Party factionalism in Australia has traditionally been located almost uniquely in the ALP Splits and dissensions have been part and parcel of the Party’s long history: and some of their colleagues with them, had, even joined their former opponents. The Split, extending fully in 1955–56, destroyed Labor as a coherent political force, and as a serious alternative to its rivals. But other parties also have faced dissension; not excepting the Liberal Party, a curious mosaic of ideas and personalities. Yet writers in the past have only glanced at this characteristic in the Liberal Party.

Recent publications have started to show interest in dissensions within the Liberal Party. In The liberal Party: Principles and Performance, (1978), P.G. Tiver alludes to two strands in the Party’s liberalism (individualistic and ameliorative), but this interpretation relies too heavily on the assumption that ideas are the ‘motor of politics’. Marian Simms has referred to other ‘strains’ on liberalism, especially those arising out of what she refers to as ‘economic interventionism’ (Meanjin, Vol 39, 1980). Two years later, Simms’ A liberal Nation (1982) detected ‘dissension of an organisational nature as well as discord over policies and ideologies’ (pg 1) in the Liberal Party.