Democratic Labor Party
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- For alternative meanings, see Democratic Labour Party
The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) is a minor political party in Australia. It is descended from, but not legally the same as, a party of the same name which existed from 1955 to 1976, and which until 1974 played an important role in Australian politics. The current DLP has never won parliamentary representation or polled a significant number of votes.
History
The Democratic Labor Party was formed as a result of a split in the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in 1954. The split was between the party's national leadership, under the then party leader Dr H. V. Evatt, and the majority of the Victorian branch, which was dominated by Catholics. The Catholic wing of the ALP was alarmed at what they saw as the growing power of the Communist Party in the trade unions, and had formed units within the unions called Industrial Groups to combat the Communists.
The intellectual leader of the Victorian Catholic wing of the ALP (although not actually a party member) was B.A. Santamaria, a Melbourne lawyer and lay Catholic activist who had the patronage of the Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix. Santamaria headed an activist group called "The Movement" (modelled on Catholic Action groups in Europe) which later became the National Civic Council. Evatt denounced the Movement and the Industrial Groups in 1954, alleging that they were trying to take over the ALP and turn it into a European-style Christian Democratic party. At the Hobart national conference of the ALP, Santamaria's parliamentary supporters in the federal and Victorian parliaments were expelled from the ALP. They then formed a group called the ALP (Anti-Communist), which in 1955 became the DLP.
The split soon extended to the Victorian state parliament, where a faction of Movement supporters crossed the floor to bring down the ALP state government of John Cain. In 1957 the split spread to Queensland, where the ALP state Premier, Vince Gair, was expelled from the party. He and his followers formed the Queensland Labor Party, which became part of the DLP in 1960. In New South Wales, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Norman Cardinal Gilroy, was opposed to the Movement's tactics, and as a result there was no party split there.
Between 1955 and 1974 the DLP was able to command a significant vote, particularly in Victoria and Queensland, and during the period held between one and five seats in the Senate (which is elected by proportional representation). The DLP Senate leaders were Gair, Frank McManus of Victoria and Jack Kane of New South Wales. Since the ALP and the conservative parties usually held approximately equal numbers of seats in the Senate, the DLP was able to use balance of power in the Senate to extract concessions from Liberal governments, particularly government grants to Catholic schools, greater spending on defence and non-recognition of the People's Republic of China.
During this period the DLP also exercised influence by directing its second-preference votes to Liberal candidates in federal and state elections (see Australian electoral system), thus helping to keep the ALP out of office at the federal level and in Victoria. The DLP vote gradually declined during the 1960s but remained strong enough for the Liberals to continue to need DLP preferences to win close elections. Santamaria's strategy was to keep the ALP out of office in this way until it agreed to his terms for re-unification.
The DLP's policies were traditional Labor policies such as more spending on health, education and pensions, combined with strident opposition to Communism and emphasis for greater defence spending. The DLP strongly supported Australia's participation in the Vietnam War. During the 1960s the DLP became strong opponents of "permissiveness," campaigning on issues such as homosexuality, abortion and pornography and drugs, which appealed to many conservative voters as well as the party's base among Catholics.
After Evatt's retirement in 1960, his successor Arthur Calwell, a Catholic, tried to bring about a reconciliation between the ALP and the DLP. Negotiations were conducted through intermediaries, but neither the ALP nor its affiliated trade unions would agree to the DLP's terms, which would have made the ALP a much more conservative party.
The election of the Whitlam ALP government in 1972 brought the DLP's strategy of keeping the ALP out of power undone. In 1974 Whitlam appointed Gair Ambassador to Ireland in a bid to split the DLP and remove its influence. This tactic was successful and the DLP lost all its Senate seats at the May 1974 election. The party was formally wound up in 1976. Santamaria continued to exercise considerable influence through the National Civic Council until his death in 1998.
A small group of DLP activists in Victoria refused to accept the dissolution of the party and formed a new DLP, which has contested Senate elections in Victoria at every election since 1980 but has never gained representation. The party is largely run by John Mulholland and his family, and its main platform is opposition to abortion. The party no longer has the patronage of the Catholic Church but still has some support among conservative Catholics.
External link
- DLP website (http://www.dlp.org.au)