Liberal Party of Australia (New South Wales Division)

New South Wales Liberals
Leader	Gladys Berejiklian
Deputy Leader	Dominic Perrottet
President	Philip Ruddock
Founded	4 January 1945; 76 years ago (4 January 1945)
Headquarters	100 William Street, Woolloomooloo, Sydney, New South Wales
Membership (2019)	17,560[1]
Ideology	Liberal conservatism[2] Economic liberalism
Political position	Centre-right
National affiliation	Liberal Party of Australia
Legislative Assembly	36 / 93
Legislative Council	11 / 42
House of Representatives	16 / 46 (NSW seats)
Senate	5 / 12 (NSW seats)
Local Government	184 / 1,480
Website
nsw.liberal.org.au
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

The Liberal Party of Australia (New South Wales Division), commonly known as the New South Wales Liberals, is the state division of the Liberal Party of Australia in New South Wales. The party currently governs in New South Wales in coalition with the National Party of Australia (NSW). The party is part of the federal Liberal Party which governs nationally in Coalition with the National Party of Australia.

Following the Liberal Party's formation in October 1944, the NSW division of the Liberal Party was formed in January 1945. For the following months, the Democratic Party and Liberal Democratic Party joined the Liberal Party and were replaced by the new party's NSW division.

In the 74 years since its foundation the party has won eight state elections to the Labor Party's 13, and has spent 27 years in office (1965 to 1976, 1988 to 1995 and 2011 to the present) to Labor's 46. Eight leaders have become Premier of New South Wales; of those, five, Sir Robert Askin, Nick Greiner, Barry O'Farrell, Mike Baird and Gladys Berejiklian, have won at least one state election.

History[]

Background[]

After the 1943 federal election, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), New South Wales United Australia Party (UAP) and Commonwealth Party began discussions on a merger to form a new party, proposed to be also named Liberal Democratic Party. The LDP (led by Ernest White) and Commonwealth Party were new parties formed a few months prior in April and May 1943 respectively. By November 1943, discussions were almost completed and unity was likely.^[3] The County Party refused to join in the merger but expressed they would co-operate with the new party.^[4] However, during the unity conference on 24 November 1943, the LDP walked out of the conference as they were not willing to support retaining the secretary of the UAP, H. W. Horsfield, as the secretary of the new party, as well as retaining members of his staff.^[5][6] Instead, during the same conference, the Commonwealth Party and the New South Wales UAP proceeded to merge without the LDP to form the Democratic Party.^[7] As such, LDP remained a separate party to the Democratic Party.

The initial leader of the Democratic Party was the former premier Alexander Mair,^[8] but he resigned on 2 February 1944 and was replaced by Reginald Weaver on 10 February.^[9][6]

In the lead up to the 1944 state election in May, the LDP party generated publicity disproportionate to its size and the Sydney Morning Herald commented that the Liberal Democratic Party was "a mouse" attempting to "swallow the Democratic Party lion".^[10] At the election, the Democratic Party led by Weaver won 19% of the vote and 12 of the 90 seats in the Legislative Assembly. However, the LDP received less than 4% of the primary vote and did not win a seat.

Horsfield, the secretary of the Democratic Party, resigned on 26 July 1944, paving the way for a LDP-Democratic merger again.^[6] In August 1944, the LDP, still led by Ernest White, initially agreed to merge with the Democratic Party and the new party to be known as the United Democratic Party.^[11] However, two days after federal UAP leader Robert Menzies announced that he was planning to set up a new "political movement with a Liberal policy" at an October conference, negotiations between LDP and Democratic Party broke down and the party merger did not take place.^[6]

Founding of Liberal Party[]

In October 1944, Menzies founded the Liberal Party of Australia during a conference in Canberra as announced in August, attended by LDP and Democratic Party delegates.^[12] The New South Wales division of the Liberal Party was formed on 4 January 1945 with a provisional executive appointed, consisting of 20 LDP and Democratic Party members including White, Weaver and Bill Spooner.^[13] Spooner, who was nominated by the LDP, was appointed as the first chairman on 9 January.^[14]

The LDP was willing to support the formation of the Liberal Party and dissolved itself on 15 January 1945, officially joining the Liberal Party.^[15] The Democratic Party also supported the formation but held off dissolution until a state branch of the Liberal Party had been fully constituted.^[16] Weaver and parliamentary members of the Democratic Party were dissatisfied with the Liberal Party executive's attitude towards Democratic Party members and supporters, with Weaver tendering his resignation from the provisional council of the state Liberal Party in February 1945.^[17] However, he withdrew his resignation in March 1945, and announced that all Democratic Party parliamentary members would join the Liberal Party.^[18]

In the 1945 Ryde state by-election in February, Liberal member Eric Hearnshaw was elected to the New South Wales parliament. As Democratic Party parliamentary members including Weaver at that time had not yet joined the Liberal Party, this made Hearnshaw the first Liberal Party member in the New South Wales parliament.^[19] Weaver and other Democratic parliamentary members finally joined the Liberal Party on 20 April 1945, with Weaver becoming the first parliamentary leader of the NSW Liberal Party.^[20] On the same day, Albert Reid, independent member for Manly and a former UAP member, also joined the Liberal Party. This brought the total number of Liberal Party legislative assembly members to 14.^[21]

Weaver died later in the year in November and he was succeeded by Mair as NSW Liberal Party leader. Mair resigned four months later in March 1946 to contest the Australian Senate, and was succeeded by Vernon Treatt as party leader. Treatt led the Liberal Party opposition in the state parliament for the next eight years.

Present of the Liberal Party[]

The Liberal/National Coalition won a landslide victory in the 2011 state election, with the Liberal Party winning 51 of the 93 lower house seats, enough for a majority in its own right. Liberal leader Barry O'Farrell opted to retain the Coalition. Ever since, the coalition has governed New South Wales under Liberal leaders Mike Baird and Gladys Berejiklian, winning the 2015 state election and 2019 state election respectively. The 2019 election was significant as it was the first time that the Coalition won a third consecutive term in office in New South Wales since the 1971 state election. It was also the first that a female leader (Gladys Berejiklian) led a party to a state election victory in New South Wales, and the first time a non-Labor female leader won a state election in Australia.

Parliamentary party leaders[]

The position of leader of the Liberal Party of Australia New South Wales Division is a formal role held by a Liberal member of the Parliament of New South Wales. As the Liberal Party has, since its foundation in 1945, been either the largest or second largest party in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, its leader is usually either the Premier or the Leader of the Opposition, depending on the majority or minority respectively of the party. The current leader of the Liberal Party is Gladys Berejiklian, and the deputy leader is Dominic Perrottet. Both have served in those roles since 23 January 2017. Berejiklian is currently Premier of New South Wales, a post she has held since 23 January 2017.

The role is selected by state members of the parliamentary party, but the position is non-fixed in duration, and is usually only vacated upon resignation, retirement from politics, or a spill motion with the support of the majority of the parliamentary members.

The leader only has a role in a parliamentary context; the party division as a whole is governed by a President and Vice-Presidents, who act on the advice of the party division's Director and Deputy Directors. The division also gathers annually at a State Conference to vote on and develop policy to be used by the party's elected representatives. The majority of the twenty Liberal Leaders resigned after losing elections or were deposed by other parliamentary members.

Deputy leaders[]

Election results[]

Election	Seats won	±	Total votes	%	Position	Leader
1947	18 / 90	6	470,485	29.60%	Opposition	Vernon Treatt
1950	29 / 94	11	604,428	37.51%	Opposition	Vernon Treatt
1953	22 / 94	9	432,739	27.94%	Opposition	Vernon Treatt
1956	27 / 94	5	594,740	35.11%	Opposition	Pat Morton
1959	28 / 94	1	603,718	35.35%	Opposition	Pat Morton
1962	25 / 94	3	671,716	34.85%	Opposition	Bob Askin
1965	31 / 94	6	807,868	39.59%	Minority Coalition	Bob Askin
1968	39 / 94	4	831,514	38.47%	Coalition	Bob Askin
1971	32 / 96	7	799,801	35.74%	Coalition	Bob Askin
1973	34 / 99	2	843,325	33.85%	Coalition	Bob Askin
1976	30 / 99	4	978,886	36.29%	Opposition	Eric Willis
1978	18 / 99	12	754,796	26.98	Opposition	Peter Coleman
1981	14 / 99	4	775,463	27.62%	Opposition	Bruce McDonald
1984	22 / 99	8	967,395	32.17%	Opposition	Nick Greiner
1988	39 / 109	17	1,147,613	35.80%	Coalition	Nick Greiner
1991	32 / 99	7	1,053,100	34.16%	Minority Coalition	Nick Greiner
1995	29 / 99	3	1,121,190	32.84%	Opposition	John Fahey
1999	20 / 93	9	927,368	24.82%	Opposition	Kerry Chikarovski
2003	20 / 93	0	944,888	24.72%	Opposition	John Brogden
2007	22 / 93	2	1,061,269	26.94%	Opposition	Peter Debnam
2011	51 / 93	29	1,602,457	38.58%	Coalition	Barry O'Farrell
2015	37 / 93	14	1,545,168	35.08%	Coalition	Mike Baird
2019	35 / 93	2	1,307,982	32.15%	Coalition	Gladys Berejiklian

See also[]

• National Party of Australia – NSW

References[]