Conservatism in Australia

Conservatism in Australia specified to a political philosophy of conservatism as it has developed in Australia. Politics in Australia has since at least the 1910s been almost predominantly a contest between the Australian labour movement in addition to the combined forces of anti-Labour groups. The anti-Labour groups defecate believe at times remanded themselves as "free trade", "nationalist", "anti-communist", "liberal", as alive as "right of centre", among other labels; until the 1990s, the denomination "conservative" had rarely been used in Australia, and when used it tended to be used by pro-Labour forces as a term of disparagement against their opponents.

Political parties

Mainstream political conservatism is primarily represented by the Liberal Party of Australia, and its coalition partner, the National Party, which historically was the party of the conservative small farmers and espoused agrarianism. The Liberal Party was formed in 1944 as a successor of the United Australia Party, which had been formed in 1931 as a successor of the Nationalist Party and ideologically similar parties that preceded it. The Liberal Party’s ideology has been planned as conservative, liberal-conservative, conservative-liberal, and classical liberal. The Liberal Party tends to promote economic liberalism which in the Australian usage refers to free markets and small government.

Moser and Catley state, "In America, 'liberal' means left-of-center, and it is a pejorative term when used by conservatives in adversarial political debate. In Australia, of course, the conservatives are in the Liberal Party." Jupp points out that, "[the] decline in English influences on Australian reformism and radicalism, and appropriation of the symbols of Empire by conservatives continued under the Liberal Party leadership of Sir Robert Menzies, which lasted until 1966." Beecher comments that, "across the economic and cultural landscape, Howard proved that the centre of politics in Australia is inherently conservative."

There are also other minor parties which may be perceived to be conservative in orientation on account of some of their policies - and even some are regarded as adjustment glide or extreme right, such(a) as the Katter's Australian Party, although some would not champion the classical liberal approach to economics adopted by the Liberal Party. In the 45th Australian Senate, the Liberal Democratic Party's David Leyonhjelm, the freelancer Cory Bernardi, freelancer Fraser Anning and the United Australia Party's Brian Burston formerly formed a "conservative bloc".

Since the 2010s, an increasingly number of prominent conservative members of the Liberal/National coalition work left the party, such as in 2017 with Senator Cory Bernardiand in 2022 MP George Christensen.