Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
1900s to the 1940s; a Labor versus Coalition contest from the 1940s to the 1980s,
dominated by Labor; and a period from the late 1980s when Labor versus Coalition
competition has been modified by minor party and independent challengers.
The colonial period
At the first popular elections in 1856, the political contest was between liberals and
conservatives. In the ensuing decades, the conservatives disappeared as a political
force. Almost all politicians labelled themselves ‘liberal’, which became a diffuse,
diluted creed. Competition for government was between loose factions gathered
around dominant political leaders, such as Charles Cowper, John Robertson, James
Martin, Alexander Stuart and the greatest of them all, Henry Parkes, who still holds
the record as NSW’s longest-serving premier, completing a cumulative term of 11
yearsandninemonths(seeTable1). 25
Atwo-partysystememergedinthe1880sbetweenFreeTradersandProtectionists.
As a major trading centre, Sydney was a Free Trade stronghold. Protection was
supported by manufacturers and farmers who wanted tariffs to safeguard them from
imports from overseas and from other colonies. Federation made the fiscal issue
irrelevant in NSW, as the Australian Constitution entrenched free trade between the
new states and gave power over tariffs to the Commonwealth government. The Free
Traders became the Liberal Party and the Protectionists became the Progressives. 26
The Labor Party changes the contest
A stronger challenge to the colonial pattern of political competition came from the
formation of the Labor Party. In January 1890, the NSW Trades and Labor Council
decided to elect representatives to parliament to protect and further its interests.
The initial platform was a practical, down-to-earth document, mainly concerned
with matters such as industrial, electoral, land, educational and social reform. The
newpartydrewsupportnotonlyfromtheurbanworkingclassbutalsofromsmall
farmers, shopkeepers and intellectuals. It had socialist elements but these were
never predominant. From its inception, Labor was committed to the parliamentary
road to reform. 27
Labor did well in the 1891 poll, winning 29 per cent of the primary vote. As a
third party holding the balance of power, Labor’s approach was to support the party
that offered to advance its agenda the most.
Labor constructed its organisation on the innovative basis of grassroots control.
In practice, these democratic ideals were often subverted by dominant factions that
ruledwithanironfist.TheearlyelectoralsuccessesoftheLaborPartypushednon-
Labor forces together into a single party, the Liberal Party, in the 1900s, creating
25 Loveday and Martin 1966.
26 Loveday, Martin and Parker 1977.
27 Nairn 1973.
218