The Victorian Liberal Party, officially known as the Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division), and branded as Liberal Victoria, is the state division of the Liberal Party of Australia in Victoria. It was formed in 1949 as the Liberal and Country Party (LCP) and simplified its name to the Liberal Party in 1965. The party sits on the centre-right to right-wing of the Australian political spectrum, and is currently led by Jess Wilson.
There was a previous Victorian division of the Liberal Party formed in March 1945, but it ceased to exist when the LCP was established four years later.
Contents
History
Background
Robert Menzies, who was the Prime Minister of Australia between 1939 and 1941, founded the Liberal Party during a conference held in Canberra in October 1944, uniting many non-Labor political organisations, including the United Australia Party (UAP) and the Australian Women's National League (AWNL).
The UAP was a major conservative party in Australia and last governed Victoria between May 1932 and April 1935, under Stanley Argyle's leadership. Argyle lost the premiership when the UAP's coalition partner, the United Country Party, led by Albert Dunstan, ended the coalition and formed a minority government with the support of the Labor Party. After Argyle's death in late 1941, Thomas Hollway became the leader of the UAP in Victoria. During his time as UAP leader, he was the Deputy Premier in a Dunstan coalition government from September 1943.
The AWNL was a conservative women's organisation founded and originally based in Victoria, but had expanded across Australia since World War I. Its leaders included Dame Elizabeth Couchman and future senator Ivy Wedgwood, both of whom were from Victoria. During the October 1944 conference, the AWNL was recognised by Menzies as one of the long-standing non-Labor organisations in Victoria.
The Liberal Party in Victoria was established between December 1944 and January 1945, with the names of the provisional state executive revealed on 29 December 1944, and the first meeting held a week later, on 5 January 1945. The state executive included AWNL's leaders Couchman and Wedgwood. The AWNL joined the Liberal Party on 30 January 1945. The UAP and its parliamentary members (including Hollway) joined the Liberal Party on 5 March 1945, with the state parliamentary UAP becoming the state parliamentary Liberal Party. As a result, Hollway became the first parliamentary leader of the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party.
Old Liberal Party Victorian Division
On 2 October 1945, deputy Liberal leader Ian Macfarlan, was commissioned by the Governor, Sir Winston Dugan, to form a government, when it became clear that the Victorian Legislative Assembly would not grant supply to the Dunstan government. The Liberals were defeated by the Labor Party in the election a month later.
After the 1947 Victorian state election, the Liberals were again in coalition with the Country Party (renamed from United Country Party) and governed Victoria as majority government from 20 November 1947 to 3 December 1948, with Liberal leader Hollway as Premier and Country leader John McDonald as Deputy Premier until the collapse of the Coalition.
Liberal and Country Party
During a series of transport strikes in 1948, the moderate Hollway had dealt amicably with the transport unions and the Trades Hall Council, but McDonald heavily criticised his conciliatory approach to the conservative parties' traditional enemies. Hollway forced McDonald to resign as deputy, and Wilfrid Kent Hughes, deputy leader of the Liberal Party, was appointed Deputy Premier.
In February 1949, the Liberal Party planned to form a new Liberal and Country Party (LCP), with metropolitan and country interests proposed to be represented on a 50–50 basis. Hollway hoped this would unite the two "anti-socialist" parties of Liberal Party and Country Party together, an idea supported by Liberal Party and Country Party voters.
A merger of the Liberal and Country parties had already happened in South Australia in 1932, with the formation of the Liberal and Country League. The Liberal Party conference on 22 February 1949 endorsed the idea of a merger. However, the idea was rejected by the Country Party and argued it was a takeover attempt of the Country Party, and to eliminate the Country Party from Victorian politics entirely.
However, six Country Party MPs were willing to be part of the united party. On 22 March 1949, they joined the Liberals in forming the Liberal and Country Party (LCP). Hollway was chosen as leader of the new party and continued to be Premier. Hughes also continued as deputy leader of the new party and Deputy Premier. The six former Country MPs were eligible for Cabinet positions in the new LCP government, but turned them down since "the present cabinet had prepared legislation for the new parliamentary session" and "should carry on with it", so the incumbent cabinet composition was unchanged. The LCP succeeded the old Victorian Liberal Party as the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia, and federal members endorsed by the LCP sat with the Liberals in Canberra and belonged to the federal parliamentary Liberal Party.
Future Prime Minister, John Gorton, was one of those appointed to the state executive of the LCP. He had supported the Country Party since before the war, but became frustrated with the party's squabbles with the Liberal Party and its willingness to co-operate with the Labor Party. While being part of the LCP state executive, he had addressed Country Party gatherings in a few occasions, urging its members to join the new party and stressing that it would not neglect rural interests, as many feared. However, the Country Party was not convinced and never joined the new party.
Liberal Party
As one of the conditions of the Country Party supporting the government's supply bill in the Legislative Council on 27 October 1964, the 'and Country' was to be dropped from the name of the Liberal and Country Party. During the party's State Council in March 1965, the party debated for more than an hour on its party name. It was revealed through a letter from Menzies that he did not like the "Liberal and Country Party" name because "liberalism catered for people in the city and in the country". With the letter, Bolte managed to persuade the party to support the motion of change of name back to the original name of Liberal Party.
Malcolm Fraser, the Prime Minister between 1975 and 1983, is to date the last Liberal Prime Minister from Victoria. His immediate successor Andrew Peacock, who served from 1983 to 1985, and again from 1989 to 1990, is the most recent Victorian federal Liberal leader.
The Liberal Party continued to hold government in the Victorian state parliament until 1982 under the leaderships of Bolte, Rupert Hamer and Lindsay Thompson.
The Liberal Party was defeated in the 1982 Victorian state election after governing Victoria for 27 years. Following the Liberals' defeat, Jeff Kennett became the leader of the party. He was deposed as leader following the 1988 Victorian state election, and was replaced by Alan Brown. During Brown's leadership, the Liberals reached a new Coalition agreement with the Victorian Nationals, led by Pat McNamara since 1988.
Kennett became party leader again in 1991 and led the Coalition to victory in the 1992 Victorian state election. The Liberals actually gained a majority of seats in their own right and although Kennett had no need for the support of the Nationals, he retained the Coalition with McNamara as his Deputy Premier.
The Liberal and National Coalition held government from 1992 to 1999 under Kennett's leadership. The Kennett government privatised many government services, including closing down over three hundred schools. The Liberals and Nationals fought as a Coalition in the 1996, after which the Liberals won majority in its own right again, and again 1999, after which the Coalition was defeated.
Leadership
Senior Figures
State presidents of the Victorian Liberal Party
1945–1948: William Anderson
1948–1949: Magnus Cormack
1949–1950: Dan Mackinnon
1950–1952: William Anderson
1952–1956: John Anderson
1956–1959: Rutherford Guthrie
1959–1962: John Buchan
1962–1965: William Snell
1965–1966: Andrew Peacock
1966–1970: Robert Southey
1970–1973: Phillip Russell
1973–1976: Peter Hardie
1976–1979: Joy Mein
1979–1982: Richard Alston
1982–1984: Stewart McArthur
1984–1987: Eda Ritchie
1987–1992: Michael Kroger
1992–1998: Ted Baillieu
1997–2000: Joy Howley
2000–2003: Ian Carson
2003–2006: Helen Kroger
2006–2007: Russell Hannan
2007–2011: David Kemp
2011–2015: Tony Snell
State Directors of the Victorian Liberal Party
1945–1971: J V McConnell
1971–1974: Leo Hawkins
1975–1976: Timothy Pascoe
1976–1977: Graham Jennings
1977–1983: Neville Hughes
1984–1987: John Ridley
1987–1988: David Kemp
1989–1994: Petro Georgiou
1994–2000: Peter Poggioli
2000–2003: Brian Loughnane
2003–2008: Julian Sheezel
2008–2011: Tony Nutt
2011–2015: Damien Mantach
2015–2017: Simon Frost
2017–2019: Nick Demiris
2019–2022: Sam McQuestin
2023–present: Stuart Smith