Nuclear Disarmament Party

The Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) is a political party in Australia. The party was formed in 1984 and enjoyed considerable initial success.

Foundation, the 1984 election, and the split

The NDP was founded by a Canberra doctor and peace activist, Dr Michael Denborough, in response to the world political situation in the early 1980s, particularly the arms race between the United States under Ronald Reagan and the Soviet Union. Such activists were disappointed that the Australian Labor Party government of Bob Hawke, elected in 1983, had not taken a stronger stance against the policies of the U.S., and also that Hawke had overturned a longstanding ALP policy not to mine uranium, and had allowed mining in South Australia at Roxby Downs, which has since become the largest uranium mine in the world.

At the December 1984 federal elections the NDP received over 600,000 votes, and over 4% in each state, except in Tasmania, where it received 3.9%. Amongst the NDP candidates were Peter Garrett, a rock singer, and Jean Melzer, a former member of the Victorian parliament for the ALP. Garrett polled 9.6% of the vote in NSW, and Melzer polled 7.3% in Victoria. Because of the adverse distribution of preferences (see Australian electoral system), neither Garrett nor Melzer were elected. But a little known-peace activist, Jo Vallentine, was elected to the Senate from Western Australia with 6.7 % of the vote.

In April 1985, Vallentine, Garrett and Melzer, along with 30 other members, walked out of the National Conference in Melbourne and resigned from the NDP, claiming that the party had been taken over by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), a Trotskyist group. In the wake of the split, Vallentine became an independent 'Senator for Nuclear Disarmament' in the Senate, and went on to be re-elected in the double dissolution election of 1987.

Electoral controversy: the 1987 election

After this the NDP consisted of a group of activists led by Denborough. At the July 1987 federal election, the party's Senate vote in New South Wales fell from 9.6 % to 1.5 %. However, after distribution of preferences from other minor parties, the NDP's Robert Wood received more than the 7.7% quota, and hence was duly elected. In May 1988, however, Wood, who was born in the United Kingdom, was disqualified from membership of the Senate on the grounds that he had not been an Australian citizen at the time of nomination. Wood's seat was won on a recount of the ballots by the second candidate on the NDP ticket in NSW, Irina Dunn.

When Wood was subsequently granted Australian citizenship he became eligible to be a member of parliament. The New South Wales Branch of the NDP asked Dunn to resign so they could seek to have Wood appointed to fill the casual vacancy. This may have allowed Wood to re-enter the Senate, however Dunn refused, citing various difficulties and risks with this scenario. The New South Wales Branch of the NDP then expelled Dunn from the NDP. Like Wood and Valentine, Dunn had already distanced herself from the NDP and sat as an independent until being defeated at the 1990 election.

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Legacy

The NDP stood candidates at the 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007 federal elections and in 2004 its preferences helped unseat Larry Anthony, a Federal Minister in the Howard government.

Jo Vallentine would continue on to be one of the catalysts of the modern-day Australian Greens through her status as a WA Greens senator in the 1990s.

See also

• Anti-nuclear movement in Australia
• British nuclear tests at Maralinga
• Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
• New Zealand's nuclear-free zone
• Uranium mining controversy in Kakadu National Park

External links

• Nuclear Disarmament Party website

Newsletter

• Newsletter (Nuclear Disarmament Party (Australia). A.C.T. Branch). ISSN 0815–4252. No. 1 ([1984])-no. 38 (Dec. 1991)