Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia,[25] one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Australia Party[26] and has since become one of the most successful political parties in Australia's history.[27]

Quick facts: Liberal Party of Australia , Abbreviation, Le... ▼

Liberal Party of Australia
Abbreviation	LP, LIB, LPA[1]
Leader	Peter Dutton
President	John Olsen
Deputy Leader	Sussan Ley
Senate Leader	Simon Birmingham
Deputy Senate Leader	Michaelia Cash
Chief Whips	Bert van Manen (House) Wendy Askew (Senate)
Founder	Robert Menzies[lower-alpha 1]
Founded	13 October 1944; 78 years ago (13 October 1944)[lower-alpha 2]
Preceded by	United Australia Party (UAP)
Headquarters	R. G. Menzies House, Barton, Australian Capital Territory
Think tank	Menzies Research Centre
Student wing	Liberal Students' Federation
Youth wing	Young Liberals
Women's wing	Federal Women's Committee
LGBT+ wing	Liberal Pride[9]
Membership (2020)	70–80,000[10][11]
Ideology	Liberalism[12][13] Conservatism[14][15] Liberal conservatism[16] Factions: Moderates Social liberalism[17][18] Christian right[19] Right-wing populism[20]
Political position	Centre-right
National affiliation	Liberal–National Coalition
Regional affiliation	Asia Pacific Democrat Union
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
Colours	Blue
Governing body	Federal Council
Party branches	ACT NSW NT Qld[lower-alpha 3] SA Tas Vic WA
House of Representatives	42 / 151 [note 1]
Senate	26 / 76 [note 2]
State and territorial governments	2 / 8
State and territorial lower house members	169 / 455
State and territorial upper house members	42 / 155
Party flag[21][22]
Website
www.liberal.org.au
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

The Liberal Party is the dominant partner in the Coalition with the National Party of Australia. At the federal level, the Liberal Party and its predecessors have been in coalition with the National Party since the 1920s. The Coalition was most recently in power from the 2013 federal election to the 2022 federal election, forming the Abbott (2013–2015), Turnbull (2015–2018) and Morrison (2018–2022) governments. The current party leader is Peter Dutton, who replaced former prime minister Scott Morrison as leader after the Coalition's defeat at the 2022 federal election.

The Liberal Party has a federal structure, with autonomous divisions in all six states and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The Country Liberal Party (CLP) of the Northern Territory is an affiliate.[28] Both the CLP and the Liberal National Party (LNP), the Queensland state division, were formed through mergers of the local Liberal and National parties. At state and territory level, the Liberal Party is in office in two states: New South Wales since 2011 and Tasmania since 2014. The party is in opposition in the states of Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia, and in both the ACT and Northern Territory.

The party's ideology has been referred to as conservative,[29] liberal-conservative,[30] conservative-liberal,[31] and classical liberal.[32] The Liberal Party tends to promote economic liberalism, and social conservatism.[33] Two past leaders of the party, Sir Robert Menzies and John Howard, are Australia's two longest-serving Prime Ministers.