Australian parties of the right

Graham Young

Chief Editor

On Line Opinion

Former Vice-President

and

Campaign Chairman

Queensland Liberal Party

18th March, 2005

Who said this?

“…what we must look for…is…social justice and security…national power and national progress, and…the full development of the individual citizen….There is no room in Australia for a party of reaction…”

What’s Right?

• Liberal

• National

• One Nation

• Family First

• Christian Democrats

Who’s right?

Where do “right” and “left” originate?

• “The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left', established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape. For example, who are the 'conservatives' in today's Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher?”

• Source: http://www.politicalcompass.org/

A better representation?

Points on the Compass

• Five categories – Libertarian, Centrist, Authoritarian, Left

Liberal, Right Conservative

• Major divide is a question of how the economy is

organised – around individuals or the state.

• Perfectibility of man/original sin/utopia versus distopia

Liberals and Conservatives

• Using “Liberal” in the classical liberal sense, not the USA

sense.

• Using Conservative in the English sense more than the US

sense.

Liberalism

Socrates

Judaism

Athenian democracy

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

Liberalism continued…

• Renaissance

• Reformation

• Consciously separate ideology in the 16th Century

Some Liberal Thinkers

– Jean Jacques Rousseau: “Man was born free and everywhere he is in chains.”Du Contrat social, Ch. 1, 1762

– John Locke: Social Contractarian

– Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” American Declaration of Independence

– Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations (1776)

More Liberal thinkers…

• John Stuart Mill – On Liberty (1859), Utilitarianism (1863), Subjection of Women (1869)

• L T Hobhouse

• Isaiah Berlin

• F A Hayek – The Road to Serfdom (1944)

Key liberal ideas

•Civil and political rights

•Equality of opportunity, not outcome

•Freedom of speech, thought and association

•Private property

•Individual effort

Conservatism

Western conservatives are broadly liberal in that they operate in a liberal society.

“Conservative ideology…may be defined as a philosophy of imperfection, committed to the idea of limits, and directed towards the defence of a limited style of politics.” Noel O’Sullivan, Conservatism (1976)

 

Tend to a darker view of human nature than liberals, and take a more organic view of society.

Some Conservative Thinkers

• Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan (1651)

• Edmund Burke – Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

• Hegel – The Philosophy of Right (1833)

• Oakeshott – Rationalism in politics (London, 1962)

• Hayek – The Fatal Conceit (1988)

• Scruton – Why I became a conservative (The New Criterion, February, 2003) http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/21/feb03/burke.htm

History of Parties of the Right

Before Labor

• Political parties in our tradition only about 300 years old.• Defined initially by attitude towards monarchy. Developed

from acrimony between Whigs and Tories. • Liberals were the Whigs – word derived from Scottish

Presbyterian Rebels in the Civil War. First applied in 1679 to the Country Party opposed to James II. Subsequently associated with industrialism, non-conformism and reform.

• Tories. Originally supporters of James II, then Jacobism. Tended to represent the interests of the landed gentry, merchants and Anglicans. Became the “Conservative” party in the 1830s.

After Labor

• Change in relationship between the parties occurred with the birth of the Labour Party in 1893. First Labour Party in the world in Australia. Before that Trades Unionists had been occasionally elected to parliament via the Liberal Party in England.

• The last Liberal Government in England collapsed in the 1920s – from then on, as Labor increased in importance, Liberals were drawn into the Conservative Party.

• Class basis

Australia

• Anti-Labor or non-Labor

• Class based, but see Judith Brett – Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard, and John Black - Hit and Myth - debunking Labor's interest rate theory

• Sectarian element

Liberal Party Family Tree

• Liberal Party 1900-1917

• Nationalist Party 1917-31

• United Australia Party 1931-44

• Liberal Party 1944- date

Free trade versus protectionism

• NSW v Victoria

• “I believe it is a mere political trick of the most obvious kind to endeavour to describe any party, either in the Federal or in the State arena, as a Conservative party. There is no such party in Australia…The real line of cleavage is the line between those who believe in development…by State monopolies.” George Reid, Hansard, 14th July, 1909

• The Deakanite Settlement – Paul Kelly, The Age of Certainty (1992)

Modern Liberal Party

• Formed 1994

• “These are, in the political and economic sense the middle class …. They are not rich enough to have individual power. They are taken for granted by each political party in turn. They are not sufficiently lacking in individualism to be organized for what in these days we call ‘pressure politics’. And yet, as I have said, they are the backbone of the nation.” Robert Menzies, “The Forgotten People”, Radio Broadcast, 22 May 1942

Liberal history cont…

• Deliberate choice of “Liberal” rather than “Conservative”“We took the name ‘Liberal’ because we were determined to

be a progressive party, willing to make experiments, in no sense reactionary, but believing in the individual, his rights and enterprise.” Robert Menzies

• Freedom and Individual

• “The real freedoms are to worship, to think, to speak, to choose, to be ambitious, to be independent, to be industrious, to acquire skill, to seek reward.” Robert Menzies, Policy Speech, 1949 Federal Election

More Liberal history

The Liberal Party campaigned on the themes of:

• Individualism, but not laissez-faire

• Freedom of Speech and Expression

• Freedom from Want

• Freedom from Fear

Recent Liberal History

Malcolm Fraser

• Came to office at time of world change

– Reagan and Thatcher

• Lower tax, privatisation, deregulation

(including labour markets).

Liberal present history

John Howard

• Most ideological. Not conservative

• GST

• Privatisation

• Deregulation (Including labour market)

• Education

• Undone the Deakinite settlement

National Party

• Founded in 1917 (as the Country Party), largely to service the interests of farmers and rural communities – little philosophical underpinning.

• Strength from power of its leaders

• Influence declining

– Declining rural population– Growth of the Liberal Party in traditional National Party areas– Emergence of strong rural lobby groups e.g. National Farmers

Federation– Over-reached e.g. aggressive attempts to move into urban areas

from the 1970s; failed ‘Joh for PM’ campaign in 1987

One Nation

Formed in 1997

• Capitalised on discontent with major, established parties

• Raised problems but generally failed to offer any solutions

• Relied on populist terms to push causes

• Advocated protectionism and welfarism

Family First

Formed by people involved with the Churches of Christ

• Vague platform

• Family Impact Statements

Themes of modern non-Labor

• Reform of Labor laws

• Increased de-regulation/self-regulation

• Privatisation

• Tariff and Industry reform

• Tax reform

• Economic management

• Defence and national security

Party Organisations

Liberal Party

• Federal

• Broad-based

• Emphasis on Parliamentary Party

Party Organisations cont…

National Party

• Federal

• Populist

• Grass roots

One Nation

• Brand more than traditional political party

Party organisations cont…

Family First

• Federal

• Broad-based community organisation

• Haven’t seen copy of constitution

The future

• Francis Fukuyama – The End of History

• Convergence (Third Way)

• Liberal Consensus

• UN Declaration of the Universal Rights of Man