. Nine Entertainment. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019.
  35. ^ Patrick, Aaron (2 April 2023). "Conservatives used to think Aston was the Liberals' future". Australian Financial Review. Nine Entertainment. Archived from the original on 3 April 2023.
  36. ^ Massola, James (9 April 2023). "How Morrison's shattering defeat gave Dutton a seismic shift in factional power". The Sydney Morning Herald. Nine Entertainment. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023.


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