Liberal Party mythology claims the party was founded in 1944. It’s more accurate to say in 1944 the redoubtable Robert Menzies merely rebadged the United Australia Party (same MPs, same party officials, same policy outlook and similar constitutions). Yes Menzies ‘merged a dozen parties’ - but several of those parties were very recent splits from the disintegrating UAP. More significant is this - none of the other parties had a federal MP. The ‘merger’ spin was spin. Same thing happened in 1931 when the Nationalists rebadged as UAP. Same thing happened in 1917 when the Commonwealth Liberal Party became the Nationalist Party. Truth is, the organisation we know today as the Liberal Party was formed in 1909 when the heroic George Reid graciously retired from politics in exchange for a merger of the Free Trade Party and the Protectionist Party. Reid did so because Labor was rising fast and were then, fanatical ‘democratic socialists’ obsessed with nationalising industry. Since then t... Source: ??Land Down Under??
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