The New Liberal Movement (New LM) was a 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...

n political party that had parliamentary representation during the mid-1970s.

Formed by Robin Millhouse

Robin Millhouse

Robin Rhodes Millhouse QC has been, at various times, the South Australian Attorney-General, the first Australian Democrats parliamentarian, and the Chief Justice of both Kiribati and Nauru....

 on 6 May 1976 following the dissolution of the Liberal Movement, the New LM sought to be the true liberal

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 party in South Australia, arguing that the Liberal Party of Australia

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 was no longer worthy of the descriptor liberal. Millhouse, as the New LM's only parliamentary representative (in the South Australian House of Assembly

South Australian House of Assembly

The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.- Overview :...

, representing the electoral district of Mitcham

Electoral district of Waite

Waite is an electoral district of the House of Assembly in the Australian state of South Australia. Named after Peter Waite, a 19th entrepreneur and philanthropist in the current area of the electorate, it is a 30.6km² urban electorate in Adelaide's inner south-eastern suburbs, taking in the...

), kept a high profile for the New LM until the emergence 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...

 led many New LM members, including Millhouse and his assistant Janine Haines

Janine Haines

Janine Haines, AM , Australian politician, was the first female federal parliamentary leader of an Australian political party. An Australian Democrat, she was also the first member of that party to enter the federal parliament after the party's formation...

, to join the fledgling party, after which the New LM ceased to exist.

In his book The Third Man, Don Chipp

Don Chipp

Donald Leslie Chipp, AO was an Australian politician, and the inaugural leader of the Australian Democrats.-Early life:...

 recalls attending a March 1977 meeting convened by John Siddons

John Siddons

John Royston Siddons was an Australian politician. He was a businessman and the executive chairman of Siddons Industries Ltd. before entering politics. In 1980, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Democrats senator for Victoria...

 and attended by

other Australia Party

Australia Party

The Australia Party was the name of a minor political party in Australia ....

executives and Robin Millhouse, the South Australian MP whom I had admired for many years, and his executive colleagues from the New Liberal Movement were also present. The two parties had already held several meetings over the years to attempt an amalgamation, as their political philosophies were both essentially 'middle of the road'.