Nuclear Disarmament Party

Nuclear Disarmament Party
Founder	Michael Denborough
Founded	June 1984 (1984-06)
Dissolved	December 2009
Ideology	Nuclear disarmament
International affiliation	World Ecological Parties[1] (Network member)
Website
nucleardisarmament.org (archive)
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

The Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) was an Australian political party formed in June 1984. It was founded by medical researcher Michael Denborough as the political arm of the Australian anti-nuclear movement, which had been active since the early 1970s.

The NDP primarily attracted left-wing Labor Party voters who were disillusioned with Bob Hawke's pro-nuclear stance. At the 1984 federal election, the NDP polled 7.23 percent of the total Senate vote, electing Jo Vallentine as a senator for Western Australia. However, Vallentine resigned from the party before taking her seat, due to allegations of a takeover by Trotskyists affiliated with the Socialist Workers Party. The NDP's vote collapsed to 1.1 percent at the 1987 election – a double dissolution. Robert Wood was elected as a senator for New South Wales, but after less than a year in office was disqualified by the Court of Disputed Returns and replaced by Irina Dunn. However, Dunn was expelled from the party after less than a month in office, and like Vallentine served out the rest of her term as an independent.

The NDP had no electoral success after 1987, and the 1990 election was the last at which the party ran a serious campaign. After several years of inactivity, the party was revived for the 1998 election. It attracted little support in its second manifestation, and was eventually formally disbanded in December 2009, when it voluntarily relinquished its registration with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). In the meantime, many of its initial members had either returned to the Labor Party or become involved with the Australian Greens.