Australian Democrats

Australian Democrats, left-of-centre political party founded in 1977 and supported by those dissatisfied with the major Australian parties, the Liberals on the right and the Australian Labor Party on the left. Its support is strongest among professionals and the intelligentsia.

The party’s founder, Donald Leslie Chipp, was a Liberal minister until he was denied a post in the 1975 Liberal-National Party government. The Australian Democrats won 9 percent of the vote in 1977 and elected two senators. In 1980 they elected five senators. Thereafter they frequently held enough seats to give them the balance of power in the upper chamber. In the early 21st century, however, support for the Australian Democrats began to decline with infighting over the party’s direction and with the rise of the Green Party. In 2008 the Australian Democrats lost all their seats in parliament when two senators retired and two were defeated at the polls.