Democratic Party of Australia
political party in Australia
The Democratic Party of Australia (DPA), sometimes referred to as the Australian Democratic Party, was an Australian political party that was active in the mid-1950s.
Ahead of the 1953 Senate election, the party merged with the Queensland-based Independent Democratic Party (IDP). However, they split following the election. The party was also separate from the North Queensland Democratic Party, which had itself been formed just weeks after the DPA.
History
The party was formed in Sydney on 17 February 1953 by a group who had organised the campaign of independent candidate Martin Hardie at the 1952 Bradfield by-election. It was chaired by former Willoughby mayor A. R. Baldwin. According to its secretary, Major S. K. Hatfleld, the party opposed the Liberal Party's policy on taxation and the Labor Party's policy on socialisation.
The party merged with the Independent Democrats several months before the 1953 Senate election, with the DPA's Charles Russell (a former Country Party MP) saying the decision was made because both parties had similar aims and ideologies. The party endorsed public health administrator Raphael Cilento (of the IDP) as its lead candidate in Queensland.
At the Senate election, the party's ticket was unsuccessful, winning 6% of the vote. Shortly after, the party opened nominations for candidates for the next federal election.
The public source identifies “Democratic Party of Australia” as political party in Australia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Democratic, Party and Australia.
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This entry incorporates text from “Democratic Party of Australia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.