Political Parties in Australia

Liberal Party of Australia

History
A very important 3 day meeting held in a small hall not far from Parliament in 1944.
This meeting would affect Australias political landscape for eternity as it introduced
the Liberal Party of Australia. The meeting was organised by Sir Robert Menzies who
was then the leader of the opposition for the United Australia Party and had already
been Prime Minister from 1939. Menzies strongly believed that all non-Labor parties
should unite to provide an alternative to Labors unpopular post-war socialist
reforms. Eighty men and women from 18 non-Labor parties and organisations united
under the belief that mainstream Australians whose goals, needs and aspirations
that had been ignored by the Labor Party needed to be addressed. On October 16,
1944, the name The Liberal Party of Australia was adopted, the word Liberal was
chosen deliberately for its associations with progressive nineteenth century free
enterprise and social equality.
Core Beliefs and Ideology
The core beliefs and ideology of Liberal is better stated by what it does not support.
It does not support Socialism in its place the party applies economic liberalism. What
socialists see as helping the rich the rich get richer, Liberals seem this as helping
everyone get richer as a strong economy in the Liberals opinion takes care of its
people. Aside from the free-market reforms, Liberals also believe in social
conservatism in the preservation of peoples freedom from government interference,
choice of mutual obligation and maintenance of traditional family values.
Current Policies
One of the major Liberal Party policies is the creation of a diverse 5-pillar economy in
which the government aims to build on Australia economic strengths in
Manufacturing Innovations, Agriculture Exports, Advanced Services, world-class
education and research and finally Mining Exports. This 5-pillar economy aims to
deliver 1-million new jobs over the next five year. The Liberal party has issues it
wants to address in each of its pillars such as repealing the carbon tax in the
manufacturing pillar.
Current Party Member
Joe Hockey
Joe Hockey is the Member of Parliament for North Sydney and the current treasurer
of Australia. Hockey was born in North Sydney and attended St Aloysius' College,
Milson's Point and the University of Sydney graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a
Bachelor of Laws. Upon graduating, Hockey worked as a banking and finance lawyer
at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and subsequently as the Director of Policy to the
Premier of New South Wales, before entering politics. Hockey became Shadow
Treasurer in February 2009 when Julie Bishop stepped down from the portfolio and
when the Liberals assumed government in 2013, Hockey became Federal Treasurer.

Liberal Representation Status in federal and state parliament
The Federal Liberal is currently in a collation-government with Tony Abbott as the
prime minister. The party itself has 58 seats in the House of Representatives and 23
Seats in the Senate. The NSW Liberal party is also a collation government with Mike
Baird as the Premier. The party has 59 seats in the legislative assembly and 12 seats
in the legislative council.
Major issues facing the Liberal Party
The major issues facing the Federal Party mainly stem from the introduction of the
2014 Federal Budget. The tough fiscal message in the Budget saw the Liberal fall
behind in 2 party preferred polls to 55-45 in favour of Labour and PM Abbotts
popularity rating being reduced to 31%. The tough economical measures introduced
in the Budget take government funding away almost all citizens in Australia in order
to help cut back Australias debt for future generations however many voters with
selfish ambitions are unable to appreciate what the government is trying to do
hence the poll ratings fall. This is not aided by policies displeasing different
organisations all around Australia such as environmentalist, university graduates and
healthcare advocates with the repealing of the Carbon Tax, deregulations of
university fee and $7 co-payments for GP visits. With these major issues at hand, PM
Abbott faces a tough uphill climb to show Australia that his policies are correct and
improve his popular rating.
Australian Labour Party
History

Up until the 1890s, workers in Australia relied on trade union organisations to fight
for workers rights, pay and working conditions. At this time, the major political
parties (the Free Traders and the Protectionists) represented the interests of
employers. Their influence in politics where then used to oppose the workers
demands and act to weaken the power of organised labour; that is, the trade unions.
To better represent their concerns, in 1891 workers decided to form their own
political party: the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The ALP became a federal party
when the former Australian colonies federated in 1901.

Core Beliefs and Ideology
The ALP core beliefs and ideology stems from its existence as a social democratic
party. In the democratic socialist world in which it presides, Labor believes that by
re-distributing the nations wealth into government programs that ensure we all
enjoy the same quality of life we as a nation will all enjoy the same rights and
opportunities.

Current Platform
The policy of the Australian Labor Party is contained in its National Platform, which is
approved by delegates to Labor's National Conference, held every three years. The
last labour platform was held back in December 2011. Labors key priorities over the
coming years are:
Supporting hardworking families- labor attempts to achieve this by installing
childcare rebates, tax cuts and investments in Paid Parental Leave, disability
support and pensions
Supporting jobs and a growing economy- for Labor aims to maintain
economic discipline to ensure that our economy has continued to grow, jobs
have been created, unemployment has remained low and interest rates
remain steady
Investing in Australias future- Labor wants to deliver new infrastructure
now to empower our economy and maintain fairness in schools, hospitals
and local communities across the nation

Current Party Member
Bill Shorten
William Richard Shorten is the member for parliament for Maribyrnong, Victoria and
is currently the leader of the Australian Labor Party and the leader of the opposition.
Shorten was born in Melbourne and was educated at Xavier College and Monash
University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. In
2005, Shorten announced that he would seek selection as the Labor candidate for
the seat of Maribyrnong, which was already held by Labor MP and Shadow Minister
Bob Sercombe. At the election on 24 November 2007, Shorten was elected to the
House of Representatives as the Labor Member for Maribyrnong. Upon the defeat of
the Labor Government in the 2013 election, the current leader of the ALP, Kevin
Rudd, announced that he would stand down from the position. Shorten at that time
then declared that he would declare that he would be a candidate to be Rudds
successor. Shorten then assumed the role of the Opposition Leader and Labor leader
after defeating Anthony Albanese with 52% of the votes from inside Labor.



Labor Representation Status in federal and state parliament
The Australian Labor Party is currently in opposition with Bill Shorten as the leader of
the opposition. At the last federal election in 2013, Labor managed to secure 55
seats in the House of Representatives and it currently still has 25 seats in the Senate
as well. The NSW Branch of the ALP like its federal counterpart is also in opposition
after the 2011 election which saw Labor only managing to hold on to 21 seats in the
Legislative Assembly and it currently has 14 seats in the Legislative Council

Major issues facing the Labor Party
If I was to choose between the major parties in the ALP or the LNP collation I would
choose neither of them, both major parties have major unpopular drawbacks in their
policies. For Labor, we will focus on the economy. Labor is a social democratic party
therefore it wishes to distribute wealth among citizens, however it is the way in
which Labor is applying socialism that may have been a factor in the 2013 election
loss. Labor had installed several socialist measures such as National Disability
Insurance Scheme hoping these schemes would work as catalyst in the economy to
generate more tax to fund the scheme which it installed in the first place. However
the risks which Labor have taken have not yielded results meaning it left a $257
billion gross debt when it lost power in 2013. Furthermore, Labor in attempt to pay
for these debts resorted to creating unpopular taxes such as the Mining and Carbon
Taxes as well as creating unpopular taxes Labor shelved some of its election
promises such as the 2650 promised trades training centres promised at the 2007
Election. Although these economic woes might have happened some time ago
however it leaves the reputation of Labors ability to govern the economy in tatters.
Despite the Liberals losing ground in the in the two party preferred section, Labor
still has a long way to go before the Australian public can trust Labor with the
economy.



Australian Greens

History
A national Getting Together conference was held in 1986 in the University of Sydney
at which 500 green activists from various environmental groups around Australia in
order to unite and form a green-based political party. However things didnt run
smoothly, a lack of unity and diverse interests resulted in the derailment of plans for
unification. In 1992, these differences were overcome as the greens from New South
Wales, Queensland and Tasmania agreed to merge their state based organisations
into a single national organisation: the Australian Greens party. These states were
soon followed by the remaining states and as observed today, the federal greens
party confederation includes the greens from all states and territory.
Core beliefs and ideology
The Greens ideology revolves around 4 pillars:
o Ecological Sustainability- taking good care of the Earth to preserve for the
future
o Grassroots participatory democracy- all the Greens campaigns are run by
thousands of ordinary people volunteering their time, skills and support
which interact with the community inside of exclusive executives in offices
o Social Justice- the greens believe that social problems such as crime,
discrimination, disease and poverty can be eliminated by reducing extreme
inequality in Australia
o Peace and non-violence- the greens believe that Australias foreign policy
should be based on dialogue, diplomacy and cooperation, not aggression as
they believe that violence simply does not solve problems
Current platform
The Greens party platform are policies which a based around its core beliefs. The
Greens aim to address each of their beliefs through different policies, some of which
are listed below:
Minimise animal cruelty
Zero waste goal
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Make polluters pay
No tax cuts for the rich
Zero-carbon industries
Sustainable development
Support the CSIRO
Current Member
Adam Brandt
Adam Paul Brandt is the member for Melbourne in the House of Representatives and
is also the deputy leader of the Greens. Adam Brandt was born in Adelaide, South
Australia and his family moved to Perth, Western Australia where he attended high
school and university, before moving to Melbourne. In the federal election in 2010
Brandt received 36.2% of the primary vote and won the seat of Melbourne for the
Australian Greens. In the 2013 election Brandt retained his seat and became the only
representative for the Greens in the lower house.

Greens in Federal and State parliament

The Australian Greens Party only managed to take 1 seat in the 2013 election but it
still has 10 senators still in service. The State greens also have one seat in the
legislative assembly but have 5 senators in the legislative council.

Issues facing the greens
The Greens had the worst election imaginable in 2013; they lost almost 450,000
voters from all over Australia. There are many factors for these poor results one of
them may be because of the resignation of Dr Bob Brown who was leader for 12
years. Another more relatable issue is the forceful nature by which they forced the
introduction of the Carbon tax by the ALP in return for agreeing to support Labor in
what was a hung parliament. Many workers and citizens did not like the economical
consequences of the Carbon Tax thus many pointed the finger at the Greens.
Although the Carbon tax is now repealed the attitudes towards the Greens certainly
has not repeal and the Greens too face a difficult journey in terms of bouncing back