The Morrison Government

Australians have re-elected the Morrison Government to get back to work and get on with the job of delivering for all Australians as they go about their own lives, pursuing their goals and aspirations for themselves, their families and their communities.

As we make our way back from the COVID-19 recession, our Government is laser focussed on suppressing the virus and rolling out the vaccine, cementing our economic recovery and delivering jobs, continuing to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on, protecting and securing Australia’s interest in a challenging world and care for our country.

history of the liberal party

While the Liberal Party as we know it today was only formed in 1944, the Liberal tradition dates back to well before Federation. In the first Commonwealth Parliaments, the party’s ideological ancestry can be traced back to the anti-socialist groupings of liberals and conservatives. One of the party’s founding principles that has persisted to this day is its strong opposition to socialism and communism, both in Australia and abroad – a principle that we must steadfastly continue to advance in the face of the troubling international resurgence of populism. It was this guiding principle that facilitated Alfred Deakin’s fusion of the Free Trade Party and Anti-Socialist Party in 1909 to form the Commonwealth Liberal Party. Deakin’s new party lasted until 1917, when it merged with several Labor dissidents to from the Nationalist Party of Australia, which, in turn, merged with more Labor dissidents to form the United Australia Party in 1931. The UAP fought against the radical proposals of the Labor movement to deal with the Great Depression, recording a landslide victory in the 1931 election. Pursuing a more conservative fiscal policy of debt reduction and balanced budgets, the UAP ably shepherded Australia out of the Great Depression.

Following a heavy defeat in the 1943 election, Sir Robert Menzies called a conference of conservative parties and others opposed to the ruling Labor Party which met on the 13th of October, 1944 and again in Albury in December, 1944. The following year, on the 31st of August, the formation of the Liberal Party of Australia was announced at the Sydney Town Hall, taking its name in acknowledgement of its ancestor, the Commonwealth Liberal Party. As part of securing his support for the formation of the new party, Menzies negotiated a deal with the Australian Women’s National League that ensured that women were equally represented throughout the structures of the Liberal Party. Menzies also merged into the party a conservative youth group, the Young Nationalists, who would go on to become the nucleus of the Young Liberals. It is the party of Menzies that has remained to this day, with core liberal values prevailing despite the occasional exodus of members to form small spin-off parties