Liberalism in Australia - Ideology

Ideology

Liberalism in Australia has been notably lacking in a coherent philosophical underpinning: it is strongly pragmatic, rather than ideological, defined chiefly in antithesis to Labor. The governments of Menzies (1949–1966), Gorton (1968–1971) Fraser (1975–1983) and Howard (1996–2007) differed from each other in both social and economic approaches.

Unifying threads of Australian liberalism, have included:

• Opposition to socialism.
• Support for private enterprise. Previous Liberal party governments, especially under pressure from the Country Party in safeguarding its agricultural base, have been interventionist to varying degrees; but the current climate is very much in favour of deregulation and supply-side economics.
• Opposition to major changes to the Australian Constitution. Once again, this varies: the Democrats, and quite a few Liberal Party members, support a republic. The Liberals and Democrats have shown much more affection for the Senate than has Labor.
• In foreign affairs, loyalty to Australia's major allied partner (the United Kingdom before World War II, the United States afterward), sometimes to the detriment of multilateralism. "Small-l" liberals often tend to repudiate this aspect: the Democrats were strongly critical of both Iraq Wars and Fraser, despite supporting it while in office, has called for an end to the ANZUS alliance.
• Attitudes ranging from mild to extreme antipathy towards the trade union movement.
• Opposition to the Australian Labor Party.