The Liberal Party, also known as the Liberal Union or the Liberal Union Party, was a short-lived political 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...

 (mainly Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 and South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

) that operated mainly in 1922. The party was formed by disaffected Nationalist

Nationalist Party of Australia

The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

s, principally Thomas Ashworth

Thomas Ashworth

Thomas Ramsden Ashworth was an Australian politician.Born in Richmond to medical practitioner Thomas Ramsden Ashworth and Mary Jane Leeson, his family moved to Bombala in New South Wales when he was a child but returned to Melbourne after his father's death in 1876...

 and Charles Merrett

Charles Merrett

Colonel Sir Charles Edward Merrett CBE was an Australian merchant, agriculturist and political activist....

, who opposed the leadership of Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Australia

The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...

 Billy Hughes

Billy Hughes

William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....

. Two federal Nationalist MPs, Victorian William Watt

William Watt

William Alexander Watt PC was an Australian politician who was the 24th Premier of Victoria, and later a leading federal politician and Speaker of the House of Representatives....

 and South Australian Richard Foster, joined the Liberal Party and three more MPs (John Latham from Victoria, and Malcolm Cameron

Malcolm Cameron (Australian politician)

Malcolm Duncan Cameron was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1922 to 1934. From 1922 to 1925 he was a member of the Liberal Party, from 1925 to 1931 he was a member for the Nationalist Party of Australia, and from 1931 to 1934 he was a member for the United Australia Party...

 and Jack Duncan-Hughes from South Australia) were elected in the 1922 federal election

Australian federal election, 1922

Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes lost its majority...

. South Australian Nationalist Senators James Rowell

James Rowell

James Rowell was an English-born Australian politician. Born in Cambridge, he migrated to Australia as a child and was educated in state schools. He served in the military 1877-1917 before becoming aide-de-camp to the Governor-General. He was a horticulturalist, and served on West Torrens Council...

 and Edward Vardon

Edward Vardon

Edward Charles Vardon was an Australian politician. Born in Adelaide, South Australia, he was the son of Joseph Vardon, later an Australian Senator. He was educated at North Adelaide Grammar School before becoming chairman of the family printing company...

 also contested the election, unsuccessfully, as Liberals. Their opposition to Hughes, coupled with the hostility of the Country Party

National Party of Australia

The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...

 towards a Hughes-led government, was a factor in Hughes' decision to retire and leave the Prime Ministership to Stanley Bruce

Stanley Bruce

Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH, MC, FRS, PC , was an Australian politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created...

. After Hughes's retirement, all five Liberals rejoined the Nationalist Party, although they remained officially Liberals until 1925.