BARTON ACT 2600 Political parties Elections The Australian Labor Party or ALP is Australia's oldest political party. It is so-named because of its origins in and close links to the trade union movement. While it is standard practice in Australian English to spell the word labour with an "-our" ending, the name of the party ends with "-or". Australian Labor Party - Policy. Like other social democratic parties, Labor tends to believe that government is generally a positive fo ...

Including:

• Australian Labor Party - Policy
• Australian Labor Party - Structure
• Australian Labor Party - History
• Australian Labor Party - ALP federal leaders
• Australian Labor Party - Current ALP State Premiers / Territory Chief Ministers
• Australian Labor Party - Past ALP State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers
• Australian Labor Party - Other past Labor politicians

Read more here: » Australian Labor Party: Encyclopedia - Australian Labor Party

Like other social democratic parties, Labor tends to believe that government is generally a positive force in the community and that it is the responsibility of governments to intervene in the operation of the economy (and society in general) to improve outcomes. Labor believes that the government should ensure that all members of society receive a basic income in order to have a "decent quality of life". Labor also believes that the government should ensure that all members of society are able to access quality and affordable hous ...

See also:

Australian Labor Party, Australian Labor Party - Policy, Australian Labor Party - Structure, Australian Labor Party - History, Australian Labor Party - ALP federal leaders, Australian Labor Party - Current ALP State Premiers / Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Past ALP State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Other past Labor politicians, Australian Labor Party - Critics

Read more here: » Australian Labor Party: Encyclopedia II - Australian Labor Party - Policy

Kerr had another meeting with Fraser (with Whitlam's approval) on 6 November. At this meeting Fraser increased the pressure on Kerr, advising him that the Opposition would not back down and would not accept any compromise, and warning him that if he did not take action against Whitlam then the Opposition would begin to make direct public criticism of him, for having "failed in his duty." Fraser urged Kerr to bring about an election before the end of 1975. The provisions of the Electoral Act meant that the last date on which a 1975 election c ...

See also:

John Kerr, John Kerr - Kerr's career, John Kerr - Kerr as Governor-General, John Kerr - The 1975 crisis, John Kerr - The Dismissal, John Kerr - After the Dismissal

Read more here: » John Kerr: Encyclopedia II - John Kerr - The Dismissal

Custom dictated that Whitlam should have waited until the process of vote counting was complete, and then called a Caucus meeting to elect his Ministers ready to be sworn in by the Governor-General. Meanwhile, the outgoing Prime Minister would remain in office as a caretaker. (As a matter of longstanding party policy, ALP Ministers are elected by the entire Parliamentary Party—the 'Caucus'—with the Prime Minister only having the power to assign portfolios. Liberal Prime Ministers, in contrast, have traditionall ...

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Gough Whitlam, Gough Whitlam - Early career, Gough Whitlam - Opposition leader, Gough Whitlam - Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam - The Dismissal, Gough Whitlam - The Whitlam government assessed, Gough Whitlam - Out of office, Gough Whitlam - Honours

Read more here: » Gough Whitlam: Encyclopedia II - Gough Whitlam - Prime Minister

Jim Cairns was born in Carlton, then a working-class suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, the son of a clerk. He grew up on a dairy farm north of Sunbury. His father went to the First World War and never came back: his family never found out why. His father had syphilis, and according to Cairns' biographers his mother was so afraid of passing the infection to her son that she refused any physical contact with him. For a person so gifted in persuasion, Cairns was diffident and reserved, and some of his friends attributed this to ...

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Jim Cairns, Jim Cairns - Early Days, Jim Cairns - Leading leftist, Jim Cairns - Cairns in Government, Jim Cairns - The Loans Affair, Jim Cairns - Cairns and Morosi, Jim Cairns - Aftermath, Jim Cairns - External link

Read more here: » Jim Cairns: Encyclopedia II - Jim Cairns - Early Days

Like other social democratic parties, Labor tends to believe that government is generally a positive force in the community and that it is the responsibility of governments to intervene in the operation of the economy (and society in general) to improve outcomes. Labor believes that the government should ensure that all members of society receive a basic income in order to have a "decent quality of life". Labor also believes that the government should ensure that all members of society are able to access quality and affordable hous ...

See also:

Australian Labor Party, Australian Labor Party - Policy, Australian Labor Party - Structure, Australian Labor Party - History, Australian Labor Party - ALP federal leaders, Australian Labor Party - Current ALP State Premiers / Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Past ALP State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Other past Labor politicians

Read more here: » Australian Labor Party: Encyclopedia II - Australian Labor Party - Policy

In 1972, Whitlam led the Labor Party into government for the first time in 23 years, and Cairns became Minister for Overseas Trade and Minister for Manufacturing Industry. He had by now shed much of his Marxist ideology of earlier years, though he was still a strong believer in state planning. He got along surprisingly well with the heads of industry, although critics said this was because he was sympathetic to their requests for government assistance. After the 1974 election, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, defeating La ...

See also:

Jim Cairns, Jim Cairns - Early Days, Jim Cairns - Leading leftist, Jim Cairns - Cairns in Government, Jim Cairns - The Loans Affair, Jim Cairns - Cairns and Morosi, Jim Cairns - Aftermath, Jim Cairns - External link

Read more here: » Jim Cairns: Encyclopedia II - Jim Cairns - Cairns in Government

In an attempt to raise funds for a massive Keynesian pump-priming exercise, Cairns and another senior minister, Rex Connor, tried to borrow huge amounts of petrodollars from the Middle East through an intermediary, a Pakistani banker called Tirath Khemlani (the so-called "Loans Affair"). When the Liberal Opposition learned of this, Cairns and Connor denied to both Parliament and to Whitlam that they had given Khemlani authority to act in the name of the Australian government. When it emerged that this was untrue, Whitlam moved Ca ...

See also:

Jim Cairns, Jim Cairns - Early Days, Jim Cairns - Leading leftist, Jim Cairns - Cairns in Government, Jim Cairns - The Loans Affair, Jim Cairns - Cairns and Morosi, Jim Cairns - Aftermath, Jim Cairns - External link

Read more here: » Jim Cairns: Encyclopedia II - Jim Cairns - The Loans Affair

In Canberra, Cairns became a leader of the left. He was a highly effective debater and was soon feared and disliked by ministers in the Liberal government of Robert Menzies. He was also disliked by many in his own party, who saw him as an ideologue whose political views were too left-wing for the Australian electorate. He also struck many people at this time as cold and fanatical - a judgement which he (much later) accepted. Nevertheless Cairns's abilities could not be denied. He completed his doctorate in economic history in 1957, an ...

See also:

Jim Cairns, Jim Cairns - Early Days, Jim Cairns - Leading leftist, Jim Cairns - Cairns in Government, Jim Cairns - The Loans Affair, Jim Cairns - Cairns and Morosi, Jim Cairns - Aftermath, Jim Cairns - External link

Read more here: » Jim Cairns: Encyclopedia II - Jim Cairns - Leading leftist

Cairns's Labor colleagues found his conduct in the Loans and Morosi affairs intolerable, and his political reputation was destroyed. In 1977 he retired from Parliament. He devoted the rest of his life to the counter-cultural movement, to which he had been introduced by Morosi. He sponsored a series of Down to Earth conference-festivals (known as Confests) at various rural locations, and was photographed sitting in the dust meditating. He published a series of books in which he was highly critical of his former self, of conventional politics, of gen ...

See also:

Jim Cairns, Jim Cairns - Early Days, Jim Cairns - Leading leftist, Jim Cairns - Cairns in Government, Jim Cairns - The Loans Affair, Jim Cairns - Cairns and Morosi, Jim Cairns - Aftermath, Jim Cairns - External link

Read more here: » Jim Cairns: Encyclopedia II - Jim Cairns - Aftermath

In October 1975 the Liberals used their Senate majority to defer voting on the supply bills until Whitlam agreed to hold an election for the House of Representatives, and a political crisis resulted. Whitlam declined to back down and call an early election, Fraser would not back down and allow the budget bills to pass. If this impasse had gone on indefinitely, the government would have run out of money and been unable to meet its financial obligations. It was estimated that it would be late November before this occurred. Whitlam was confiden ...

See also:

John Kerr, John Kerr - Kerr's career, John Kerr - Kerr as Governor-General, John Kerr - The 1975 crisis, John Kerr - The Dismissal, John Kerr - After the Dismissal

Read more here: » John Kerr: Encyclopedia II - John Kerr - The 1975 crisis

The Whitlam Government had won a second term in May 1974, but failed to win control of the Senate, where the balance of power was held by two independents. During 1975 the government was enveloped by a series of ministerial scandals (the "Loans Affair"), which resulted in the sacking of two senior ministers, Rex Connor and Deputy Prime Minister, Jim Cairns. The Liberal Opposition Leader (Australia), Malcolm Fraser, decided to use the Senate to block the government's budget bills, thus forcing an early election for the House of Representatives (this is called "blocking supply"). Fraser was able to do this only because a ...

See also:

John Kerr, John Kerr - Kerr's career, John Kerr - Kerr as Governor-General, John Kerr - The 1975 crisis, John Kerr - The Dismissal, John Kerr - After the Dismissal

Read more here: » John Kerr: Encyclopedia II - John Kerr - Kerr as Governor-General

Kerr was born in Balmain, a working-class suburb of Sydney, where his father was a boiler-maker. He entered the prestige selective high school Fort Street High School.He won scholarships to the University of Sydney and graduated in law, being called to the New South Wales bar in 1938. At Fort Street, he met Dr H.V. Evatt who later became a judge of the High Court of Australia, and became a protege of his for many years. In 1938 Kerr married Peggy Worstead, with whom he had three children. He spent World War II working for an obscure Australi ...

See also:

John Kerr, John Kerr - Kerr's career, John Kerr - Kerr as Governor-General, John Kerr - The 1975 crisis, John Kerr - The Dismissal, John Kerr - After the Dismissal

Read more here: » John Kerr: Encyclopedia II - John Kerr - Kerr's career

Whitlam was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1962 and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1978. Whitlam is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Sydney, the University of Wollongong, La Trobe University and the University of Technology, Sydney. ...

See also:

Gough Whitlam, Gough Whitlam - Early career, Gough Whitlam - Opposition leader, Gough Whitlam - Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam - The Dismissal, Gough Whitlam - The Whitlam government assessed, Gough Whitlam - Out of office, Gough Whitlam - Honours

Read more here: » Gough Whitlam: Encyclopedia II - Gough Whitlam - Honours

By this time Cairns's relationship with Morosi had become public, although the media at that time was still sufficiently discreet for its precise nature not to be mentioned. It took the newly elected Liberal backbencher John Howard to broadcast this fact under the protection of parliamentary privilege. At the Labor Party national conference in February 1975 he gave an interview in which he confessed "a kind of love" for Morosi. Morosi considered Cairns to be sexually repressed, and evidently he found her company liberating. It is not clear w ...

See also:

Jim Cairns, Jim Cairns - Early Days, Jim Cairns - Leading leftist, Jim Cairns - Cairns in Government, Jim Cairns - The Loans Affair, Jim Cairns - Cairns and Morosi, Jim Cairns - Aftermath, Jim Cairns - External link

Read more here: » Jim Cairns: Encyclopedia II - Jim Cairns - Cairns and Morosi

The Opposition would not have been able to follow this course if the Senate elected in 1974 had remained intact. Although one of the two independents joined the Liberal Party, the other, Steele Hall, was opposed to blocking supply, and this would have been sufficient to prevent such a course being followed. The change in the composition of the Senate which made the constitutional crisis of 1975 possible was brought about by two appointments to fill vacancies in the Senate, which under the Australian Constitution are made by the State Parliam ...

See also:

Gough Whitlam, Gough Whitlam - Early career, Gough Whitlam - Opposition leader, Gough Whitlam - Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam - The Dismissal, Gough Whitlam - The Whitlam government assessed, Gough Whitlam - Out of office, Gough Whitlam - Honours

Read more here: » Gough Whitlam: Encyclopedia II - Gough Whitlam - The Dismissal

The Australian Labor Party is a democratic and federal party, which consists of both individual members and affiliated trade unions, who between them decide the party's policies, elect its governing bodies and choose its candidates for public office. The great majority of trade unions in Australia are affiliated to the party, and their affiliation fees, based on the size of their memberships, makes up a large part of the party's income. The party consists of six state and two territory branches, each of which consists of local branches which ...

See also:

Australian Labor Party, Australian Labor Party - Policy, Australian Labor Party - Structure, Australian Labor Party - History, Australian Labor Party - ALP federal leaders, Australian Labor Party - Current ALP State Premiers / Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Past ALP State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Other past Labor politicians, Australian Labor Party - Critics

Read more here: » Australian Labor Party: Encyclopedia II - Australian Labor Party - Structure

. New South Wales Bob Carr (1995–2005) Barrie Unsworth (1986–88) Neville Wran (1976–86) Jack Renshaw (1964–65) Robert Heffron (1959–64) Joseph Cahill (1952–59) James McGirr (1947–52) William McKell (1941–47) Jack Lang (1925–27, 1930–32) James Dooley (1921–21, 1921–22) James Storey (1920–21) William Holm ...

See also:

Australian Labor Party, Australian Labor Party - Policy, Australian Labor Party - Structure, Australian Labor Party - History, Australian Labor Party - ALP federal leaders, Australian Labor Party - Current ALP State Premiers / Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Past ALP State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Other past Labor politicians

Read more here: » Australian Labor Party: Encyclopedia II - Australian Labor Party - Past ALP State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers

No exact date can be given for the founding of the Australian Labor Party, originating as it did from the various colonial labour movements. Labour Leagues and similar electoral organisations existed in New South Wales and Queensland from about 1890. Party mythology says the first Labour branch was founded at a meeting of striking pastoral workers under a tree (the "Tree of Knowledge") in Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891. The Balmain, New South Wales branch of the party also claims to be the oldest in Australia. The party as a serious electora ...

See also:

Australian Labor Party, Australian Labor Party - Policy, Australian Labor Party - Structure, Australian Labor Party - History, Australian Labor Party - ALP federal leaders, Australian Labor Party - Current ALP State Premiers / Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Past ALP State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Other past Labor politicians

Read more here: » Australian Labor Party: Encyclopedia II - Australian Labor Party - History

The Australian Labor Party is a democratic and federal party, which consists of both individual members and affiliated trade unions, who between them decide the party's policies, elect its governing bodies and choose its candidates for public office. The great majority of trade unions in Australia are affiliated to the party, and their affiliation fees, based on the size of their memberships, makes up a large part of the party's income. The party consists of six state and two territory branches, each of which consists of local branches which ...

See also:

Australian Labor Party, Australian Labor Party - Policy, Australian Labor Party - Structure, Australian Labor Party - History, Australian Labor Party - ALP federal leaders, Australian Labor Party - Current ALP State Premiers / Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Past ALP State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers, Australian Labor Party - Other past Labor politicians

Read more here: » Australian Labor Party: Encyclopedia II - Australian Labor Party - Structure