Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Democratic Labor Party

This article is about the current Australian political party founded after the dissolution of the original DLP. For the earlier party, see Democratic Labor Party (historical). There is S. Korean party of the same name. For other parties with this name around the world, see Democratic Labour Party.

The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) is a small historic political party in Australia that espouses social conservatism and opposes neo-liberalism. It is descended from, but not legally the same as, the Democratic Labor Party which existed from 1955 to 1978, and which until 1974 played an important role in Australian politics. At the 2006 Victorian election, the new DLP won parliamentary representation for the first time when it won a seat in the Victorian Legislative Council.

The old DLP was wound up in 1978, but a small group of DLP activists in Victoria formed a new DLP, which has contested Senate elections in Victoria at every election since 1984 and a number of Senate seats in other States in the 2007 Federal Election. In the 2007 Federal Election the Democratic Labor party received 115,966 first preference senate votes nationally. This included 52,977 senate votes for NSW, which was more than the Democrats and more than Family First.. It contested the 2008 Mayo by-election and Lyne byelections, neither of which were contested by the ALP.

Over the last 12 months the DLP has re-formed state parties in Queensland and NSW with a view to reregistering for and contesting state and local elections. The state secretary for NSW, Michael O’Donoghue, a school teacher and trade union delegate, was the DLP candidate for the Lyne by-election, and the secretary for Qld is Tony Zegenhagen.

At the 2004 Federal Election, the DLP received 58,042 first preference, or 1.94% of all votes, in the Victorian Senate election. These votes assisted in the election of Steve Fielding from Family First to the Senate, even though the DLP vote was higher than the Family First vote. It also contested the federal divisions of Ballarat, and McMillan.

The DLP contested the 2006 Victorian State Election, fielding candidates in the eight regions of the reformed Legislative Council, where proportional representation gave the party the best chance of having members elected. It polled 1.97% of the first preference vote. However, in two regions it polled higher, with 2.70% in Western Victoria and 5.11% in Northern Metropolitan. This was enough to elect one member, Peter Kavanagh, on ALP preferences in Western Victoria Region. They briefly looked set to have a second member, party leader John Mulholland, elected in Northern Metropolitan, but this result was overturned after a recount.

Politics of the DLP

Following the election of DLP candidate Peter Kavanagh, attention has been given to the DLP platform of opposition to abortion and poker machines and the description of HIV/AIDS as a "homosexual disease.

However, the party has a comprehensive policy platform, and Peter Kavanagh has referred to the heritage of the historic Democratic Labor Party, saying that "The DLP remains the only political party in Australia which is pro-family, pro-life and genuinely pro-worker.

The DLP website claims to be not “left” or “right” but centre-“decentralist”. The DLP’s stated principles are “democracy”, “liberty” and “peace”. It’s policies promote (1) the pro-life position (against abortion, euthenasia and the destruction of human embryos; (2)traditional marriage and the natural family (opposed to giving homosexual unions the same status as marriage) (3)economic and social justice (sharing out/ decentralising power and resources); (4) a decent society (it’s policies and values are influenced by Christian thought as to the definition of decency); (5) a self reliant and secure Australia (which means building up defensive capacity). These policies are not dissimilar to the 5 primacies of the National Civic Council (NCC),however the DLP does not regard itself as a Catholic or Christian party as such. An examination of its policies indicate that the DLP is opposed to libertarianism in the form of economic rationalism (neo-liberalism) and in the form of “progressive” social liberalism.

The party's policies include a Progressive Expenditure Tax (with no tax payable on any income that is saved or invested), Universal Living Allowance tied to basic per capita living costs, rejection of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other regressive taxes for general revenue, federal funding for the education of students attending non-government schools to be based on an equitable distribution and increased diversification in overseas trade to broaden the base for growth and opposition to abortion, euthanasia, therapeutic cloning and same-sex marriage. The former DLP had the patronage of the Catholic Church in Victoria, but not in NSW. The new party does not have the patronage of the Catholic Church but still has support among Catholics, although its support base has broadened to includes Protestants and those who are not Christians but who are agree with it's historic Labor principles, and its other social and economic policies.--Daleatwiki (Daleatwiki) 10:21, 7 October 2008 (UTC)