Abstract
This article analyses the new Democratic Labor Party (DLP) in Australian politics. Created in the 1950s, following a split in the Labor Party, the original DLP primarily aimed to stop Labor from regaining government while opposing communism. It won a number of Senate seats from 1955 to 1970 but failed to win further parliamentary representation once Labor regained government in 1972. In recent years, however, the DLP has won representation in Australian parliaments. It won a seat in the Victorian Parliament in 2006, and in 2010 the party returned to federal politics when it won a seat in the Senate. This article argues that the modern party is significantly different to its earlier incarnation. Rather than seeking to oppose Labor or communism, the new DLP is primarily concerned with advancing a conservative moral agenda linked to broad social movements. In analysing the new DLP, it is argued that the party resembles a modern “issue-competitive” type of minor party rather than the spoiler type of party it was from the 1950s to 1970s.
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