The Western Australian Party (WAP) was a short-lived Australian political party that operated in 1906. It was intended as a liberal party to protect the rights of Western Australians and to oppose the increasingly successful Labor Party, and drew its supporters from the Protectionist Party and the Anti-Socialist Party. John Forrest, a minister in Alfred Deakin's government, accepted the leadership of the party. Candidates were endorsed for all electorates in the 1906 federal election, including Forrest, but by the time of the election enthusiasm for the venture had diffused. The party elected Forrest in Swan and William Hedges in Fremantle.[1][2][3][4]
Forrest and Hedges did not sit together in federal parliament; Forrest continued to serve as a minister in the Protectionist government of Alfred Deakin while Hedges sat on the opposition benches as an Anti-Socialist.[5]
References
Further reading
- Crowley, Frank (2000). Big John Forrest 1847–1918: A Founding Father of the Commonwealth of Australia. University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 1-876268-44-1.
- Murdoch, J. R. M. (August 1967). "The Western Australian Party in the 1906 Federal Elections: A Comment on Early Federal Feeling in the West". Australian Journal of Politics and History. University of Queensland Press. 13 (2): 247–250. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8497.1967.tb00805.x.
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This page was last edited on 19 November 2023, at 15:08