This article is about the current Australian political party founded after the dissolution of the original DLP. For the earlier party, see Democratic Labor Party (historical). There is S. Korean party of the same name. For other parties with this name around the world, see Democratic Labour Party.

The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) is a minor political party in Australia that espouses social conservatism. It is descended from, but not legally the same as, the Democratic Labor Party which existed from 1955 to 1978, and which until 1974 played an important role in Australian politics. At the 2006 Victorian election, the new DLP won parliamentary representation for the first time when it won a seat in the Victorian Legislative Council.

The old DLP was wound up in 1978, but a small group of DLP activists in Victoria formed a new DLP, which has contested Senate elections in Victoria at every election since 1984 and a number of Senate seats in other States in the 2007 Federal Election. The party's policies include a Progressive Expenditure Tax (with no tax payable on any income that is saved or invested), Universal Living Allowance tied to basic per capita living costs, rejection of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other regressive taxes for general revenue, federal funding for the education of students attending non-government schools to be based on an equitable distribution and increased diversification in overseas trade to broaden the base for growth and opposition to abortion, euthanasia, therapeutic cloning and same-sex marriage. The party no longer has the patronage of the Catholic Church but still has support among Catholics.

At the 2004 Federal Election, the DLP received 58,042 first preference, or 1.94% of all votes, in the Victorian Senate election http://results.aec.gov.au/12246/results/SenateStateFirstPrefsByGroup-12246-VIC.htm. These votes assisted in the election of Steve Fielding from Family First to the Senate, even though the DLP vote was higher than the Family First vote. It also contested the federal divisions of Ballarat, http://results.aec.gov.au/12246/results/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-12246-198.htm and McMillan http://results.aec.gov.au/12246/results/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-12246-227.htm.

The DLP contested the 2006 Victorian State Election, fielding candidates in the eight regions of the reformed Legislative Council, where proportional representation gave the party the best chance of having members elected. It polled 1.97% of the first preference http://www.vec.vic.gov.au/State2006resultbypartyUH.html vote. However, in two regions it polled higher, with 2.70% in Western Victoria and 5.11% in Northern Metropolitan. This was enough to elect one member, Peter Kavanagh, on ALP preferences in Western Victoria Region. They briefly looked set to have a second member, party leader John Mulholland, elected in Northern Metropolitan, but this result was overturned after a recount.

Politics of the DLP

Following the election of DLP candidate Peter Kavanagh, attention has been given to the DLP platform of opposition to abortion and poker machines and the description of HIV/AIDS as a "homosexual disease."^[1]

However, the party has a comprehensive policy platform, and Peter Kavanagh has referred to the heritage of the historic Democratic Labor Party, saying that "The DLP remains the only political party in Australia which is pro-family, pro-life and genuinely pro-worker."^[2]

References

External links

• DLP website
• DLP Western Victoria website
• Peter Kavanagh's maiden parliamentary speech
• Peter Kavanagh's parliamentary speech against cloning legislation
• Peter Kavanagh website

da:Demokratisk Arbejderparti