History of the Australian Labor Party
[4] The party was created by, and has always been influenced by, the trade unions, and in practice Labor politicians regard themselves as part of the broader labour movement and tradition.
At the first federal election in 1901 Labor's platform called for a White Australia Policy, a citizen army and compulsory arbitration of industrial disputes.
In addition, many members from the working class supported the liberal notion of free trade between the colonies – in the first grouping of state MPs, 17 of the 35 were free-traders.
After 1900, says Hamilton, Irish Catholics were drawn to the Labour Party because its stress on equality and social welfare fitted with their status as manual laborers and small farmers.
[10] After Watson's government fell, Deakin became prime minister again for a short period, to be followed by the Free Trade Party's Reid, who had Labour's Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904, which was the cause of the political upheaval, passed.
[12] Labour implemented many of its policies mostly in his first government in fields such as defence, constitutional matters, finance, transport and communications, and social security, including establishing old-age and disability pensions, improved working conditions including a maternity allowance and workers compensation, created a national currency, forming the Royal Australian Navy, the commencement of construction for the Trans-Australian Railway, expanding the bench of the High Court of Australia, founding Canberra and establishing the government-owned Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
A land tax, aimed at breaking up big estates and to provide a wider scope for small-scale farming, was also introduced, while coverage of the Arbitration system extended to agricultural workers, domestics, and federal public servants.
Hughes supported the introduction of conscription in Australia during World War I, while the majority of his Labor colleagues and the trade union movement opposed it.
At the state level William Holman, also a supporter of conscription, quit the party at the same time and became Nationalist Premier of New South Wales.
The ALP was essentially split three ways, between believers in orthodox finance such as Prime Minister Scullin and a senior minister in his government, Joseph Lyons; proto-Keynesians such as federal Treasurer Ted Theodore; and those who believed in radical policies such as New South Wales Premier Jack Lang, who wanted to repudiate Australia's debt to British bondholders.
At the start of that Pacific campaign in December 1941, Curtin declared that "Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom", thus helping to establish the Australian-American alliance (later formalised as ANZUS by the Menzies government).
Remembered as a strong war time leader and for a landslide win at the 1943 election, receiving 58.2% of the two-party preferred vote and a Senate majority.
Chifley's initiatives included the expansion of health care in Australia with a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and free hospital ward treatment, the introduction of Australian citizenship (1948), a post-war immigration scheme, the founding of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the reorganisation and enlargement of the Australian scientific organisation CSIR to the CSIRO, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, improvements in social services, the establishment of a Universities Commission for the expansion of university education, the creation of the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES), the introduction of federal funds to the States for public housing construction, the creation of a civilian rehabilitation service, over-viewing the foundation of airlines Qantas and Trans Australia Airlines, and the creation of the Australian National University.
The incoming Liberal-Country Party coalition led by Robert Menzies changed the industry structure by also permitting the establishment of American-style commercial stations.
With an increasingly uncertain economic outlook, after his attempt to nationalise the banks and aftermath of the coalminers strike, Chifley lost office at the 1949 election to Robert Menzies' Liberal-National Coalition.
Later that year, Evatt blamed Labor's defeat in the election on "a small minority of members, located particularly in the State of Victoria", which were in conspiracy to undermine him.
As a result, Labor in Victoria won 37.6% of the primary vote and 42.1% after allocation of preferences; it achieved 20 seats to the Liberals' 34 and the Country Party's ten.
As happened earlier in Victoria, the expulsions destroyed the Queensland Labor government; Gair was defeated on a no-confidence motion, and in the resulting election the QLP directed its preferences to the non-Labor parties.
The Whitlam government passed a large amount of legislation, and saw a massive expansion of the federal budget to implement an extensive number of new programs and policy changes, including fee-free tertiary education, the formal removal of the White Australia Policy, the implementation of legal aid programs, the elimination of military conscription and criminal execution, health care in Australia became universal with the creation of Medibank, and tariffs were cut across the board by 25 percent.
The Whitlam government lost office following the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis and dismissal by Governor-General John Kerr after the Coalition blocked supply in the Senate after a series of political scandals, and was defeated at the 1975 election.
Hayden was replaced by former Australian Council of Trade Unions President Bob Hawke in February 1983; weeks later, he led Labor to a landslide victory at the 1983 election.
Together with his Treasurer Paul Keating, with whom he formed a powerful political partnership, Hawke led a significant period of economic and social reform which has been hailed by historians and scholars since as laying the groundwork for modern Australia.
On aboriginal affairs, native title in Australia was recognised, and progress was made in directing assistance to the most disadvantaged recipients over a whole range of welfare benefits.
[32] The Government also played a key role in numerous international issues, including the ending of apartheid in South Africa, the Gulf War, and establishing the United Nations peace process for Cambodia, culminating in the Transitional Authority[33] Hawke also took a major public stand in the aftermath of the Tiananmen square massacre in 1989; despite having spent years trying to get closer relations with China, Hawke gave a tearful address on national television describing the massacre in graphic detail, and unilaterally offered asylum to over 42,000 Chinese students who were living in Australia at the time, many of whom had publicly supported the Tiananmen protesters.
The previous Coalition government's WorkChoices industrial relations system was largely dismantled and Fair Work Australia was created.
National Broadband Network (NBN) discussions and the final agreement with Telstra occurred and construction and rollout commenced, remaining Iraq War combat personnel were withdrawn, and the "Australia 2020 Summit" was held.
A new Teen Dental Plan was launched,[36] while around 100 laws relating to same-sex relationships in the LGBT community were changed after a HREOC enquiry found them to be discriminatory.
In response to the Global Financial Crisis, the government passed economic stimulus packages, and Australia was one of the few western countries to avoid the late-2000s recession.
The Gillard government introduced the Clean Energy Bill as a replacement for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) in conjunction with compensation including further income tax cuts and an increase in the tax-free threshold, a Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) was introduced as a replacement for the Resource Super Profits Tax (RSPT), Gillard reached a health care agreement with state and territory leaders, introduced paid parental leave, plain cigarette packaging laws, the biggest cuts on consumer prices of medicines in Australian history under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), and allocated funding for children and concession holders to receive dental insurance through Medicare.
At the 2016 Australian Capital Territory election, Labor, led by Andrew Barr, retained government for a record fifth term with the support of The Greens.
