The
Liberal Party of Australia is an
Australian political party.
Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office. When in government it traditionally governs in a coalition with the National Party.
In federal politics, the Liberal Party is in opposition since losing the 2007 federal election, having held power since the 1996 election. At the state and territory level, the Liberals hold government in Western Australia.
Following the 2007 federal election defeat, leader and deputy leaders John Howard and Peter Costello resigned from their positions, with Howard also losing his seat of Bennelong. In the resulting Liberal leadership election, Brendan Nelson and Julie Bishop emerged as the new leader and deputy leader.[1][2] Following continued poor polling and leadership speculation, Nelson called for a spill of the Liberal Party leadership in September 2008, in which Malcolm Turnbull won the leadership 45 votes to 41.
