Australian Democrats lose party status

The Australian Electoral Commission has deregistered the Australian Democrats as a political party.

Former Democrats' leader Andrew Bartlett (AAP Image/Steve Gray)

The Australian Democrats have been deregistered as a political party.

The Australian Electoral Commission made the decision after the party failed to show it had the requisite 500 members to maintain registration.

The party was established by former federal Liberal minister Don Chipp in 1977, and at the height of its popularity in the mid-1990s was represented by nine senators.

Former Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett said the party's decision to back the introduction of the GST was politically catastrophic.

But he pointed to the public tearing down of Natasha Stott Despoja's leadership in the early 2000s as the "last straw" for the party.

"Even though the Democrats eventually disappeared from parliament in 2008, basically our political support crashed and burned in 2002," he told ABC TV on Friday.