Current Events

National Conference 2012

The 2012 National Conference of the Liberal Democratic Party was held on 5 February at the City Convention Centre in Melbourne.

Formal business included reports, election of National Executive members and approval of policies.

The guest speaker was Mr Chris Berg. Chris is a Research Fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs, a regular columnist with the Sunday Age and ABC's  The Drum, and an award-winning former editor of the IPA Review. 

His presentation is in three parts. The first is below. Click here and here for the second and third parts.

The 2011 Conference was held in Canberra on Sunday 23 January, marking the 10th anniversary of the party. The presentation by Professor Sinclair Davidson entitled Towards A Libertarian Tax Policy can be found here.

A video of the speech by Sam Kekovich can be found here and here.

There were also presentations by John Humphreys, who founded the party in 2001, and Glenn Druery, whose skill at negotiating preferences has almost led to his election on several occasions.

NSW Election 2011

The Liberal Democratic Party in NSW ran as the Outdoor Recreation Party (ORP) in the NSW state election on 26 March 2011.

The ORP has its roots in the New South Wales 4WD movement and had a member in the Legislative Council between 1999 and 2007. The LDP shares the ORP’s policies.

A separate website for the Outdoor Recreation party is here.

Roger Douglas at National Conference

Sir Roger Douglas, the origin of Rogernomics and New Zealand's champion of free markets, was the keynote speaker at the LDP National Conference on 24 January 2010, at the Balmain Leagues Club in Sydney.

Roger Douglas was appointed NZ's Finance Minister when Labour was elected in 1984. In that role he implemented the most radical changes in half a century, including monetarist measures to control inflation, the slashing of subsidies and trade tariffs, and the privatisation of public assets.

Traditionalists regarded all of these policies as a betrayal of Labour's left-wing stance, and Rogernomics became deeply unpopular with those who supported the political left in New Zealand. Douglas's supporters defended the reforms as necessary to revive the economy, which National's Muldoon had kept under tight regulation.

He was planning to implement a new flat tax system and a guaranteed minimum income scheme when  forced to resign his Ministry in late 1988.

After retiring from Parliament in 1990, Sir Roger founded the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers in 1993 which went on to become ACT New Zealand after the MMP referendum in 1995.

In 2008, Sir Roger was asked by ACT Leader Rodney Hide to run as a candidate for ACT. At number three on ACT's list, Sir Roger was returned to Parliament at the 2008 election for the first time in 18 years.

Sir Roger's presentation: 

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v7vawyf77I

Part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCjm1IxMU64