Australia has a strong party-based system of politics, which sees MPs vote collectively according to the will of their party. Find out who the main players are here.
Australian Labor Party
The ALP has been in power at the federal level since 2007. Prior to that, it was in Opposition for nearly 12 years.
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There are 83 ALP MPs in the House of Representatives, and 32 in the Senate.
The party was founded in 1891, before Federation, and is the oldest active political party in Australia.
It was founded on the labour movement, and has strong connections with trade unions. Most MPs and members are affiliated with formal factions representing either the left or the right.
Trivia: The party changed the spelling of its name to Labor in 1912, to reflect the "modern" labour movement occurring at the time in the US.
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party has been in Opposition since losing the 2007 federal election. Prior to that, it was part of a coalition government with the National Party for more than 11 years, with then Prime Minister John Howard at the helm.
There are 54 Lib MPs in the House of Representatives, and 32 in the Senate.
The party was formed by Sir Robert Menzies in 1943 after the United Australia Party (the Libs' predecessor) suffered a humiliating loss in that year's federal election. Menzies led the party, and the country, from 1949-1966, becoming Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister.
Trivia: The political group is named the Liberal Party despite the fact it is more socially conservative than its Labor opposition. However, the name refers mainly to the Libs' belief in economic liberalism, which at the time of the party's formation was more progressive than the socialism espoused by early Labor.
National Party of Australia
The National Party is a political group that traditionally represents rural voters. It has been the minor party in a coalition government with the Liberal Party for over six decades. They traditionally vote as a bloc, but some current Senators have indicated they will vote separately from the Libs on issues of importance to their electorates.
The Nats have nine MPs in the House of Representatives, and four in the Senate.
The Nats started out as the Country Party in 1913 in Western Australia. It became a recognised Australia-wide party in 1920.
In 2008 the Queensland branches of the National and Liberal parties merged, forming the Liberal National Party.
Trivia: In a coalition government the leader of the Nats serves as Deputy Prime Minister. However, after Prime Minister Harold Holt's disappearance in 1966, Nats Leader and Deputy PM John McEwen took on the top job for less than a month while the Libs decided on a successor.
The Australian Greens
The Greens have their roots in Tasmanian politics, after a group of environmentally-conscious candidates joined together in opposition to the Franklin River Dam campaign in the 1980s.
The Greens currently have no MPs in the House of Representatives and five in the Senate.
Greens' Senator Bob Brown has lead the party since it became a federal party in 1992. He was instrumental in the campaign against the Franklin Dam.
The party has retained its strong environmental focus, but is also now involved in social justice and anti-war movements.
Trivia: The United Tasmania Group, one of the Greens' predecessors, is among the oldest environmental political parties in the world. It first ran candidates in the 1972 Tasmanian state election.
Family First
Family First is a socially-conservative political party seeking to promote family values. It has strong links to the Assemblies of God church, but denies it is a traditional Christian party.
Senator Steve Fielding is the only federal Family First MP to be elected, but three others have been elected at state level in NSW and South Australia.
The party was formed in 2002 by South Australian Assemblies of God pastor Dr Andrew Evans to contest the state's election. In the 2004 federal election the party contested seats across Australia, with Steve Fielding winning his seat mainly based on preferences from the Liberal Party. Family First candidates did also exchange preferences with the Labor Party in some seats.
No Family First candidates were elected in the 2007 federal election.
Trivia: Family First has been proactive in engaging followers on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. It has had great success in these ventures, with the party's NSW branch having only a fraction fewer followers than the NSW Labor Party.
