Australian Democrats

Australian Democrats, left-of-centre political party founded in 1977 and supported by those dissatisfied with the major Australian parties, the Liberals on the right and the Australian Labor Party on the left. Its support is strongest among professionals and the intelligentsia. The party’s founder, Donald Leslie Chipp, was a Liberal minister until he was denied a post in the 1975 Liberal-National Party government. The Australian Democrats won 9 percent of the vote in 1977 and elected...