Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party (also ALP and Labor, was Labour before 1912) is a political party in Australia. The party has been in opposition at federal level since the 2013 election. Bill Shorten has been the party's federal parliamentary leader since 13 October 2013. The party is a federal party with branches in each state and territory. Labor is in government in the states of Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, and in the Australian Capital Territory. The party competes against the Liberal/National Coalition for political office at the federal and state (and sometimes local) levels.

Labor's constitution states: "The Australian Labor Party is a democratic socialist party and has the objective of the democratic socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange, to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features in these fields". This "socialist objective" was introduced in 1921, but has since been qualified by two further objectives: "maintenance of and support for a competitive non-monopolistic private sector" and "the right to own private property". Labor governments have not attempted the "democratic socialisation" of any industry since the 1940s, when the Chifley government failed to nationalise the private banks, and in fact have privatised several industries such as aviation and banking. Labor's current National Platform describes the party as "a modern social democratic party", "the party of opportunity and security for working people" and "a party of active government".

The ALP was founded as a federal party prior to the first sitting of the Australian Parliament in 1901, but is descended from labour parties founded in the various Australian colonies by the emerging labour movement in Australia, formally beginning in 1892. Labor is thus the country's oldest political party. Colonial labour parties contested seats from 1891, and federal seats following Federation at the 1901 federal election. Labor was the first party in Australia to win a majority in either house of the Australian Parliament, at the 1910 federal election. The ALP pre-dates both the British Labour Party and the New Zealand Labour Party in party formation, government, and policy implementation. Internationally, the ALP is a member of the Progressive Alliance network of social-democratic parties, having previously been a member of the Socialist International.

History

The present Australian Labor Party has its origins in the Labour parties founded in the 1890s in the Australian colonies prior to federation. Labor tradition ascribes the founding of Queensland Labour to a meeting of striking pastoral workers under a ghost gum tree (the "Tree of Knowledge") in Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891. The Balmain, New South Wales branch of the party claims to be the oldest in Australia. Labour as a parliamentary party dates from 1891 in New South Wales, 1893 in South Australia and Queensland, and later in the other colonies.

The first election contested by Labour candidates was the 1891 New South Wales election, when Labour candidates (then called the Labor Electoral League of New South Wales) won 35 of 141 seats. The major parties were the Protectionist and Free Trade parties and Labour held the balance of power. It offered parliamentary support in exchange for policy concessions. The United Labour Party was founded in South Australia in 1891 (survived until 1917), and three candidates were that year elected to the South Australian Legislative Council. At the 1893 South Australian elections the United Labour Party won 10 of the 54 seats in the House of Assembly, and went into coalition with the Liberal Party. In 1905 Thomas Price became the first Labor Premier of South Australia.

In 1899, Anderson Dawson formed a minority Labour government in Queensland, the first in the world, which lasted one week while the conservatives regrouped after a split.

The colonial Labour parties and the trade unions were mixed in their support for the Federation of Australia. Some Labour representatives argued against the proposed constitution, claiming that the Senate as proposed was too powerful, similar to the anti-reformist colonial upper houses and the British House of Lords. They feared that federation would further entrench the power of the conservative forces. The first Labour leader and Prime Minister, Chris Watson, however, was a supporter of federation.

Early decades at federal level

The first election to the federal Parliament in 1901 was contested by each state Labour party. In total, they won 14 of the 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and the Labour members now met as the federal parliamentary Labour Party (informally known as the caucus) on 8 May 1901 at Parliament House, Melbourne, the meeting place of the first federal Parliament. The caucus decided to support the Protectionist government against the opposition Free Trade Party. It was some years before there was any significant structure or organisation at a national level. Labour under Chris Watson more than doubled its vote to 23 at the 1903 federal election and continued to hold the balance of power. In April 1904, however, Watson and Deakin fell out over the issue of extending the scope of industrial relations laws concerning the Conciliation and Arbitration Bill to cover state public servants, the fallout causing Deakin to resign. Free Trade leader George Reid declined to take office, which saw Watson become the first Labour Prime Minister of Australia, and the world's first Labour head of government at a national level (Anderson Dawson had led a short-lived Labour government in Queensland in December 1899), though his was a minority government that lasted only four months. He was aged only 37, and is still the youngest Prime Minister in Australia's history.

Andrew Fisher then formed another minority government 1908â€"09. At the 1910 election, Fisher led Labor to victory. The Fisher government was Australia's first federal majority government, held Australia's first Senate majority, and was the world's first labour party majority government. This was the first time a labour party had controlled any house of a legislature, and the first time it controlled both houses of a bicameral legislature. The state branches were also successful, except in Victoria, where the strength of Deakinite liberalism inhibited the party's growth. The state branches formed their first majority governments in New South Wales and South Australia in 1910, in Western Australia in 1911, in Queensland in 1915 and in Tasmania in 1925. Such success eluded equivalent social democratic and labour parties in other countries for many years.

Analysis of the early NSW Labor caucus reveals "a band of unhappy amateurs", made up of blue collar workers, a squatter, a doctor, and even a mine owner, indicating that the idea that only the socialist working class formed Labor is untrue. In addition, many members from the working class supported the liberal notion of free trade between the colonies â€" in the first grouping of state MPs, 17 of the 35 were free-traders.

In the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917, support for socialism grew in trade union ranks, and at the 1921 All-Australian Trades Union Congress a resolution was passed calling for "the socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange." As a result, Labor's Federal Conference in 1922 adopted a similarly worded "socialist objective," which remained official policy for many years. The resolution was immediately qualified, however, by the "Blackburn amendment," which said that "socialisation" was desirable only when was necessary to "eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features." In practice the socialist objective was a dead letter. Only once has a federal Labor government attempted to nationalise any industry (Ben Chifley's bank nationalisation of 1947), and that was held by the High Court to be unconstitutional. The commitment to nationalisation was dropped by Gough Whitlam, and Bob Hawke's government carried out many free market reforms including the floating of the dollar and privatisation of state enterprises such as Qantas airways and the Commonwealth Bank.

The Labor Party is commonly described as a social democratic party, and its constitution stipulates that it is a democratic socialist party. The party was created by, and has always been influenced by, the trade unions, and in practice its policy at any given time has usually been the policy of the broader labour movement. Thus at the first federal election 1901 Labor's platform called for a White Australia Policy, a citizen army and compulsory arbitration of industrial disputes. Labor has at various times supported high tariffs and low tariffs, conscription and pacifism, White Australia and multiculturalism, nationalisation and privatisation, isolationism and internationalism.

Historically, Labor and its affiliated unions were strong defenders of the White Australia Policy, which banned all non-European migration to Australia. This policy was partly motivated by 19th century theories about "racial purity" and by fears of economic competition from low-wage overseas workers which was shared by the vast majority of Australians and all major political parties. In practice the party opposed all migration, on the grounds that immigrants competed with Australian workers and drove down wages, until after World War II, when the Chifley Government launched a major immigration program. The party's opposition to non-European immigration did not change until after the retirement of Arthur Calwell as leader in 1967. Subsequently Labor has become an advocate of multiculturalism, although some of its trade union base and some of its members continue to oppose high immigration levels.

Name changes

The ALP adopted the formal name "Australian Labour Party" in 1908, but changed the spelling to "Labor" in 1912. While it is standard practice in Australian English both today and at the time to spell the word "labour" with a "u", the party was influenced by the United States labor movement, and a prominent figure in the early history of the party, the American-born King O'Malley, was successful in having the spelling "modernised". The change also made it easier to distinguish references to the party from the labour movement in general. (See also Spelling in Australian English.)

World War II and beyond

The Curtin and Chifley governments governed Australia through the latter half of World War II and initial stages of transition to peace. Labor leader John Curtin became prime minister in October 1941 when two independents crossed the floor of Parliament. Labor, led by Curtin, then led Australia through the years of the Pacific War. In December 1941, Curtin announced that "Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom", thus helping to establish the Australian-American alliance (later formalised as ANZUS by the Menzies Government). Remembered as a strong war time leader and for a landslide win at the 1943 election, Curtin died in office just prior to the end of the war and was succeeded by Ben Chifley. Chifley Labor won the 1946 election and oversaw Australia's initial transition to a peacetime economy. Labor was defeated at the 1949 election. At the conference of the New South Wales Labor Party in June 1949, Chifley sought to define the labour movement as having:

[A] great objectiveÂ â€" the light on the hillÂ â€" which we aim to reach by working for the betterment of mankind... [Labor would] bring something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people.

â€" Ben Chifley

To a large extent, Chifley saw centralisation of the economy as the means to achieve such ambitions. With an increasingly uncertain economic outlook, after his attempt to nationalise the banks and a strike by the Communist-dominated Miners Federation, Chifley lost office at in 1949 to Robert Menzies' Liberal-National Coalition. Labor commenced what would be a 23-year period in opposition.

Various ideological beliefs were factionalised under reforms to the ALP under Gough Whitlam, resulting in what is now known as the Socialist Left who tend to favour a more interventionist economic policy and more socially progressive ideals, and Labor Right, the now dominant faction that tends to be more economically liberal and focus to a lesser extent on social issues. The Whitlam Labor government, marking a break with Labor's socialist tradition, pursued social-democratic policies rather than democratic socialist policies. Whitlam, in contrast to earlier Labor leaders, also cut tariffs by 25 percent. Whitlam led the Federal Labor Party back to office at the 1972 and 1974 elections, and passed a large amount of legislation. The Whitlam Government lost office following the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis and dismissal by Governor-General Sir John Kerr after the Coalition blocked supply in the Senate after a series of political scandals, and was defeated at the 1975 election. Whitlam remains the only Prime Minister to have his commission terminated in that manner.

Bob Hawke led Labor back to office at the 1983 election and the Hawke-Keating Government remained in power until defeated by John Howard at the 1996 election.

Kim Beazley led the party to the 1998 election, winning 51 percent of the two-party preferred vote but falling short on seats, and lost ground at the 2001 election. Mark Latham led Labor to the 2004 election but lost further ground. Beazley replaced Latham in 2005. Beazley in turn was challenged by Kevin Rudd who went on to defeat John Howard at the 2007 election with 52.7 percent of the two-party vote. The Rudd Government ended prior to the 2010 election with the replacement of Rudd as leader of the Party by deputy leader Julia Gillard. The Gillard Government was commissioned to govern in a hung parliament following the 2010 election with a one-seat parliamentary majority and 50.12 percent of the two-party vote.

Between the 2007 federal election and the 2008 Western Australian state election, Labor was in government nationally, as well as in all eight state and territory legislatures. This was the first time any single party or any coalition had achieved this since the ACT and the NT gained self-government. After narrowly losing government in Western Australia at the 2008 state election and Victoria at the 2010 state election, Labor lost government in landslides in New South Wales at the 2011 state election and Queensland at the 2012 state election.

National 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. According to the Labor Party's website, "The Platform is the result of a rigorous and constructive process of consultation, spanning the nation and including the cooperation and input of state and territory policy committees, local branches, unions, state and territory governments, and individual Party members. The Platform provides the policy foundation from which we can continue to work towards the election of a federal Labor Government."

The platform gives a general indication of the policy direction which a future Labor government would follow, but does not commit the party to specific policies. It maintains that "Labor's traditional values will remain a constant on which all Australians can rely." While making it clear that Labor is fully committed to a market economy, it says that: "Labor believes in a strong role for national governmentÂ â€" the one institution all Australians truly own and control through our right to vote." Labor "will not allow the benefits of change to be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, or located only in privileged communities. The benefits must be shared by all Australians and all our regions." The Platform and Labor "believe that all people are created equal in their entitlement to dignity and respect, and should have an equal chance to achieve their potential." For Labor, "government has a critical role in ensuring fairness by: ensuring equal opportunity; removing unjustifiable discrimination; and achieving a more equitable distribution of wealth, income and status." Further sections of the Platform stress Labor's support for equality and human rights, labour rights and democracy.

In practice, the Platform provides only general policy guidelines to Labor's federal, state and territory parliamentary leaderships. The policy Labor takes into an election campaign is determined by the Cabinet (if the party is in office) or the Shadow Cabinet (if it is in opposition), in consultation with key interest groups within the party, and is contained in the parliamentary Leader's policy speech delivered during the election campaign. When Labor is in office, the policies it implements are determined by the Cabinet, subject to the Platform. Generally, it is accepted that while the Platform binds Labor governments, how and when it is implemented remains the prerogative of the parliamentary caucus. It is now rare for the Platform to conflict with government policy, as the content of the Platform is usually developed in close collaboration with the party's parliamentary leadership as well as the factions. However, where there is a direct contradiction with the Platform, Labor governments have sought to change the Platform as a prerequisite for a change in policy. For example, privatisation legislation under the Hawke government occurred only after holding a special national conference to debate changing the Platform.

Party structure

The Australian Labor Party is a democratic and federal party, which consists of both individual members and affiliated trade unions, who between them decide the party's policies, elect its governing bodies and choose its candidates for public office. Besides its federal organisation, the party also has branches in each state and territory, each of which in turn consists of local branches, which any Australian resident can join, plus affiliated trade unions.

Individual members pay a membership fee, which is graduated according to income. The party has about 35,000 individual members, although this figure tends to fluctuate along with the party's electoral fortunes. The majority of trade unions in Australia are affiliated to the party. Union affiliation is direct and not through the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Affiliated unions pay an affiliation fee based on the size of their membership. Union affiliation fees make up a large part of the party's income. Another source of funds for the party are political donations and public funding.

Members are generally expected to attend at least one meeting of their local branch each year, although there are differences in the rules from state to state. In practice only a dedicated minority regularly attend meetings. Many members are only active during election campaigns.

The members and unions elect delegates to state and territory conferences (usually held annually, although more frequent conferences are often held). These conferences decide policy, and elect state or territory executives, a state or territory president (an honorary position usually held for a one-year term), and a state or territory secretary (a full-time professional position). The larger branches also have full-time assistant secretaries and organisers. In the past the ratio of conference delegates coming from the branches and affiliated unions has varied from state to state, however under recent national reforms at least 50% of delegates at all state and territory conferences must be elected by branches.

The party holds a national conference every three years, which consists of delegates representing the state and territory branches (many coming from affiliated trade unions, although there is no formal requirement for unions to be represented at the national conference). The national conference approves the party's platform and policies, elects the national executive, and appoints office-bearers such as the National Secretary, who also serves as national campaign director during elections. The current National Secretary is George Wright. The most recent National Conference was held from 2 to 4 December 2011.

The federal parliamentary leader of the Labor Party was elected by the Labor members of the national Parliament (the Caucus) from the party's establishment until 2013. Since October 2013, a ballot of both the Parliamentary Caucus and by the Labor Party's rank-and-file members determined the party's parliamentary leaders, inclusive of the leader and the deputy leader.

Until 2003, the national conference elected the party's national president, but since then the position has rotated amongst a presidential team of three, directly elected by the party's individual members. Each member of the team serves a one-year term as national president, with the other members serving as vice-presidents. The current national president is Jenny McAllister, the national vice-presidents are Tony Sheldon and Jane Garrett.

The Labor Party contests national, state and territory elections. In some states it also contests local government elections or endorses local candidates: in others it does not, preferring to allow its members to run as non-endorsed candidates. The process of choosing candidates is called preselection. Candidates are preselected by different methods in the various states and territories. In some they are chosen by ballots of all party members, in others by panels or committees elected by the state conference, in still others by a combination of these two.

Labor candidates are required to sign a pledge that if elected they will always vote in the relevant Parliament in accordance with the platform and decisions made by a vote of the relevant Caucus. They are also sometimes required to donate a portion of their salary to the party, although this practice has declined with the introduction of public funding for political parties.

Factions

The Labor Party has always had a left wing and a right wing, but since the 1970s it has been organised into formal factions, to which party members may belong and often pay an additional membership fee. The two largest factions are Labor Unity (on the right) and the Socialist Left. Labor Unity generally supports free-market policies and the US alliance and tends to be conservative on some social issues. The national Left, although it seldom openly espouses socialism, favours more state intervention in the economy, is generally less enthusiastic about the US alliance and is often more progressive on social issues. The factions are themselves divided into sub-factions, primarily state-based.

Labor-affiliated trade unions are also factionally aligned. The largest unions supporting the right are the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), the National Union of Workers (NUW), the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA), and the Transport Workers Union (TWU). Important unions supporting the left include the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), United Voice, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Australian Services Union (ASU) and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA). These affiliations are seldom unconditional or permanent. The AWU and the NUW, for example, are bitter rivals and the NUW sometimes aligns itself with the left. Moreover, in some cases different union branches may have different factional alignments. On some issues, such as opposition to the Howard Government's industrial relations policy, most unions are in agreement.

Preselections are usually conducted along factional lines, although sometimes a non-factional candidate will be given preferential treatment (this happened with Cheryl Kernot in 1998 and again with Peter Garrett in 2004). Deals between the factions to divide up the safe seats between them often take place. Preselections, particularly for safe Labor seats, can sometimes be strongly contested. A particularly fierce preselection sometimes gives rise to accusations of branch stacking (signing up large numbers of nominal party members to vote in preselection ballots), personation, multiple voting and, on occasions, fraudulent electoral enrolment. Trade unions were in the past accused of giving inflated membership figures to increase their influence over preselections, but party rules changes have stamped out this practice. Preselection results are sometimes challenged, and the National Executive is sometimes called on to arbitrate these disputes.

Labor Networks

The Australian Labor Party, is beginning to formally recognise single interest groups within the party. Examples of such groups include the Labor Environment Action Network, Rainbow Labor, and Labor for Refugees. The Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Labor Party recently gave these groups, known as Policy Action Caucuses, voting and speaking rights at their state conference.

ALP federal parliamentary leaders

ALP federal deputy parliamentary leaders

Shown in chronological order of leadership

ALP state and territory parliamentary leaders

Current

Luke FoleyÂ â€" Leader of the Opposition of New South Wales since 5 January 2015
Daniel AndrewsÂ â€" Premier of Victoria since 4 December 2014
Annastacia PalaszczukÂ â€" Premier of Queensland since 14 February 2015
Mark McGowanÂ â€" Leader of the Opposition of Western Australia since 23 January 2012
Jay WeatherillÂ â€" Premier of South Australia since 21 October 2011
Bryan GreenÂ â€" Leader of the Opposition of Tasmania since 31 March 2014
Andrew BarrÂ â€" Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory since 11 December 2014
Michael GunnerÂ â€" Leader of the Opposition of the Northern Territory since 20 April 2015

Past premiers and chief ministers

Northern Territory

Paul Henderson (2007â€"12)
Clare Martin (2001â€"07, first Labor Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, first female Chief Minister of the Northern Territory)

Australian Capital Territory

Katy Gallagher (2011â€"14)
Jon Stanhope (2001â€"11)
Rosemary Follett (1989, 1991â€"95, inaugural Chief Minister of the ACT, and first female head of government of an Australian state or territory)

New South Wales

Kristina Keneally (2009â€"11, first female premier of New South Wales)
Nathan Rees (2008â€"09)
Morris Iemma (2005â€"08)
Bob Carr (1995â€"2005)
Barrie Unsworth (1986â€"88)
Neville Wran (1976â€"86)
Jack Renshaw (1964â€"65)
Robert Heffron (1959â€"64)
Joseph Cahill (1952â€"59)
James McGirr (1947â€"52)
William McKell (1941â€"47)
Jack Lang (1925â€"27, 1930â€"32)
James Dooley (1921, 1921â€"22)
John Storey (1920â€"21)
William Holman (1913â€"16)
James McGowen (1910â€"13)

see also Australian Labor Party in New South Wales

Queensland

Anna Bligh (2007â€"12, first female premier of Queensland, and first woman in Australia to win an election as premier)
Peter Beattie (1998â€"2007)
Wayne Goss (1989â€"96)
Vince Gair (1952â€"57)
Ned Hanlon (1946â€"52)
Frank Cooper (1942â€"46)
William Forgan Smith (1932â€"42)
William McCormack (1925â€"29)
William Gillies (1925)
Ted Theodore (1919â€"25)
T. J. Ryan (1915â€"19)
Anderson Dawson (1899, world's first leader of a parliamentary socialist government)

South Australia

Mike Rann (2002â€"11)
Lynn Arnold (1992â€"93)
John Bannon (1982â€"92)
Des Corcoran (1979)
Don Dunstan (1967â€"68, 1970â€"79)
Frank Walsh (1965â€"67)
Robert Richards (1933)
Lionel Hill (1926â€"27, 1930â€"33)
John Gunn (1924â€"26)
Crawford Vaughan (1915â€"17)
John Verran (1910â€"12)
Thomas Price (1905â€"09)

Tasmania

Lara Giddings (2011â€"14, first female Premier of Tasmania)
David Bartlett (2008â€"11)
Paul Lennon (2004â€"08)
Jim Bacon (1998â€"2004)
Michael Field (1989â€"92)
Harry Holgate (1981â€"82)
Doug Lowe (1977â€"81)
Bill Neilson (1975â€"77)
Eric Reece (1958â€"69, 1972â€"75)
Edward Brooker (1947â€"48)
Robert Cosgrove (1939â€"47, 1948â€"58)
Edmund Dwyer-Gray (1939)
Albert Ogilvie (1934â€"39)
Joseph Lyons (1923â€"28)
John Earle (1909, 1914â€"16)

Victoria

John Brumby (2007â€"10)
Steve Bracks (1999â€"2007)
Joan Kirner (1990â€"92, first female premier of Victoria, and first woman in Australia to lose an election as premier)
John Cain II (1982â€"90)
John Cain (senior) (1943, 1945â€"47, 1952â€"55)
Edmond Hogan (1927â€"28, 1929â€"32)
George Prendergast (1924)
George Elmslie (1913)

Western Australia

Alan Carpenter (2006â€"08)
Geoff Gallop (2001â€"06)
Carmen Lawrence (1990â€"93, first female premier of an Australian state)
Peter Dowding (1988â€"90)
Brian Burke (1983â€"88)
John Tonkin (1971â€"74)
Albert Hawke (1953â€"59)
Frank Wise (1945â€"47)
John Willcock (1936â€"45)
Philip Collier (1924â€"30, 1933â€"36)
John Scaddan (1911â€"16)
Henry Daglish (1904â€"05)

Other past Labor politicians

See Category:Australian Labor Party politicians

For current ALP federal politicians, see:

List of members of the Australian House of Representatives
List of members of the Australian Senate

Federal election results

Notes

References

External links

Australian Labor Party website

Tuesday, April 28, 2015