New Liberal Movement


The New Liberal Movement was a South Australian political party which existed from 1976 to 1977, with one member of parliament.
In 1976 the Liberal Movement dissolved and three of its four parliamentary members rejoined the Liberal Party. However the remaining member, Robin Millhouse, argued that the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia was no longer worthy of the descriptor liberal, and instead founded the New LM on May 1976.
Millhouse kept a high profile for the New LM until the emergence of the Australian Democrats led many New LM members, including Millhouse and his assistant Janine Haines, to join the fledgling party in 1977, after which the New LM ceased to exist.
In his book The Third Man, Don Chipp recalls attending a March 1977 meeting convened by John Siddons and attended by
other Australia Party executives and Robin Millhouse, the South Australian MP whom I had admired for many years, and his executive colleagues from the New Liberal Movement were also present. The two parties had already held several meetings over the years to attempt an amalgamation, as their political philosophies were both essentially 'middle of the road'.