Australian Labor Party - History

History

The ALP is descended from Labour parties founded in the 1890s in the Australian colonial parliaments prior to federation. Labor tradition ascribes the founding of Queensland Labour to a meeting of striking pastoral workers under a ghost gum tree (the "Tree of Knowledge") in Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891. The Balmain, New South Wales branch of the party claims to be the oldest in Australia.

Labour as a parliamentary force dates from 1891 in New South Wales, 1893 in South Australia and Queensland, and later in the other colonies. In New South Wales in 1891, the first election contested by Labour candidates, 35 of 141 seats were won by Labour candidates. Labour was in a balance of power position and had a stance of government support in exchange for policy concessions with the colonial Protectionist and Free Trade parties. In 1899, Anderson Dawson formed a minority Labour government in Queensland, the first in the world, which lasted one week while the conservatives regrouped after a split.

The colonial Labour parties and the trade unions were mixed in their support for the Federation of Australia. Some Labour representatives argued against the proposed constitution, claiming the Senate as proposed was too powerful, similar to the anti-reformist colonial upper houses and the British House of Lords. They feared federation would further entrench the power of the conservative forces. The first Labour leader and Prime Minister, Chris Watson, however, was a supporter of federation.

After Federation, the Federal Parliamentary Labour Party (informally known as the Caucus) first met on 8 May 1901 at Parliament House, Melbourne, the meeting place of the first Federal Parliament. This is now taken as the founding date of the federal Labor Party, but it was some years before there was any significant structure or organisation at a national level.