Three themes dominate conceptions of the Li e al pa t s apa it to a age its i te al politi s.
Fi st, the pa t s decentralised organisational structure and its implications, second, its political culture centred on the parliamentary party and its leader, and finally, the uneasy ideological marriage between liberalism and conservatism.
As Jaensch argues, a party may be an actor within society, but it is also a so iet a d polit i its
o ight.135Pa t a to s u de take fo al a d i fo al a ti ities a d oles ithi a so ial
olle ti el .136 At the same time a party is a political system, with authority structures for managing
disputes, co-ordinating recruiting and policy-making and facilitating systems of representation. A critical organising principle of the LPA is its federal structure. Katherine West noted that the e is o such thing as the Liberal Party of Australia, which in practice is a co posite of se e pa ties ho a e influenced by their environment and the personalities of its participants.137 Although the federal parliamentary party meets in Canberra and is serviced by its own small federal secretariat, the reality of state organised pre-sele tio s has had a huge i pa t o the pa t s ultu e a d ope atio . The party is notoriously difficult to reform, and the centre has only very slowly accumulated powers, and in nowhere near the order of magnitude of the Labor party. An aim of this study is to further illuminate how processes of state renewal impact on the parliamentary party.
135
Jaensch, The Liberals, 105.
136
Ibid.
137
44
The organisation of the Liberal party has also influenced the relationship between the extra- parliamentary party and its parliamentary wing (not to mention the pa t s philosoph . As Ia
Ha o k s o ga isatio al histo ies of the fede al se eta iat a d the Ne “outh Wales di isio ha e
demonstrated, many of the patterns affecting the party today, have repeated themselves
th oughout the pa t s histo . A o di gly, the extra-pa lia e ta pa t s effe ti e apa it to exercise significant influence withi the pa t s poli eased et ee a d — that is at a
i i u si ea s afte the pa t s fou di g a d o e ea afte Me zies i to i .138Me zies
government turned toward the public service for advice and simply ignored the organisation and particularly its membership. In response, the organisation invested further in cementing its
dominance over election strategy and campaigning. This relationship pattern has continued down to the present with only some changes at the margins.139 Indeed, as Errington has noted, the party is complacent in its attitude to its organisational health and has repeatedly sidestepped opportunities to tackle major problems such as growing factionalism, falling membership, dependence on a narrow fundraising base and poor policy infrastructure.140 While the relationship between the party organisation and the parliamentary party is important, it should be the product of a significant study in its own right. Instead, this study will primarily focus on the internal functions of the parliamentary party.
In the mid-1940s, the main organisational challenge for the Liberal party was to build a mass political organisation that could rival the ALP. This desire was born of the repeated political collapses when
the LPA s a te ede ts lost offi e a d the desi e to eate a politi al o ga isatio f ee of ties to
powerful outside interests. Indeed, a striking difference between understanding of the LPA in
o te po a ge e al studies a d olde ge e al studies of the pa t is that the pa t s i itial desi es
and embarrassment of its past (particularly by the United Australia Party (UAP)) is often overlooked. This is unsurprising, given it reflects the LPA s d ift f o ass pa t o ga isatio a d the i po ta e
of ai tai i g Me zies Chi ese all et ee fu d aise s, do o s a d pa lia e ta ia s.
However as Abjorensen has observed, it was not just a mass party organisation that the non-Labor forces were seeking, but the ability to p odu e leade s ith fa ide appeal tha p e iousl .141 Thus, while the party had succeeded in building a party organisation durable enough to whether a political collapse in 1972, it remained in its political culture a leade ship ehi le. West s o se atio from 1965 remains pertinent: that Menzies had succeeded in controlling the party through
138
Hancock, National and Permanent?, 120.
139
Judith B ett, The Li e al Pa t , i Government, Politics, Power and Policy in Australia, ed. Andrew Parkin, John Summers, and Dennis Woodward, 9th ed. (Frenchs Forest, NSW: Longman, 2010), 234.
140E i gto , The Li e al Pa t : Ele to al “u ess despite O ga isatio al D ift , –
17.
141
45
su o di ati g its e t a-parliamentary to its federal parliamentary wing, its federal parliamentary wing to the Liberal-Country pa t a i et a d the fede al a i et to its Li e al p i e i iste .142 Starr explained that this was the natural consequence of the reality that the initiative for forming a new party would have had to come from the parliamentary rump of the UAP. And he pithily encapsulated the situation when he noted that unlike the ALP and or the Country party, the LPA
as o ei ed as a pa lia e ta g oup i eed of o ga isatio al suppo t, athe tha a e t a-
pa lia e ta od seeki g legislati e ep ese tatio .143 Hence, it is hardly a surprise that the
party maintained its already strong inclination towards a leader dominated political organisation and culture.
Indeed, the importance of leadership is a recurrent theme in studies of the LPA. Liberal leaders have the capacity to hire and fire their colleagues and this provides the leader with some authority, even if it is balanced by representational considerations. Yet, as Miragliotta et al. note, the party does not institutio alise the leade s autho it ; a leader must first demonstrate their electoral appeal before
e ei i g the pa t s full autho it .144 For successful leaders, such as Menzies, Fraser and Howard,
this produces long-lived and (mostly) disciplined governments. But as Brett as argued, it weakens the party in the long-term, retarding succession planning, policy development and giving the party an overall defensive character.145
Leaders in opposition, in particular, occupy a precarious position. Indeed, a study of leadership turnover demonstrated that Liberal party leaders serve for an average of four years (this figure includes Menzies) and have some of the shortest average leadership tenures in the democratic world. 146 This underlines the requirement for leaders to demonstrate immediate success and highlights the extra-ordinary success of Menzies and Howard as long-lived party leaders in
o pa iso to leade s du i g the pa t s oppositio ea s. Mo eo e , as A jo e se has a gued,
leaders use personal relationships as important tools for governing the party, a theme which this study will unpack.147 Indeed, this study aims to explore how LPA parliamentarians understand the relationship between party and leader and some of the reasons why opposition leadership is particularly difficult for the Liberal party.
142
West, Power in the Liberal Party, 213.
143
“ta , The Li e al Pa t of Aust alia , , .
144
Miragliotta, Errington, and Barry, The Australian Political System in Action, 221.
145
See Brett, Exit Right.
146F ed ik B a de a d Paul t Ha t, The Politi s of Pa t Leade “u i al a d “u essio : Aust alia i
Co pa ati e Pe spe ti e , Australian Journal of Political Science 42, no. 1 (1 March 2007): 58.
147
46
Despite the obvious shortcomings and challenges for Liberal leaders, they remain a dominant unit of
a al sis. This fo us a e su ed up Ke p s de la atio that leade ship a d philosoph a e i sepa a le .148 Thus it is no surprise that many studies of the party have focused on leadership or
have used leaders as a key unit of analysis.149Geo ge B a dis s eat su atio p o ides the
atio ale: e e Li e al leade has i te p eted the pa t s o e philosophi al alues i light of his
personal beliefs and emphases .150 For Jaensch, it is the over-reliance on the leader that is an
i po ta t li k to its fa tio al o te de s ste : he the leader is doing well, the pa t s political ideological groupings have been willing to put aside their differences in order to maintain office.151 It is for this reason that contemporary studies of the LPA continue to highlight the fusion of 1909. The union of liberals and conservatives in opposition to labourism and socialism was enough to bind these two uncomfortable bedfellows for over a century. Yet, it was not without cost. The fusion remains a key driver of conflict within the party. During the 1980s, repeated failure proved the limitations of its leadership and ideological management structures. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the party constantly attempted to reiterate its policy preferences. A similar process was underway between 2007 and 2010, before the hung parliament injected renewed vigour into the
ele to all su essful leade ship odel. The pa t s tholog that it does not have factions
ulti atel i hi its the pa t s a ilit to de elop useful po e -sharing machinery.152 In its exploration
of the pa t s poli -making and political communications processes, this study will explore the extent to which leaders and their preferences mattered.