The Progressive Party was an Australian
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
, active in
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
state politics. The question of tariff policy which, had created and divided the
Free Trade Party and
Protectionist Party
The Protectionist Party, also known as the Protectionist Liberal Party or Liberal Protectionist Party, was an Politics of Australia, Australian political party, formally organised from 1887 until 1909, with policies centred on protectionism. T ...
in New South Wales in the 1890s, became a federal issue at the time of
federation
A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...
. Deprived of their main ideological difference, the two parties were recreated as the
Liberal Reform Party aligned with the federal Free Trade Party and the Progressive Party aligned with the federal Protectionist Party.
There was a rapid decline in the parliamentary representation of the party, from a high of 42 seats at the
1901 election,
to 16 at the
1904 election.
In April and May 1907, the party had negotiated a coalition agreement with the Liberal Reform Party but this was rejected by a vote of parliamentary members. The party leader
Thomas Waddell resigned and joined the Liberal Reform Party, and was followed by
John McFarlane,
Brinsley Hall,
John Gillies and
John Perry. Of the remaining ten former Progressive Party members, a further five lost their seats at the
1907 election,
In 1919, the Farmers' and Settlers' Association and the Graziers' Association founded a new
Progressive Party, which, while not a direct successor, included members of the former party such as
George Briner and
Walter Bennett. The new party won metropolitan and rural seats in the 1920 election
and was a forerunner to the
Country Party.
Leaders
State election results
References
{{New South Wales political parties
Defunct political parties in New South Wales
Political parties established in 1901
1901 establishments in Australia
Political parties disestablished in 1907
1907 disestablishments in Australia