Introduction Following the 1914 election, the Federal Parliament comprised members of the governing Australian Labor Party (ALP), the Commonwealth Liberal Party (CLP) in Opposition, and one Independent Member of Parliament (MP). Although both major parties generally supported Australia’s participation in the First World War, only the CLP came to demonstrate unanimous advocacy for the conscription...

Overview Trust in political parties has never been lower, but we have more and more of them, to the point where voters need magnifying sheets to read ballot papers. What is the relationship between party regulation and the nature of our democracy? How is it that parties have been able to gather so many public...

A Victorian ReachTEL poll, conducted Thursday night from a sample of 1650, gives Labor a 51-49 two party lead, a one point gain for the Coalition since the November 2014 election. Primary votes appear to be 40.1% for the Coalition, 34.6% for Labor and 10.7% for the Greens, but we are told that Labor’s support...

Between 2010 and 2015 the Liberal Party of Australia and the Queensland Liberal National Party accepted over two million dollars in political donations from mining companies seeking approval for six highly controversial mining projects in Queensland.

Europe offers lessons for Australian parties uneasy at the prospect of having to talk to each other In the same week as Malcolm Turnbull called the 2016 Australian election, another conservative leader on the other side of the world did what his Australian counterpart has been saying he will never do. Thomas Strobl, chairman of...