Australian Labor Party vs Australian Liberal Party
Australian Labor Party and Australian Liberal Party are the two main political parties in Australia. Australia is a democratic country with a two party system. There are many political parties but basically all of them are categorized based upon their leanings. The two main groupings are known as Australian labor Party and the Australian Liberal Party. Smaller parties become parts of either of these two larger parties. These two parties have been ruling the country in the last several elections. Sometimes Labor wins, at others, Liberal captures majority of votes. Both of them have a huge support base but are different in their ideology and policies. This article will highlight the difference between the Australian Labor party and the Australian Liberal Party.
Australian Labor party
Also known as ALP, it was the Australian labor party that won the last parliamentary elections held in 2010 and has been ruling the country since then. Its government is headed by Julia Gillard, who is the first female Prime Minister of Australia. ALP is the oldest political party in the country and its beginnings can be traced back to the labor movement that rocked the country in 1891. The party has a national platform that decides its policies. These policies are approved at a conference held every three years by the national delegates of the party. These policies are indicative of the direction that any future government formed by ALP would take.
ALP claims to have played a dominant role in the history of political system in the country. It was called labour way back but changed the spelling to labor in 1912. ALP, till late 1950’s supported an all white policy and were against immigration of non Europeans to the country. However, their policy changed later in the 70’s. ALP is a centre-left political party.
Australian Liberal Party
Liberal party is a comparatively younger party, having come into existence in 1943 from the erstwhile United Australia Party after the elections in 1943. They lost in the last federal elections to ALP and have been sitting in the opposition ranks in the parliament. Liberal party is headed by Tony Abbot. As its name indicates, Liberal party is more liberal as far as freedom of activity and independence is concerned. Most of the social reforms in Australia have come into existence whenever Liberal party has been in power.
One striking feature of Liberals is that they have been ruling at the state level for quite some time now, but get beaten by Labor at federal level. It was in 2004 that Liberals won at the federal level also but ruled for a period of three years only when it lost to ALP in 2007. Australian Liberal Party is a rightist political party.