The Australian Progressive Alliance (APA) was a minor liberal party in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, formed by Meg Lees

Meg Lees

Meg Heather Lees was a member of the Australian Senate from 1990 to 2005, representing the state of South Australia. She represented the Australian Democrats from 1990 to 2002, and was an independent senator between 2002 and 2005, adopting the party designation Australian Progressive Alliance from...

, an independent senator and former leader of the Australian Democrats

Australian Democrats

The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...

, in April 2003. The party ceased to operate and was deregistered in June 2005 following Senator Lees's defeat at the 2004 election and the expiry of her term.

History

Meg Lees resigned from membership of the Democrats in July 2002 after being deposed as the party's Senate leader in April 2001. She sat as an independent in the Senate before forming the APA in 2003. Other APA members included the former Democrat Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 Senator John Woodley

John Woodley

John Woodley is a Christian Minister of religion and was a Senator representing the state of Queensland, Australia, in the Australian Senate.-Education:...

 and Elisabeth Kirkby

Elisabeth Kirkby

Elisabeth "Liz" Kirkby was an Australia-based theatre and television actress and politician known as a long time member of the New South Wales Legislative Council....

, a former Democrat member of the New South Wales Legislative Council

New South Wales Legislative Council

The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...

.

Policy

Lees sought to position the APA as a party of the moderate centre, arguing that the Democrats, under the leadership of Cheryl Kernot

Cheryl Kernot

Cheryl Kernot is an Australian politician, academic, and political activist. She was a member of the Australian Senate representing Queensland for the Australian Democrats from 1990 to 1997, and the fifth leader of the Australian Democrats from 1993 to 1997...

, Natasha Stott-Despoja and Andrew Bartlett

Andrew Bartlett

Andrew John Julian Bartlett is an Australian politician. He was formerly an Australian Democrats member of the Australian Senate from 1997 to 2008, representing the state of Queensland. He was the leader of the Democrats from 2002 to 2004, and deputy leader from 2004 to 2008.-Early life and...

, had moved too far to the left. In a 2003 opinion article, she claimed the party would appeal to "voters who cannot be dragged to the extremes by the Greens

Australian Greens

The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...

 in any enduring way."

The party's "guiding principles" were described as:

• To act with integrity, tolerance and compassion.
• To respect the freedom of the individual particularly the freedoms of association, expression and religion.
• To uphold a system of constitutional checks and balances in government, particularly the separation of powers and the rule of law.
• To commit to a socially just, environmentally responsible and economically sustainable Australia, working for a balance between, and the integration of, social needs, the protection and care of Australia’s unique biodiversity and the equitable collection and spending of revenue.
• To work for positive solutions for all Australians and not be controlled by any one particular group in the community.

2004 Senate election

At the 2004 federal election, the only election contested by the party, the APA stood candidates in NSW (lead candidate, Reese Malcolm), Victoria (Chris Grigsby), Queensland (Tony Newman), Western Australia (Geoff Gibson) and the ACT (Jeannette Jolley) in addition to Meg Lees (South Australia).

Results

Senate Electorate	Votes (%)
SA	11,061 (1.14%)
ACT	1,147 (0.54%)
Victoria	2,453 (0.08%)
WA	932 (0.08%)
NSW	2,342 (0.06%)
Qld	928 (0.04%)
National Total	18,863 (0.14%)

See also

• List of political parties in Australia
• Liberalism in Australia
  Liberalism in Australia
  Liberalism in Australia dates back to the earliest pioneers of the area, and has maintained a strong foothold to this day.-Introduction:The earliest pioneers of the federation movement, men such as Alfred Deakin and Samuel Griffith, were generally self-described "liberals"...
  
  
• Unite Australia Party
  Unite Australia Party
  The Unite Australia Party was a short-lived Australian political party that existed in the late 1980s.In December 1986, Senator John Siddons, former deputy leader of the Australian Democrats, quit the Democrats to form the UAP, arguing that the Democrats under leader Janine Haines had moved too...
  
  

External links

• Official website (from archive.org)
• The Progressive Alliance will fill the political vacuum in Australia's centre - opinion piece by Meg Lees