Liberals for Forests

Liberals for Forests was an Australian political minor party. It contested both state and federal elections between 2001 and 2008, but only ever achieved one elected representative – Janet Woollard in Western Australia. It never achieved representation at the federal level.^[1]

Liberals for Forests
Abbreviation	LFF
Founder	Keith Woollard
Founded	3 July 1999
Registered	1 May 2001
Dissolved	2008
Ideology	Green liberalism
Western Australian Legislative Assembly	1 / 57 (2001−2008)
Albany City Council	1 / 12 (2001)
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

The party was founded in 1999 by Dr Keith Woollard, husband of Janet Woollard and an ex-AMA president.^[2][3] Janet successfully contested a seat at the 2001 state election, and was re-elected in 2005 and again in 2008 as an Independent Liberal.

The party generally professed itself to be ideologically aligned with the centre-right sympathies of the Liberal Party, but was aligned with Labor in certain states such as NSW but with a greater regard to environmentalism.^[4]

Despite its low profile, the party gained a respectable proportion of the primary senate vote in some states. For example, in the 2004 election it received only a few hundred votes less than the Australian Democrats in Victoria.

Name

The registered party name at the Australian Electoral Commission^[5] and the Western Australian Electoral Commission^[6] was "liberals for forests" (uncapitalised), but it was known in newspapers as "Liberals for Forests". By late 2009, Liberals for Forests was no longer a registered political party anywhere in Australia.

See also

• Small-l liberal – a term used by LFF candidates to describe themselves in order to attract the support of mildly disenchanted coalition voters
• Sustainable Australia Party
• Teal independents – a loosely-aligned group of independent and minor party politicians characterised as strongly advocating for increased action to mitigate climate change.

References

1. The Nationals: The Progressive, Country, and National Party 186287526X Paul Davey – 2006 "A group calling themselves Liberals for Forests fielded a candidate, as they did in six other House of Representatives seats. They produced a how-to-vote card on election day, which the Liberal and National parties argued was misleading to.."
2. "Dr Keith Woollard today launched in Kings Park a new political party called Liberals for Forests of which he is the President". westpix.
3. Bolt, Cathy (4 August 1999). "New greenie spits chips". Australian Financial Review.
4. Worth, David (2004). "Reconciliation in the forest? An exploration of the conflict over the logging of native forests in the south west of Western Australia". Commons Social Change Library.
5. "AEC redirection page".
6. "Home | Western Australian Electoral Commission". Archived from the original on 14 June 2002. Retrieved 5 December 2005.

External links

• official site (Internet Archive – snapshot 2006)