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Senator John Madigan has announced his resignation from the Democratic Labour Party, alleging a “cancer of political intrigue” and declaring he will sit as an independent for the remainder of his term.
Madigan told the Senate this morning that his former office manager had been in contact with the Liberal Party about forthcoming preselections. Madigan told the Senate: “That person systematically ran a campaign of disinformation and disharmony in my office.” [Read more…]
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. [Read more…]
This is a partial audio of the Democratic Labor Party’s policy speech for the 1974 federal election.
The broadcast is delivered by the party’s leader, Victorian Senator Frank McManus.
Unfortunately, the recording is incomplete. I have only just under 5 minutes of what I think was a 10-minute broadcast.
McManus lost his seat at the election, as did all the DLP’s sitting members. The DLP’s Senate representation fell from five to zero.
The DLP disappeared as a political force for the next 32 years. It won a seat in the Victorian Legislative Council in 2006, losing it in 2010. At the 2010 federal election, John Madigan won a Senate seat in Victoria.
Two days after his policy speech, a letter from McManus was published in The Australian:
