Last updated on June 27, 2024
Senator Frank McManus was leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) during the 1974 Federal Election campaign.
The Victorian senator had taken over the leadership of the DLP in 1973, after Vince Gair was forced out.
The double dissolution election was forced upon the Whitlam government after it offered Gair the position of Ambassador to Ireland.
McManus was elected to the Senate in 1955, in the aftermath of the ALP Split that year. He lost his seat in the 1963 election but regained it in the separate half-Senate election in 1964.
At the 1974 election, all five DLP senators lost their seats. The party folded a few years later.
The DLP was reformed several decades later. It briefly gained representation in the Victorian Legislative Council and Senator John Madigan was elected in 2010. Madigan left the DLP during his term and formed his own party.
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