In
Australia n politics, the (CLP) is the
Northern Territory equivalent to the
Liberal and
National parties.
The CLP's Federal representatives (currently, the party has one
Senator ,
Nigel Scullion , and one
MHR ,
Dave Tollner ) sit with the National and Liberal parties in the
Australian Parliament as part of the
Coalition .
Until the major change of 2001, the CLP was closely associated with Territorians of European decent, while the ALP was associated with those of Aboriginal descent. This affected the way these groups were treated at both a Territory and Federal government level.
In
1966 , the Country Party was well established in the territory, while the Liberal Party was small. In recognition of this, the local Liberals supported the Country candidate for the sole NT seat from 1966 to
1972 . An alliance had formed, primarily against the conservatives' arch rivals the
Australian Labor Party (ALP).
In
1974 , the Northern Territory was given self-government, and its own
Legislative Assembly . The local Country and Liberal Party members decided to form an independent "Country Liberal Party" to field candidates for the Assembly. It was wildly successful, and remained so for 27 years.
In
1979 , the CLP formally affiliated with both the now National Country Party and Liberal Party. These affiliations remain to this day, and relationships with both parties is close. However, the CLP has had no major opportunities to sway the actions of either.
In
2001 , the CLP finally lost control of the Territory government in a landslide loss, to the ALP. This was a major change in Territory politics, and in
2005 the ALP won a second landslide victory and in the process reduced the CLP to just four members in the Legislative Assembly.
