The 'Australian Democrats' is an
Australian political party which was formed in 1977 through a merger of the
Australia Party and the
Liberal Movement after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister
Don Chipp as a high-profile leader
[1]. The new party was based on the principles of honesty, tolerance and compassion—and ''direct democracy'' through postal ballots of all members, so that ''there should be no hierarchical structure. . . by which a carefully engineered elite could make decisions for the members''.
[2] From the outset, members' participation was fiercely protected in national and divisional constitutions prescribing internal elections, regular meeting protocols, annual conferences—and monthly journals for open discussion and balloting. Dispute-resolution procedures were established, with final recourse to a party ombudsman and membership ballot.
'Policies' determined by the unique participatory method were socially progressive, promoting environmental awareness and sustainability, opposition to the primacy of economic rationalism, preventive approaches to human health and welfare, animal rights, rejection of nuclear technology and weapons. This actually reflected the first emergence of 'green' politics in Australia, and the Democrats took centre stage in forcing legislation for the ''cause célèbre'' of saving Tasmania's
Franklin River. However, the former conservative affiliation of leader Don Chipp was recalled by competitors
[3] in an ongoing campaign to discredit the sincerity of the Democrats. The party's 'centreline' role was, therefore, always subjected to vindictive criticism from both the 'right' and 'left' of the political spectrum, a reality which was to torment later leaders and strategists who, by 1991, were proclaiming "the electoral objective" as a higher priority than the rigorous participatory democracy espoused by the party's founders.
[4]
In its first decade, the Democrats secured representation in the legislatures of South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania, and Senate seats in all six states. By 2002 however, it was clear that the Democrats has suffered a very significant fall in their support base and a low point was reached in
2004 when, for the first time, no Australian Democrats candidate succeeded in gaining election to the Senate. It now seems unlikely that the party's four senators elected in
2001 will be returned or replaced to continue a federal presence beyond 30 June, 2008.
History
1977-79
On the evening of Friday, 29 April, 1977, Don Chipp addressed an overflowing Perth Town Hall meeting which unanimously passed a resolution to form a ''Centre Line Party'', which Chipp was invited to lead
[5]—but he firmly declined to reverse his avowed decision to quit politics, having resigned from the Liberal Party and been offered a lucrative position as a radio public affairs commentator. However, at a meeting in the Melbourne Town Hall on 9 May, Chipp received a standing ovation from over 3000 people, including former prime minister
John Gorton, and decided to commit himself to leading the new party which was already being constructed by a national steering committee.
[6] The name "Australian Democrats", already in informal currency
[7], was confirmed by the membership, being the most favoured of 56 alternative names on the postal ballot paper.
[8]
The first Australian Democrats (AD) federal parliamentarian was Senator
Janine Haines who filled
Steele Hall's casual Senate vacancy for South Australia in 1977. Surprisingly, she was not a candidate when the party contested the
1977 federal elections after Don Chipp had agreed to be leader and figurehead. Members and candidates were not lacking in electoral experience since the Australia Party had been contesting all federal elections since
1969 and the Liberal Movement, in
1974 and
1975. The party's broad aim was to achieve a
"balance of power" in one or more parliaments and to exercise it responsibly in line with policies determined by membership.
The grassroot support attracted by Chipp's leadership was measurable at the party's first electoral test on
10 December, 1977, when 9.38% of the total Lower House vote was polled and 11.13% of the Senate vote. At that time, with five Senate seats being contested in each state, the required
quota was a daunting 16.66%. However, the first 6-year-term seats were won by Don Chipp (Vic) and
Colin Mason (NSW).
1980-82
At a Melbourne media conference in 1980, Chipp described his party's aim as "to keep the bastards honest" --the "bastards" being the major parties and/or politicians in general. This became a long-lived slogan for the Democrats.
The Australian Democrats' first national conference, on 16-17 February, 1980, was opened by the distinguished nuclear physicist and former governor of South Australia, Sir
Mark Oliphant, who said:
''I was privileged to be in the chair at the public meeting in Melbourne when [Don Chipp] announced formation of a new party, dedicated to preserve what freedoms we still retain, and to increase them. A party in which dictatorship from the top was replaced by consensus. A party not ordered about by big business and the rich, or by union bosses. A party where a man could retain freedom of conscience and not thereby be faced with expulsion. A party to which the intelligent individual could belong without having to subscribe to a dogmatic creed. In other words, a democratic party.[9]''
At the
October 1980 election, the Democrats polled 9.25% of the Senate vote, electing
Janine Haines (SA) and two new senators
Michael Macklin (Qld) and
John Siddons (Vic), bringing the party's strength to five Senate seats from 1 July, 1981 .
1990-91
1990 saw the voluntary departure from the Senate of
Janine Haines and the failure of her strategic goal of winning the House of Representatives seat of
Kingston. Her casual vacancy was filled by
Meg Lees several months before the arrival of
Cheryl Kernot, elected to replace the retiring deputy leader
Michael Macklin. The ambitious Kernot immediately contested the Senate leadership. Being unemployed at the time, she requested and obtained party funds to pay for her travel to address members in all seven divisions.
[10] In the event,
Janet Powell was successful and
John Coulter was chosen as deputy leader.
Despite the loss of Haines and the WA Senate seat (through an inconsistent national preference agreement with the ALP), the 1990 federal election heralded something of a rebirth for the party, with a dramatic rise in primary vote. This was at the same time as an economic
recession was building, and events such as the Gulf War in Kuwait were beginning to shepherd issues of globalisation and transnational trade on to national government agendas.
Janet Powell made a spirited attack on both the government and opposition which had closed ranks in support of the oil war. Whereas the House of Representatives was thus able to avoid any debate about the war and Australia's participation
[11] [12] the Democrats took full advantage of the opportunity to move for a debate in the Senate, and the Hansard record is there to view.
[13]
Possibly because of the party's opposition to the Gulf War, there was mass-media antipathy and negative publicity which some construed as poor performance by Janet Powell. Before 12 months of her leadership had passed, the South Australian and Queensland divisions were circulating the party's first-ever petition to criticise and oust the parliamentary leader. The explicit grounds related to Powell's alleged responsibility for poor AD ratings in Gallop and other media surveys of potential voting support. When this charge was deemed insufficient, interested party officers and senators reinforced it with negative media 'leaks' concerning her openly established relationship with
Sid Spindler and exposure of administrative failings resulting in excessive overtime to a staff member. With national-executive blessing, the party room pre-empted the ballot by replacing the leader with deputy Coulter. In the process, severe internal divisions were generated, dramatically overturning the party's professed spirit of tolerant participatory democracy. One major collateral casualty was the experienced party whip
Paul McLean who resigned and quit the Senate in disgust at what he recognised as violent infighting between close friends. The casual NSW vacancy was filled by
Karin Sowada.
Policy
The party's original support base was disaffected middle-class traditional Liberal voters from the centre-right Liberal Party's socially liberal, "wet" wing, together with a medley of people concerned about environmental issues and social justice. The party aimed to combine liberal social policies with centrist, particularly neo-
Keynesian economics and a progressive environmental platform. However, the major parties, including the
social democratic Labor Party, have moved to the right on economics since the early 1980s, shifting the 'centre' of Australian politics well to the right. Thus the Democrats have come to be seen as leaning to the left on economic as well as social issues.
The Democrats' agenda includes
interventionist economic policies, commitment to
environmental causes, support for
reconciliation with Australia's
indigenous population through such mechanisms as formal treaties,
pacifist approaches to international relations, open government, constitutional reform, progressive approaches to social issues such as sexuality and drugs, and strong support for
human rights and civil liberties. Its core support base is overwhelmingly
tertiary-educated, and
middle-class. The party also explicitly targets voters who seek a brake on the powers of the government of the day to change things or to have alternative views aired in the Senate and media.
The party has a platform of participatory democracy, with policies supporting
proportional representation and
citizen-initiated referenda. Many important internal issues (such as electoral preselection and leadership) are decided by direct postal ballot of the membership. Although policies are theoretically set in a similar fashion, Democrat parliamentarians have extensive freedom in interpreting them. The ballot mechanism is also susceptible to fluctuations in information flow and to manipulation or obstruction by the party officers charged with authenticating and actioning member-initiated petitions.
Electoral fortunes
Janine Haines, first female leader of a parliamentary party in Australia
The Democrats' electoral fortunes have fluctuated throughout their history.
During the
Hawke and
Keating Labor Governments (1983-96), the Democrats held a theoretical balance of power in the Senate: the numbers were such that they could team with Labor to pass legislation, or team with the Coalition to block legislation on rare occasions when the Coalition decided to oppose a government bill.
Their power was somewhat weakened in 1996 after the
Howard government was elected, and a Labor Senator,
Mal Colston, resigned from the Labor party. This meant that the Democrats now shared the parliamentary balance of power with two Independent senators, and so the Coalition government could often bypass the Democrats, and pass legislation by negotiating with Colston and
Brian Harradine. After
the 1998 election the Democrats again held the balance of power, until the Coalition gained a Senate majority at
the 2004 election.
The Hawke and Keating governments pursued
economic rationalist neoliberal policies, and the Democrats positioned themselves to the left of the ALP government and thus at the left end of mainstream Australian politics. However, the party's progressive-liberal politics remained attractive to middle class
Liberal supporters ("wet" Liberals) who were disaffected by the Liberal party's social conservatism.
In due course, Cheryl Kernot achieved her leadership ambition and began introducing a top-down style both in the party room and the national executive. Her media appeal and performance were splendid, which greatly increased media and public awareness of herself and the party, though not necessarily of the Democrats' traditional policies and participatory ethos. She was known to have interests in industrial relations and was able to cultivate solid relationships with Labor government frontbenchers, which also added to her credibility in the press gallery.
When the
Howard government was first elected in 1996, ending some 13 continuous years of Labor government, there was need to re-evaluate parliamentary tactics on the basis that there was now less of an opposition vacuum to be filled, and friendships made with Labor would now be less fruitful. Consideration was required as to whether the Democrats would operate on an economically centrist agenda (while still being socially liberal and environmentalist) and ready in most cases to negotiate with the government of the day; or would continue to occupy a position to the left of both major parties on economic as well as social policy, while maintaining the crossbench tradition of negotiating with both government and opposition.
Lack of clear direction other than, possibly, senators' common ambition to play a more productive role in government manifested itself in tensions over Cheryl Kernot's policy on
industrial relations (see the
Workplace Relations Act of 1996). Under Kernot, after negotiations and some compromises from the government, the Democrats voted for the Howard Government's right-leaning industrial relations legislation which decreased union power and allowed a larger role for individual employer-employee contracts.
Kernot, however, remained both ambitious and broadly opposed to the Liberal government. This, together with her personal ambition for a role in government, lead her to defect to the ALP in 1997. Initially both Labor and the Democrats benefited from Kernot's move, with polls showing that the Democrats had attracted a significant "sympathy vote". In the
1998 federal election, the Democrats' candidate
John Schumann came within 3% of taking Liberal Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer's seat of
Mayo in the Adelaide Hills under Australia's
preferential voting system.
Internal conflict over the government's proposed
Goods and Services Tax (GST), during the 1998 federal election and in Parliament in 1999 was extremely damaging to the Democrats. Meg Lees campaigned on a modified GST platform, opposing the GST on food and books. After negotiations with Prime Minister
Howard, Meg Lees and Andrew Murray (both part of the centrist element within the Democrats) agreed to support the GST legislation with exemptions for most food and some medicines. Many left-wing Democrat voters and a large number of party members regarded this as a betrayal, and two senators on the party's left,
Natasha Stott Despoja and
Andrew Bartlett, voted against the GST.
After very poor state election results in 2001, Lees was replaced by the articulate young left-leaning senator,
Natasha Stott Despoja. Stott Despoja worked hard to bring disaffected former Democrat voters back in the 2001 federal election, although she was not able to bring back enough voters to prevent the loss of a seat to Greens Senator
Kerry Nettle, indicating the loss of Democrat votes on the left. (The task was not made any easier by the
Tampa affair.) Ongoing tensions between Stott Despoja and Lees (who quit the party in 2002, but was supported by some of the Senators, nicknamed the
Gang of Four by the media) forced a protracted leadership battle in 2002, which eventually led to the election of Senator Andrew Bartlett as leader. However, the tension led to
Meg Lees leaving the party, becoming an independent and forming the
Australian Progressive Alliance. This new party clearly followed the Democrat direction not taken by the Greens. It was very short-lived.
Since the decision to support the GST in 1999, and especially after the very public infighting in 2002, the Democrats have suffered a severe decline in public support. Although the left-right division within the parliamentary party and between the parliamentary party and the grass roots membership has existed for many years, the recent leadership battles have created bitterness within the party, and exposed the disunity to public scrutiny. With the
Australian Greens picking up many of their voters on the left, and some voters from the centre returning to the Liberals, the Democrats are facing their greatest crisis to date.
At the height of the disunity in 2002, most political observers believed that the party would soon split or disappear as a serious force in Australian politics. Under Senator Bartlett's leadership the Democrats found a degree of stability and an end to public feuding.
On
6 December 2003, Andrew Bartlett stepped aside temporarily as leader of the party, after an incident in which he assaulted
Liberal Senator
Jeannie Ferris on the floor of
Parliament while intoxicated. The party issued a statement stating that Deputy Leader
Lyn Allison would serve as the Acting Leader of the party. Bartlett apologised to the Democrats, Jeannie Ferris and the Australian public for his behaviour and assured all concerned that it would never happen again. On
January 29 2004, after seeking medical treatment, Bartlett returned to the Democrats leadership. Andrew Bartlett has not consumed any alcohol since that incident.
2004 federal election
Almost totally ignored by the media during the election campaign, the Democrats suffered a massive loss of support at the
2004 Federal election, reducing them to 1.24% of the national vote. Nowhere was this more noticeable than in their key support base of suburban
Adelaide in South Australia, where they received between 7 and 31% of the Lower House vote at polling booths in 2001, and between 1% and 4% in 2004. None of their senators up for re-election survived the vote.
Most electoral analysts concluded that, while most of the party's left-wing support had gone to the Greens (who now had an equal number of Senate seats with the Democrats and seemed to have taken their place as the leading minor party), many of the party's centrist middle-class voters from a 'wet Liberal' background had returned to the Liberal Party, helping the Howard Government to win a majority in the Senate, the first government to do so for a quarter of a century. With their Senate numbers almost halved, the Democrats face complete annihilation at the next election if the 2004 result is repeated.
Following the loss, Bartlett did not stand for the normal post-election leadership ballot with Allison becoming the new leader and Bartlett the deputy. However, Allison, like Bartlett, has failed to gain any real media exposure or to increase the party's support in opinion polls.
On
1 July 2005 the Democrats lost most of their remaining parliamentary influence when the senators elected in 2004 were sworn in, giving the governing Coalition outright control of the Senate.
2006
On
5 January 2006, the ABC reported that the
Tasmanian Electoral Commission had de-registered that branch of the party for failing to provide a list containing the required number of members.
[14]
On
18 March 2006, at the
2006 South Australian State election, the Democrats were reduced to 1.7% of the Legislative Council (upper house) vote. Their sole member of Parliament up for re-election,
Kate Reynolds, was subsequently defeated.
In the days following the election, rumours were reported that South Australian Senator
Natasha Stott-Despoja, facing re-election at the next poll, might quit the party. She has denied these rumours.
[15]
In early July, Richard Pascoe, National and
South Australian party President, resigned, citing slumping opinion polls and the poor result in the 2006 South Australian Election as well as South Australian Parliamentary leader
Sandra Kanck's comments regarding the drug
MDMA that have been damaging to the party.
[16] [17] [18]
On
5 July 2006, Democrats senator
Andrew Murray announced his intention not to seek re-election at
2007 federal election, citing the frustration arising from the Howard Government's control of both houses of Federal Parliament, and the long duration of any future Senate term.
[19]. He will, however, continue to sit as an Australian Democrats senator until the end of the current Senate term in 2008.
On 28 August, 2006 the founder of the Democrats,
Don Chipp, died. Former prime minister Bob Hawke suggested that Chipp's death would hasten the death of the Australian Democrats.
[20]
On
22 October 2006, Democrats Senator
Natasha Stott Despoja announced her intention to not seek re-election at
2007 federal election due to health concerns.
[21] She will however continue to sit as an Australian Democrats senator until the end of the current Senate term in 2008. Her decision, as the Democrats senator with the highest profile and greatest chance for re-election, is widely expected to make it much more difficult for the Democrats to retain their South Australian Senate seat at the coming Federal Election.
The November 2006 Victorian State Election returned a poor result for the Democrats, their Legislative Council vote less than half that returned in 2002.
2007
In the New South Wales state election of March 2007, the Democrats lost their last remaining NSW Upper House representative,
Arthur Chesterfield-Evans. The party fared poorly, gaining only 1.8% of the Legislative Council vote. A higher vote was achieved in some of the Legislative Assembly seats selectively contested as compared to 2003. However, the statewide vote share fell because the party was unable to field as many candidates as in 2003.
In the
2007 Federal Election more candidates have stood.
Support
Support for the Democrats historically tended to fluctuate between about 5 and 10 percent of the population and was geographically concentrated around the wealthy dense
CBD and inner-suburban neighbourhoods of the
capital cities (especially
Adelaide). Therefore, they never managed to win a
House of Representatives seat (despite coming close on a number of occasions). During the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s they typically held one or two of the Federal
Senate seats in each state, as well as a handful of representatives in state parliaments and local councils.
However, internal bickering, the rise of the
Australian Greens and growing support for the
Liberal Party of Australia in the early 2000s changed this, and the Democrats are now in heavy decline - receiving 1.24% nationally, and less than 3% of the vote at all but a handful of booths, even in their Adelaide heartland
[22]
Leadership
The Democrats are notable for their willingness to elect female and
Indigenous Australian parliamentary leadership. Of the party's ten leaders, six have been women. Aboriginal Senator
Aden Ridgeway was deputy leader under Natasha Stott Despoja.
The Parliamentary leaders of the Australian Democrats have been:
★
Don Chipp (1977 -1986)
★
Janine Haines (1986 - 1990)
★
Michael Macklin (1990 interim)
★
Janet Powell (1990 - 91)
★
John Coulter (1991 - 93)
★
Cheryl Kernot (1993 - 97)
★
Meg Lees (1997 - 2001)
★
Natasha Stott Despoja (
6 April 2001 to
21 August 2002)
★
Brian Greig (2002 interim)
1
★
Andrew Bartlett (2002 - 2004)
★
Lyn Allison (2004 - 'Present')
Senators
Current Senators
★
Lyn Allison, Victoria (1996 - 'Present')
★
Andrew Murray, Western Australia (1996 - 'Present') (expected to serve until 2008)
★
Andrew Bartlett, Queensland (1997 - 'Present')
★
Natasha Stott-Despoja, South Australia (1995 - 'Present') (expected to serve until 2008)
[2]
Former Senators
★
Janine Haines, South Australia (1977 - 1978; 1981 - 1990)
★
Don Chipp, Victoria (1978 - 1986)
★
Colin Mason, New South Wales (1978 - 1987)
★
Michael Macklin, Queensland (1981 - 1990)
★
John Siddons, Victoria (1981 - 1983; 1985 - 1986)
2
★
Jack Evans, Western Australia (1983 - 1985)
★
David Vigor, South Australia (1985 - 1987)
★
Norm Sanders, Tasmania (1985 - 1990)
★
Janet Powell, Victoria (1986 - 1992)
3
★
Paul McLean, New South Wales (1987 - 1991)
★
Jean Jenkins, Western Australia (1987 - 1990)
★
Vicki Bourne, New South Wales (1990 - 2002)
★
Sid Spindler, Victoria (1990 - 1996)
★
Cheryl Kernot, Queensland (1990 - 1997)
★
John Coulter, South Australia (1990 - 1995)
★
Robert Bell, Tasmania (1990 - 1996)
★
Karin Sowada, New South Wales (1991 - 1993)
★
John Woodley, Queensland (1993 - 2001)
★
Meg Lees, South Australia (1993 - 2002)
4
★
Aden Ridgeway, New South Wales (1999 - 2005)
★
Brian Greig, Western Australia (1999 - 2005)
★
John Cherry, Queensland (2001 - 2005)
State parliamentarians
Current members
South Australia
★
Sandra Kanck (1993 - 'Present')
Former Members
Australian Capital Territory
★
Roslyn Dundas (2001-2004)
New South Wales
★
Richard Jones (1988 - 1996)
5
★
Elisabeth Kirkby (1981 - 1998)
★
Arthur Chesterfield-Evans (1998 - 2007)
Western Australia
★
Norm Kelly (1996 - 2001)
★
Helen Hodgson (1996 - 2001)
South Australia
★
Robin Millhouse (1977 - 1982)
★
Heather Southcott (1982)
★
Lance Milne (1979-1985)
★
Ian Gilfillan (1982-1993, 1997-2006)
★
Michael Elliott (1985 - 2003)
★
Kate Reynolds (2003 - 2006)
Tasmania
★
Norm Sanders (1980 - 1982)
Notes
# Appointed Interim Leader from 23 August 2002 until 5 October 2002.
# Resigned from party in November 1986 and sat as an Independent/Unite Australia Party Senator until defeat at 1987 election.
# Resigned from party in July 1992 and sat as an Independent until defeat at 1993 election.
# Resigned from party in July 2002 and sat as an Independent/Australian Progressive Alliance Senator until defeat at 2004 election.
# Resigned from party in 1996 and sat as an Independent until retirement at 2003 election.
Footnotes
1. Democrats History at australianpolitics.com
2. Chipp D and Larkin J ''The Third Man'' p. 187
3. In particular, the then Socialist Workers' Party and early 'green-left' parties such as the United Tasmania Group
4. The first substantive reason given by rebellious senators for deposing leader Janet Powell in 1991 was her alleged failure to develop a media profile which would attract more electoral support. The first conclusive constitutional abandonment of founding principles was probably the July, 1993, decision of the party's national executive to terminate monthly publication of the members' ''National Journal'' and to replace it with less frequent publication of glossy promotional material.
5. The Third Man, p.185
6. The Third Man, p. 186
7. Hewat T & Wilson D ''Don Chipp'' (1978) p. 84: "[In mid-June, 1977] the party . . . was still without a formal name but operating as the Australian Democrats."
8. The Third Man, p. 188
9. 1980 Conference Proceedings, ''Beyond our Expectations''
10. AD ''National Journal'' June 1990, p.5
11. The sole independent member in the Lower House, Ted Mack, was unable to launch his critical motion for lack of a seconder.
12. Ted Mack's speech on Gulf War
13. ''Senate Hansard'', 21 Jan, 1991
14. Australian Democrats Deregistered in Tasmania, ''ABC News'', 5 January 2006
15. Stott-Despoja denies rumours she is quitting, ''ABC News'', 22 March 2006
16. Political analyst predicts Democrats' demise, ''ABC News'' 11 July 2006
17. Former leader sees Democrats in 'tatters', ''ABC News'' 11 July 2006
18. KANCK SAYS RAVE PARTY SAFER THAN THE FRONT BAR, ''The Advertiser'' 5 July 2006
19. ''Sydney Morning Herald'' 8 July 2006
20. Hawke predicts end is near for Democrats, ''ABC News'' 29 August 2006
21. Stott-Despoja to bow out of politics, ''ABC News'' 22 October 2006
22. --e.g., a negative swing of 9.3% in 1994 saw Adelaide candidate Richard Pascoe reduced to only 1.59% of the vote.[1]
Further reading
Bennett D,
Discord in the Democrats PWHCE article, Melbourne 2002
''Beyond Our Expectations''—Proceedings of the Australian Democrats First National Conference, Canberra, 16-17 February, 1980. [Papers by: Don Chipp, Sir Mark Oliphant, Prof. Stephen Boyden, Bob Whan, Julian Cribb, Colin Mason, John Siddons, A. McDonald]
Chipp D and Larkin J ''The Third Man'', Rigby, Melbourne (?1978) ISBN 0 7270 0827 7
Chipp D (ed. Larkin J) ''Chipp'', Methuen Haynes, North Ryde NSW, 1987 ISBN 0 454 01345 0
Warhurst Prof J,
Don Chipp Was The Right Man In The Right Place At The Right Time ''Canberra Times'' 7 Sep 2006
See also
★
Liberalism
★
Liberalism worldwide
★
List of liberal parties
★
Liberal democracy
★
Timeline of (small-l) liberal parties in Australia
External links
★
Australian Democrats official site
★
Don Chipp Foundation
★
Senator Andrew Bartlett
★
Natasha Stott Despoja :: Senator for SA
★
Young Australian Democrats
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