AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

(ALP) one of the major Australian political parties. The first significant political representation of labour was achieved during the 1890s; in 1891, for example, candidates endorsed by the Sydney Trades and Labor Council gained 86 out of 141 seats in the New South Wales legislature. The entry of labour into national politics came with the first federal elections in 1901, when labour candidates associated in a loose federal organization gained 16 seats in the House of Representatives and 8 in the Senate, giving them the balance of power. The state organizations finally adopted the name Australian Labor Party in 1918. The early labour parties were moderately socialist in their policies, which called for such reforms as removal of property qualifications for the franchise, removal of legal restrictions on union activity, establishment of employer liability for industrial accidents and diseases, and compulsory industrial arbitration. They were, however, extremely disciplined, well organized, and militant, setting a pattern of party organization that other political groups were forced, to some extent, to imitate. The first majority federal Labor government was established in 1910, and by mid-1915 Labor also held power in all the states except Victoria. During World War I, however, the party split over the issue of conscription, the Labor Party proper going out of office until 1929. Many pro-conscription members remained in power for some years as members of the wartime Nationalist Party, formed from an alliance of pro-conscription Labor and the Liberal Party. Despite a sweeping electoral victory in 1929, Labor split over economic policy regarding the Great Depression and, following a general election of December 1931, went out of office for 10 years. Between 1944 and 1949, however, the party was able to enact major welfare legislation. From its defeat in 1949 until the election of Gough Whitlam as prime minister in 1972, the Labor Party remained out of office. Under Whitlam the Labor Party began a wide-ranging reform movement that touched upon Australia's economy, foreign policy, and social structure. In December 1975, however, the party was voted out of office when the governor-general forced early elections by dismissing the government under highly controversial circumstances. Two years later Whitlam resigned as parliamentary leader of the party after a second electoral defeat and was replaced by a less reform-minded leadership. In 1983 the Labor Party returned to power under Robert J.L. Hawke, and the party remained in power after Hawke resigned in 1991 and was succeeded by Paul Keating.