22 Political Party
A political party is an organisation that works to represent groups of people and ideas, and to turn these ideas into laws through the Parliament. The two biggest parties in Australia are the Liberal Party of Australia and the Australian Labor Party. Smaller parties include The Nationals, the Australian Democrats and The Greens. The oldest party is the Australian Labor Party which was formed by the trade union movement in the 1890s.
Parties have branches in towns and suburbs throughout Australia. Party members in each branch suggest ideas for party policies. They also help choose or pre-select party candidates for local, state and federal elections. Leading up to an election, they assist with the election campaign. On election day at polling booths, they distribute ‘how to vote’ cards to voters and then help to scrutinise the counting of votes.
In Parliament, parties are very powerful because the party members and senators work as a team. Parties with large numbers can dominate the voting process. The party with the majority of members in the House of Representatives becomes the government.
All the members and senators have weekly party meetings. At these meetings, the party decides policy and how it will vote on specific issues and items of legislation. Most of the time, all the members of the same party vote the same way according to the decisions made in the party room or caucus meeting. It is therefore possible to predict the result of a vote because the number of party members and how the party will vote are known in advance. On rare occasions, parties allow their members a ‘free vote’ or conscience vote in which individual members and senators may vote as they wish and are free to cross the floor in the chamber.
The party Whips organise the daily activities of the party on the floor of the chamber and make sure that all party members turn up in time to make speeches and vote.
Larger parties employ specialist research staff and administrative staff to assist their members and senators in Parliament House and in their electoral offices. Parties also allocate specific tasks to members and senators such as running sub-committees on policy, sitting on Senate and House of Representatives committees and educating newly elected parliamentarians.
Political parties must register with the Australian Electoral Commission and conform to certain regulations under the Electoral Act.
Download: Political Party Fact Sheet [183KB]