Immigration on the rise: a battleground within the Australian Democrats

The National Executive of the Australian Democrats and the elected members of that party have a history of finding it hard to represent the wishes of the party’s members on the questions of population and immigration. In 1996 John Coulter analysed the problem (see People and Place vol. 4 no. 3) and reported how it was that at last, in 1995, the members were able to persuade the elite to accept the immigration policy that the members preferred. Since then the party elite has regrouped and, through a number of procedural manoeuvres, appear to have outflanked the members again. This leaves the party with an inadequate immigration policy and its reputation for internal democracy tarnished. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s