He was president of the Social Credit Party (originally the Social Credit Political League; in 1985 its name was changed to the Democratic Party) from 1979 to 1987 and he was a leading advocate of proportional representation in New Zealand.
Lipa spent his childhood in Auckland and was educated at St Peter's College where one of the influential teachers was Tom Weal, deputy leader of the Social Credit Political League 1970–1972.
The submission proposed, inter alia, the introduction of proportional representation into the political system of New Zealand to replace the then current first past the post electoral system.
In the New Zealand general election of 1981, the party gained the greatest share of votes in its history, 20.65%.
But the party only won two seats, giving poignant nuance to the work Lipa had done on electoral reform.