Within a year after the first Federal election the Labor Party had settled in to national politics as an equal partner with the two fiscal parties. The game of party politics seemed the same as before Federation, with no party capable of winning an absolute…
The answer was revealed within months. In the debate on the Government's Conciliation and Arbitration Bill, Deakin refused to accept a Labor amendment, and treated the ensuing vote (which was defeated by the combined votes of Free Trade and Labor) as a vote of confidence.…
With this new confidence came some organisational stiffening. Important decisions of the third Federal Conference in July 1905 amended the Fighting and General Platforms, and passed a number of resolutions aimed at directing Federal MPs, notably that future Ministries should be elected by Caucus. The…
On the other side of politics the first Labor Party tenure of office had accelerated the pressures on the conservative parties to form some kind of fusion. The fiscal issue was not enough to form the basis for a modern political party, especially as not…