- History of the Australian Labor Party
- Divisions and Fustrations in Office
- Famous Labor Governments
- The Union movement and the Labor Party
- Objectives of the ALP
- Why join the Labor Party?
- Young Labor
- Join The Labor Party
- Renew Labor Party Membership
The Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party, which celebrated its centenary in 1991 is Australia's oldest political party.
It is about 30 years older than the Country Party and more than 50 years older than the Liberal Party.
Labor became a Federal Party when the former colonies of Australia federated in 1901.
Separate labour parties had been established in the colonies during the formative decade of the 1890s.
These parties were sponsored by the trade union movement, to help get sympathetic politicians elected to colonial parliaments. In Western Australia, Tasmania and Victoria, there were no strong and coherent labour parties until after federation.
However, by 1900 strong labour parties had emerged in Queensland and New South Wales, quickly taking up a prominent role in Parliamentary politics.
Australia's first labour government took office in Queensland in 1899. It lasted seven days. Although these early labour parties were strongly influenced by the trade unions, they were never confined to union membership and interests. Their earliest programs and platforms show that they sought the support of farmers, small businessmen and non-union employees including clerical and other white-collar workers.
From the start the Labour Party was essentially a pragmatic and non-doctrinaire party, representing a broad range of social and economic interests. It was broad in appeal and moderate in aim, although this did not stop its opponents from attacking it as extremist.
The Australian Labor Party entered federal politics at the first Commonwealth elections of 1901, when 16 Labor members were elected to the House of Representatives and eight to the Senate. They met before the first sitting of Parliament on 8 May 1901 and agreed to form a Federal Labor Party. J.C. (Chris) Watson, a Sydney printer and a former member of the NSW Parliament, was elected the first Leader of the Party.
During the early years of the ALP, the Party was referred to by various titles differing from colony to colony. It was at the 1908 Interstate (federal) Conference that the name "Australian Labour Party" was adopted. In its shortened form the Party was frequently referred to as both 'Labor' and 'Labour', however the former spelling was adopted from 1912 onwards, due to the influence of the American labor movement.
During the first decade of the Commonwealth when the national Parliament was divided on the tariff issue between Free Traders, Protectionists and the Labor Party, the ALP gradually increased its numbers and influence. Initially the Labor Party was weaker in numbers but more coherent and tightly organised than the amorphous free trade and protection factions. The support of the Labor Party was often decisive in getting important measures through the Parliament.
Australia's first Labor Government took office in May 1904, with Watson as the first Labor Prime Minister. It was a minority Government and lasted just over three months.
In the following years, the Labor Party mostly supported the Liberal protectionist policies of Alfred Deakin. In October 1907 Watson was succeeded as Leader by Andrew Fisher, a miner from Gympie in Queensland. Fisher formed the second Labor Government in October 1908, a minority Government, which, with Deakin's support, lasted until June 1909. At the elections of April 1910, Labor won a majority in both Houses and for the first time was able to embark on a program of reform and innovation.
It founded a Commonwealth Bank, introduced a maternity allowance, established a Navy, brought more employees within the scope of Federal Industrial Law, took over the issuing of bank notes, and introduced a per capita system of payments to the States.
The Government was defeated in May 1913, but won a subsequent double dissolution election in September 1914. Fisher was again elected Prime Minister as Australia entered World War 1. The Fisher Government was committed to the war and to the strong patriotic sentiments which it aroused.
In October 1915, Fisher resigned to become Australian High Commissioner in London, and W.M. Hughes who had been prominent in Labor politics for more than 20 years became Prime Minister.
The ALP was the world's first successful Labor Party by an overwhelming margin; by 1915 it had formed three governments in the Federal Parliament and had governed in all States, although only very briefly in Victoria. During the Great War Labor became in effect a victim of its rapid progress. Whereas Labor's equivalents in other nations involved in the conflict merely had to react to their respective governments' administration of the war, Labor in Australia had the onerous undertaking of directing their country's involvement in a conflagration far beyond anyone's expectation or experience. The resulting pressures created acute difficulties for the Party.
Labor's success at winning office meant that its Governments could be judged on their record and, despite some achievements, inevitably sections of the movement were disappointed. In particular, important elements of the union leadership in the powerful States of Victoria and New South Wales were disappointed at what Labor governments had achieved. Labor governments often took office at times of economic difficulty. As employers in industries such as State railways and other State utilities, State Labor governments did not completely satisfy the unions.
Bread and butter irritants became mixed with broader social and political differences among elements of the labour movement and these pressures culminated in the great struggles over conscription in 1916 and 1917. Conscription was supported by a majority of leading Labor politicians and opposed by nearly all union leaders. The union officials and other elements within the Party used their control over the Party organisation to eject pro-conscriptionist politicians from the Party.
In the process the Federal Labor Government was destroyed. Hughes and 23 ALP Parliamentarians left the Party and joined with the Opposition to form a Nationalist Government.
A weakened Labor Party struggled through the next 10 years trying to re-establish the political supremacy it had lost in the conscriptionist split. It was lead by Frank Tudor who replaced Hughes, and then by Matthew Charlton. Both were solid trade unionists who could not match the popular appeal of the Nationalist Party Leaders, Hughes and Bruce. The Federal Party did not recover until 1929 when the National-Country Party coalition was defeated after it tried to impose punitive industrial legislation. The ALP won the election of October 1929, and its Leader, J.H. Scullin, became Prime Minister.
The Scullin Government was soon engulfed in the world-wide depression. It proved incapable of evolving the economic and social policies needed to maintain living standards and social services, although it was badly hampered because it did not control the Senate. The Scullin Government was defeated in the Parliament in November 1931 and lost the subsequent election.
J.A. Lyons, a Minister in the Scullin Government, left the Party with a group of dissidents opposed to the Government's economic policy. They joined with the Opposition to form the United Australia Party with Lyons as Prime Minister. Discontent which had simmered between the industrial and political wings of the labour movement broke out into open factional warfare during the 1930s.
A number of Labor politicians at both Federal and State levels were expelled, and splinter parties were formed.
Factional disputes within the Party were not quelled until late in the decade. Scullin was succeeded as federal leader in 1935 by John Curtin who gradually re-built the Federal Party and restored its electoral appeal and effectiveness. Curtin became war-time Prime Minister in October 1941. He gave resolute and inspiring leadership to the Australian people during the war and a group of experienced and capable Ministers provided the administrative backup needed for a successful war effort. The Curtin Government also devoted considerable attention to drawing up a blueprint for post-war reconstruction of Australia.
Curtin died in July 1945 and was succeeded by J.B. Chifley who implemented the ALP's plans for post-war reconstruction.
The Chifley Government achieved some notable reforms, but was hampered by constitutional impediments. Electoral reaction against war-time austerity and post-war rationing and controls was an important factor in the defeat of the Chifley Government in December 1949.
Chifley died in June 1951 and Dr H.V. Evatt was elected Leader.
Labor narrowly lost the Federal election of 1954 after the Coalition Government used the Petrov Royal Commission and anti-communist scare-tactics as a cynical diversion.
During the 1940s and early 1950s strong pressures had built up within the labour movement over the activities of Communists in the trade unions. The Communist Party was then a united and coherent political unit and a number of its members reached prominent positions in trade unions. This created problems for the ALP because it meant that part of its affiliated membership was under the leadership and influence of another political party. Counter movements were formed within and without the ALP to fight communism. The most important was an organisation known as "The Movement" led by B.A. Santamaria and strongly influenced by Catholic social doctrines.
In 1945 the ALP had set up Industrial Groups in some States to oppose Communists in union elections. "The Movement", which operated as a secret organisation, dominated many of the Industrial Groups and built up increasing influence within the Party itself. In a protracted struggle between 1954 and 1957, supporters of "The Movement" and the Industrial Groups were forced out of the ALP, which tacitly gave up any claim to intervene directly in union affairs.
In the following years, the Communist Party split into three competing factions. No longer was there any large, powerful and united group of union leaders outside the ranks of the ALP.
The great purge of "The Movement" and the Industrial Groups left the ALP in an extremely weakened position. The Party lost three elections under Evatt, who resigned in 1960. Under a new Leader, Arthur Calwell, Labor almost won the 1961 election, when the electorate swung strongly against the Menzies Government after a stringent credit squeeze. The Party's political fortunes declined in the following years, plunging to a disastrous defeat in the 1966 election, which was dominated by the participation of Australian troops in the Vietnam War and Labor's opposition to the war.
Under a new Leader, E.G. (Gough) Whitlam, the Party rapidly recovered in the closing years of the 1960s. Whitlam embarked on an ambitious program of policy reform, linking it with important changes in the Party machinery. Labor narrowly lost the 1969 election, but won comfortably in 1972.
Between 1972 and 1975 the Labor Government attempted a wide-ranging program of reform extending over every area of public policy. It made many significant advances but its efforts were frustrated by an Opposition majority in the Senate. This sparked a double dissolution election in May 1974 which Labor won with a reduced majority, although it failed narrowly to win a majority in the Senate.
The Whitlam Government continued its program of reform and innovation, but during 1975 it was embroiled in a series of controversies. Opposition from the Senate mounted until October 1975, when it refused to pass supply for the functions of Government. This sparked a protracted political crisis which was resolved when the Governor General, Sir John Kerr, dismissed the Labor Government and appointed the Opposition minority as a caretaker Government. Labor was badly beaten in the subsequent elections of 1975 and 1977.
Bill Hayden was elected Leader of the Party after the disastrous 1977 election defeat.
His first tasks were to set about rebuilding morale within the ALP, and to re-establish the Party's credentials as a genuine alternative government. He presided over a comprehensive review of the Platform and organisational structure.
In 1980 Hayden led the Party to within 13 seats of winning Government, providing the foundation for Labor's success over the next decade.
Labor was returned to office on 5 March 1983, with the election of the first Hawke Government. The new Government's first priority was to restore economic and employment growth, with a simultaneous attack on the high levels of unemployment and inflation - to tackle the legacy of economic mismanagement and social neglect of the Fraser Government.
The improvements in Australia's economic performance, especially in employment and job security, resulted from the implementation of an innovative economic policy, embodied in the Prices and Incomes Accord between the ALP and the trade union movement. This approach included greater consultation with the community, best illustrated in the National Economic Summit Conference, the Tax Summit, the Economic Planning Advisory Council and the Australian Labor Advisory Council.
The Hawke Labor Government was re-elected in 1984, 1987, and 1990 - to a record four successive terms. This record was achieved despite the difficult economic circumstances in the mid 1980s.
By late 1991, many in the labour movement had become concerned that the economic and political outlook was deteriorating severely and in December 1991, Paul Keating replaced Bob Hawke as Prime Minister after defeating him in a ballot for the Leadership of the Party.
One of the major priorities of the Keating Government was to outline a set of proposals addressing a wide range of social and economic issues facing Australia, both domestically and internationally. Domestic issues to be targeted in particular included unemployment through the creation of job opportunities, industrial relations with the introduction of enterprise bargaining, and financial assistance for families on low incomes.
At the same time, proposals were detailed to increase Australia's competitiveness on the international market, placing special emphasis on increasing trade with particular Asian countries.
The package entitled 'One Nation', coupled with the Keating Government's first Budget, were designed to meet these challenges.
On 13 March 1993, the Keating Labor Government was returned to office, defeating the very right-wing policies of the Liberal-National Coalition led by John Hewson. This victory marked the fifth successive return of a national Labor Government.
The Keating Government's reform agenda continued from 1993 until it was defeated on 2 March 1996, ending a record 13 years of Labor Government.
When Labor left office it left Australia in a sound economic position, having delivered an unprecedented four and a half years of sustained growth, combined with low inflation, stable interest rates, and the creation of more than two million new jobs.
Further reading: A full history of the ALP's first 100 years is detailed in the book The Light on the Hill, the Australian Labor Party 1981-1991, written by Ross McMullin, published by Oxford University Press Australia.
From its inception the presence and activity of the trade unions has been vital to the ALP.
It is the affiliation of the unions which makes the ALP a labour party, and not a party which should be called by another name. The unions have always been an important source of funds and other resources which keep the Party functioning.
A vital part of the Party's rebuilding process following the 2 March 1996 Federal election has been to maintain and extend our special relationship with our union affiliates with whom we share much in common.
Particularly over the past 20 years there has been a steady improvement in the relationship between Labor's Parliamentary Parties and the trade unions. Relations have been for the most part amicable and mutually productive. Trade union leaders have held and continue to hold high office in the Party structure. Although the Whitlam Government was not immune from trade union criticism, relations were much better than during the terms of some earlier Labor Governments. Indeed, the Prices and Incomes Accord negotiated between the ACTU and the ALP was a fundamental part of the former Federal Labor Government's economic policy.
It is true that not all unions have the same relationship with the Party. There have always been unions not affiliated with the Party at all, or affiliated in some States but not in others. Probably about one third of the total number of unionists in Australia are not affiliated with the ALP. However, during recent years there has been a tendency even for unaffiliated unions to move closer to the main body of trade unionism, and this in turn has brought their political attitudes closer to those of the ALP.
For instance, a number of white collar unions not affiliated with the Party are represented on the ACTU and hence ALAC.
The long history of the ALP and the unions shows that there is no reason for complacency about the inevitability of harmonious relations. Good relations require patience and restraint on both sides.
The traditional relationship between Party and the union movement, whatever its faults, has proved acceptable to both, and it is certain to endure.
OBJECTIVES OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY
The ALP's extensive National Platform covers the principles and wide-ranging policies which represent the shortterm and long-term aspirations of the Party. The Government draws on these policies in preparing its programme, while continuing to give priority to economic recovery, to a fair distribution of the benefits of economic growth, and to improvements in the welfare and living standards of the Australian people. As far as possible, the Government directs resources to those most in need.
The Party's democratic socialist principles include the political and social values of equality, democracy, liberty and social co-operation. And they set out a range of objectives, including: a fairer distribution of political and economic power; restoration of full employment; the abolition of poverty; greater equality in the distribution of income, wealth and opportunity; equal access and rights to employment, education, other community services and activities; more democratic control, ownership and participation in Australian industry; maintenance of world peace; an independent Australian position in world affairs.
A fair and just society
The Labor Party is always working to improve the quality of life of ordinary Australians.
Building on its great traditions and values, Labor remains the Party of reform and modernisation. A party that never stands still in its desire for justive, equality and a fair-go.
Lasting change can only be achieved by being in government. By joining the Party you can play a part in electing Labor governments that make a real difference to people's daily lives.
Help make Labor policy
All party members are welcome to attend the NSW Branch's Annual Conference. It's the biggest political conference of it's kind in Australia. Held over a weekend in Sydney, Annual Conference is the NSW Branch's highest policy making body. It considers policy resolutions from Party units, elects the Party officers and 13 Policy Committees. More than 850 delegates and hundreds of observers attend Annual Conference.
Get involved in your local branch
At monthly meetings members discuss matters relating to all levels of government. You also get the oppotunity to meet and put questions to local Labor MP's or Councillors.
Branches elect delegates to State Electorate Councils and Federal Electorate Councils. They deal with electorate matters and coordinate the local State and Federal election campaigns.
Keep informed. Get active
To be active, members need to be informed. That's why the Party produces email news bulletins every month and Labor Times, a full color magazine, every four months. There is also an extensive program of education and training on the latest campaign ideas and techniques. But there is more to life in the Party than politics with regular social events and dinners.
If you are under 26 you can join Young Labor for a great mix of fun and politics.
There are 32 young Labor Associations throughout NSW. They meet regularly for lively discussions and social events.
Younng Labor holds three conferences each year as well as running regular events such as dinners, debates, new members evenings and an annual sports day.
For more information on Young Labor including information on how to join, visit: http://www.younglabor.com.au
Join the Australian Labor Party!
It's easy to join the ALP, simple click on one of the links below, Application form for new members, Renewal form for existing members renewing their membership for another year.
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