North Australia Party

Last updated

North Australia Party
Leader Lionel Rose
FounderLionel Rose
Peter Leunig
FoundedAugust 1965
Dissolvedc. 1966
Headquarters Alice Springs
Ideology Regionalism

The North Australia Party (NAP) was a short-lived political party in Australia's Northern Territory, primarily active in Alice Springs and the surrounding areas of Central Australia. It was founded in 1965 under the leadership of Lionel Rose and contested the Northern Territory Legislative Council election later that year, winning a single seat. The party has been cited as a predecessor of the modern Country Liberal Party (CLP).

Contents

History

Lionel Rose, party leader Lieutenant Colonel A. L. Rose (115567).jpg
Lionel Rose, party leader

The creation of the NAP was announced on 12 August 1965 by Lionel Rose, an independent member of the Legislative Council, who said it had been established at a meeting in Alice Springs the previous week. [1] Rose was described as the party's leader, [2] although Alice Springs businessman Peter Leunig has also been cited as a founder of the party. [3] The NAP printed its own newspaper, The Times, and employed a full-time organiser in the lead-up to the Legislative Council elections in October 1965. A Darwin branch of the party was established in September. The NAP was "vigorously opposed" by both the Darwin-based Northern Territory News and the Alice Springs-based Centralian Advocate . [4] The News claimed that the party was a front for the Liberal Party and implied that it was being funded by external sources. [5]

The 1965 election was the first in which a majority of candidates were members of political parties and the first at which the Australian Labor Party (ALP) had faced an organised opponent. The NAP fielded five candidates – three in Central Australia, one in Darwin and one in Katherine – compared with seven for the ALP. The party won a single seat, with Tony Greatorex winning a large majority in the sparsely populated seat of Stuart. [4] Rose was defeated in Alice Springs by 17 votes. [2] The results in both seats were controversial, with the unsuccessful candidates claiming that their opponents had engaged in illegal conduct to secure the votes of Indigenous constituents. Rose claimed that the ALP candidate Charles Orr in Alice Springs had bribed voters with alcohol and petitioned the Court of Disputed Returns to overturn the result. [2] David Smith, the ALP candidate in Stuart, petitioned the court to unseat Greatorex on the grounds that campaign voters had intimated and misled Aboriginal voters. [6]

The NAP unsuccessfully contested a Legislative Council by-election for the Tennant Creek seat in February 1966. In the same month, the party won all five seats on the Alice Springs Town Management Board, albeit on a turnout of 17 percent. However, the party "soon faded away". [4] Its role as primary opponent to the ALP in the Northern Territory was taken by the Country Party, which contested its first Legislative Council by-election in November 1966. [7] Greatorex was re-elected to the Legislative Council in 1968 under the Country Party banner. [8]

Policies

Rose stated that the "first object of the party would be to promote the economic, social and political development of northern Australia". [1] He believed that the Northern Territory had been neglected by the federal government and that a party dedicated to the Territory should be established. However, the party "appealed to conservative opinion" and effectively functioned as the opposition to the ALP in the absence of any organised parties. [4]

In announcing the party's formation, Rose stated that it was intended to operate not only in the Northern Territory but also in North Queensland and the Kimberley region of Western Australia. [1] Its establishment was welcomed by the People the North Committee, a Queensland-based organisation, which promised co-operation with the new party. [9]

Legacy

The NAP has been cited as a predecessor of the modern Country Liberal Party (CLP), which was established in 1974, in that the CLP inherited its "strong regional orientation". [10] A number of NAP members, including future senator Bernie Kilgariff, were involved in establishing the local branch of the Country Party, the immediate predecessor of the CLP. [5] However, the party's founders did not join the CLP – Rose had no further political involvement in politics, [11] while Leunig joined the ALP and stood for the party at the 1974 Legislative Assembly election. [12]

Related Research Articles

Country Liberal Party Northern Territory political party

The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP) is a centre-right political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In local politics it operates in a two-party system with the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It also contests federal elections as an affiliate of the Liberal Party of Australia and National Party of Australia, the two partners in the federal coalition.

Clare Martin Australian politician

Clare Majella Martin is a former Australian journalist and politician. She was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995. She was appointed Opposition Leader in 1999, and won a surprise victory at the 2001 territory election, becoming the first Labor Party (ALP) and first female Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. At the 2005 election, she led Territory Labor to the second-largest majority government in the history of the Territory, before resigning as Chief Minister on 26 November 2007.

2005 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia, on 18 June 2005. The centre-left Labor Party, led by Chief Minister Clare Martin, won a second term with a landslide victory, winning six of the ten seats held by the opposition Country Liberal Party in the 25-member Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, bringing their total to 19. It was the second largest victory in any Northern Territory election. The only larger majority in the history of the Territory was in the first election, in 1974. In that contest, the CLP won 17 of the 19 seats in the chamber, and faced only two independents as opposition.

Electoral division of Greatorex Former electoral division of the Northern Territory, Australia

Greatorex was an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly in Australia's Northern Territory. It was first created in 1990, replacing the abolished electorate of Sadadeen, and was named after Tony Greatorex, the last President of the Legislative Council. Greatorex was a mostly urban electorate, covering an area of 76 km², and encompassing the Alice Springs suburbs of Sadadeen and Traeger Park. There were 4,606 people enrolled in the electorate as of August 2012.

Bernard Francis Kilgariff AM was an Australian politician. He was one of the founders of the Country Liberal Party and served as a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly which included a stint as Deputy Majority Leader. He was elected to the Australian Senate in 1975, and initially sat with the National Country Party until 1979, before sitting with the Liberal Party for the rest of his federal political career.

1994 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 4 June 1994, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP). Marshall Perron continued as Chief Minister.

1990 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 27 October 1990, and was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) under Chief Minister Marshall Perron.

1987 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia on Saturday 7 March 1987. Although the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) won a majority under new leader Stephen Hatton, the party's vote was down almost 20 percentage points.

1983 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory, Australia on Saturday 3 December 1983. The result was a landslide victory for the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP) under Chief Minister Paul Everingham over the Australian Labor Party (ALP) opposition under Opposition leader Bob Collins.

1974 Northern Territory general election

The first general election for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 19 October 1974, and was won by the Country Liberal Party (CLP), formed a few months earlier from the merger of the territorial Country and Liberal parties.

1977 Northern Territory general election

A general election was held in the Northern Territory on Saturday 13 August 1977. Though the election was won by the incumbent Country Liberal Party (CLP), the party lost five of its seven executive members. Surprisingly, one of the casualties was Majority Leader Goff Letts—one of the few instances where a major-party leader at any level in Australia lost his own seat. The election also marked the emergence of the Labor Party as a parliamentary force: Labor took six seats in the new assembly.

The 2007 Greatorex by-election was a by-election held on 28 July 2007 for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly electorate of Greatorex in Alice Springs.

The Northern Territory Legislative Council was the partly elected governing body of the Northern Territory of Australia from 1947 until its replacement by the fully elected Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in 1974.

Goff Letts Australian politician

Godfrey Alan "Goff" Letts is the former Majority Leader of the Northern Territory of Australia from 1974 to 1977.

2016 Northern Territory general election

The 2016 Northern Territory general election was held on Saturday 27 August 2016 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament.

Denis Wilfred Collins is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1980 to 1997, representing Alice Springs until 1983, Sadadeen until 1990 and Greatorex thereafter. He was first elected as a member of the Country Liberal Party, but lost the preselection to future Chief Minister Shane Stone in 1986 and became an Independent, defeating Stone to win re-election in 1987. A conspiracy theorist, Collins advocated burying guns in the desert in response to the Fabian Socialist World Bank conspiracy. He was defeated in 1994 by CLP candidate Richard Lim.

This is a list of electoral division results for the Northern Territory 2012 General Election.

Alfred Lionel Rose

Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Lionel Rose,, better known as Lionel Rose or Colonel Rose, was an Australian Army officer and veterinarian who served in both World War I and II. He is best known for pioneering the live cattle trade from the Northern Territory to Asia and curing cattle disease.

2020 Northern Territory general election

The 2020 Northern Territory general election was held on 22 August 2020 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament.

Territory Alliance Political party in Australia

Territory Alliance is an Australian political party based in the Northern Territory. It was founded in 2019 by Terry Mills, an incumbent member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. He had been elected as a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP). In March 2020, two additional independent MLAs joined the party, Jeff Collins and Robyn Lambley. This saw the Alliance surpass the CLP as the second-largest party in the Legislative Assembly, but failed to gain official opposition status after a secret ballot of non-Government members of the Legislative Assembly instead recognised the CLP in a 5-3 vote. Despite hopes of forming government in its own right, or a coalition with the CLP or Labor in a minority government, the party was left with only one seat following the 2020 Territory election.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "New political party to develop north". The Canberra Times. 12 August 1965.
  2. 1 2 3 "Charge of NT poll frauds". The Canberra Times. 29 March 1966.
  3. ↑ Jaensch, Dean; Loveday, Peter, eds. (1979). Election in the Northern Territory 1974-1977 (PDF). North Australia Research Unit (Australian National University). p. 47.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Heatley 1998, p. 3.
  5. 1 2 Heatley 1998, p. 4.
  6. ↑ "Illegal actions in NT poll alleged". The Canberra Times. 6 January 1966.
  7. ↑ Heatley 1998, p. 5.
  8. ↑ Heatley 1998, p. 6.
  9. ↑ "Fluoridation has a mixed reception". The Canberra Times. 19 August 1965.
  10. ↑ Heatley 1998, p. 1.
  11. ↑ Taylor, Robert I. "Rose, Alfred Lionel (1898–1980)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  12. ↑ Jaensch & Loveday 1979, p. 73.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.