The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.
Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the Australian Country Party, and then adopted the name the National Country Party in 1975. The party's name was changed to the National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is commonly referred to as "The Nationals". Federally, in New South Wales, and to an extent Victoria, it has generally been the minor party in a centre-right Coalition with the Liberal Party of Australia in government. In Opposition it has worked in formal Coalition or separately, but generally in co-operation with the Liberal Party and it predecessors, the United Australia Party. It was the major coalition party in Queensland between 1924 and 2008, when it merged with the junior Queensland Division of the Liberal Party of Australia to form the Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP), an organisation dominated by ex-Nationals – seats listed in this article do not include the LNP.
The party's federal parliamentary leader since 3 December 2007, following the coalition's defeat at the 2007 federal election, is Warren Truss.
Read more about National Party Of Australia: History, Political Role, Liberal/National Merger, Historical Electoral Results, Leaders, Deputy Leaders, Current State Parliamentary Leaders
Famous quotes containing the words national, party and/or australia:
“Any honest examination of the national life proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom with which we began. The recovery of this standard demands of everyone who loves this country a hard look at himself, for the greatest achievments must begin somewhere, and they always begin with the person. If we are not capable of this examination, we may yet become one of the most distinguished and monumental failures in the history of nations.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“He said, truly, that the reason why such greatly superior numbers quailed before him was, as one of his prisoners confessed, because they lacked a cause,—a kind of armor which he and his party never lacked. When the time came, few men were found willing to lay down their lives in defense of what they knew to be wrong; they did not like that this should be their last act in this world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is very considerably smaller than Australia and British Somaliland put together. As things stand at present there is nothing much the Texans can do about this, and ... they are inclined to shy away from the subject in ordinary conversation, muttering defensively about the size of oranges.”
—Alex Atkinson, British humor writer. repr. In Present Laughter, ed. Alan Coren (1982)