Commonwealth Liberal Party
The Commonwealth Liberal Party ( CLP ; also known as The Fusion ) was a political party in Australia , the 1909 from a merger of the Free Trade Party of George Reid with the Protectionist Party of Alfred Deakin emerged.
Together they wanted to stay competitive with the strong Australian Labor Party . In its first federal election in 1910, however, the CLP was clearly defeated by Labor. In September 1911, the CLP teamed up with the Rural People's Party to create the People's Liberal Party (PLP) .
Under the new party leader Joseph Cook , the new party succeeded in beating Labor by just one seat in 1913. Just a year later, Cook had to call early new elections due to a political stalemate and several reforms prevented. These were lost for the PLP. In 1917, the People's Liberal Party joined forces with the National Labor Party of Billy Hughes, who had recently been excluded from the Australian Labor Party , to form the Nationalist Party of Australia .
The Nationalist Party, in turn, mutated into the United Australia Party in 1931 , which was finally transformed into today's Liberal Party of Australia in 1945 under the leadership of Robert Menzies .
Party leader
- Alfred Deakin 1909-1911
- Joseph Cook 1911-1916
