Liberal Democrat Party (Australia)

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was an Australian political party that contested the 1943 federal election and the 1944 New South Wales state election.

In 1931 Joseph Lyons resigned from the Australian Labor Party and together with the opposition Nationalist Party, five dissident Labor MPs and three conservative independent MPs formed the United Australia Party (UAP). This unified the mainstream urban conservative forces in Australia but, in substance, it was largely a continuation of the Nationalists under a new name.

The UAP, in coalition with the Country Party was in power federally and in New South Wales throughout much of the thirties. However, ideological and leadership issues resulted in severe fissures occurring within the conservative political forces towards the end of the decade. These tensions resulted in the party deposing both the NSW Premier Bertram Stevens in 1939 and the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, in 1941.The party also had difficulty endorsing single candidates in safe seats at the 1941 New South Wales state election.

Menzies was succeeded as leader of the UAP by Billy Hughes, and the party began to disintegrate prior to the 1943 federal election. The Liberal Democratic Party was one of the first of many groups that split from the UAP and its formal launch was at a public meeting in Sydney on 16 April 1943. This meeting was co-chaired by a former Lord Mayor of Sydney, Stanley S. Crick, and the party's founder and President of the Australian-American Co-operation Movement, Ernest White. White was a wealthy Sydney timber merchant and businessman and it was soon apparent that he was the party's chief benefactor and driving force. Predating Menzies' appeal to The Forgotten People, White said that his party stood for "the little people who have so far been inarticulate". He believed that the two major parties were hampering Australia's effort in World War II by promoting class divisions rather than co-operation. The party platform included equal education opportunities for all, full-time permanent employment for all men, reduced taxation, tough action against striking unions and the gradual abolition of tariffs and industry subsidies.

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