The Liberal Party is the dominant partner in the Coalition with the National Party of Australia. At the federal level, the Liberal Party has been in coalition with the National Party (under various names) in both government and opposition since its creation, with only brief interruptions.[20] The Coalition was most recently in power from the 2013 federal election to the 2022 federal election, forming the Abbott (2013–2015), Turnbull (2015–2018) and Morrison (2018–2022) governments. The current party leader is Peter Dutton, who replaced former prime minister Scott Morrison as leader after the Coalition's defeat at the 2022 federal election. Two past leaders of the party, Sir Robert Menzies and John Howard, are Australia's two longest-serving Prime Ministers.
^Brandis, George (24 October 2022). "Taking liberties with Menzies' politics betrays his life and legacy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2023. One of the most important differences between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party is a historical one. Labor traces its roots to the trade union movement of the late 19th century; it does not point to any one great figure as its founder. The Liberal Party, by contrast, is unquestionably the creation of a single man, Robert Menzies – its founder and longest-serving leader and Australia's longest-serving prime minister. Both sides of politics acknowledge this: Paul Keating, in a savage speech, once spoke of his desire "to destroy Menzies' creation".
^corporateName=Commonwealth Parliament; address=Parliament House, Canberra. "Infosheet 22 - Political parties". www.aph.gov.au. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"Our structure". Liberal Party of Australia. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2020. There is one Division for each of the six states, as well as the Australian Capital Territory. The Northern Territory Country Liberal Party is an affiliate of the Liberal Party. Each of the Liberal Party's seven Divisions is autonomous and has their own constitutions.
^Philip Mendes, ed. (2007). Australia's Welfare Wars Revisited: The Players, the Politics and the Ideologies. Springer Nature. p. 123. ISBN9780868409917.
^Rodney Smith; Ariadne Vromen; Ian Cook, eds. (2006). Keywords in Australian Politics. Cambridge University Press. p. 103. ISBN9780521672832. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023. The ideology of the Liberal Party has in fact always been a mixture of conservatism, social liberalism and classical or neo-liberalism ...
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