Concept
The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia. The party is one of the two major parties in Australian politics, the other being the Australian Labor Party. The Liberal Party was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Australia Party, and has since become one of the most successful political parties in Australia's history. The Liberal Party is the dominant partner in the Coalition with the National Party of Australia. At the federal level, the Liberal Party has been in coalition with the National Party (under various names) since 1949. The Coalition was most recently in power from the 2013 federal election to the 2022 federal election, forming the Abbott (2013–2015), Turnbull (2015–2018) and Morrison (2018–2022) governments. The current party leader is Peter Dutton, who replaced former Prime Minister Scott Morrison as leader after the Coalition's defeat at the 2022 federal election. The Liberal Party has a federal structure, with autonomous divisions in all six states and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The Country Liberal Party (CLP) of the Northern Territory is an affiliate. Both the CLP and the Liberal National Party (LNP), the Queensland state division, were formed through mergers of the local Liberal and National parties. At state and territory level, the Liberal Party is in office in only one state: Tasmania, as of 2014. The party is in opposition in the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia, and in both the ACT and Northern Territory. The party's ideology has been referred to as conservative, liberal-conservative, conservative-liberal, and classical liberal. The Liberal Party tends to promote economic liberalism, and social conservatism. Two past leaders of the party, Sir Robert Menzies and John Howard, are Australia's two longest-serving Prime Ministers. Lyons government and Menzies government (1939–1941)Menzies government (1939–41) United Australia Party The Liberals' immediate predecessor was the United Australia Party (UAP).