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The Liberal Movement was a minor Australian political party that flourished in the 1970s.
The formation of the Liberal Movement (LM) emerged from the long time dissatisfaction by members of the progressive wing of the Liberal and Country League (LCL) in South Australia, who believed that the LCL had remained philosophically trapped in the late nineteenth century. Led by LCL leader and one time South Australian premier Steele Hall and his deputy Robin Millhouse, these members sought to bring about progressive change into the LCL and through that, South Australia. The conservatism of the LCL proved too entrenched to change at the speed sought and by the early 1970s the LCL had become highly factionalised.
In frustration at the lack of change in the LCL, Hall resigned as leader and formed the Liberal Movement, initially as a faction within the LCL and then as a separate party. While still a faction of the LCL, the LM could count six members of the South Australian Legislative Assembly (including Hall, Millhouse and future Premier Dean Brown), three members of the South Australian Legislative Council and one member of the Australian House of Representatives (Ian Wilson) but following the decision by Hall to resign from the LCL to form the LM as a separate party, the parliamentary membership had fallen to three; Hall, Millhouse and Martin Cameron MLC.
In order to give the LM national exposure, Hall decided to stand for the Senate at the 1974 election. The LM polled better than expected in South Australia and Hall was comfortably elected as a Senator. Unfortunately, the hoped for nationwide support had not eventuated and by 1976, it was reported that only one third of LM members had renewed their membership that year, leading to a decision by the Liberal Movement South Australian State Convention of 1 May that year that the party would rejoin the Liberal Party. A faction of the LM, led by Millhouse, decided to remain a separate party and formed the New LM, which would in turn form the nucleus of the Australian Democrats.
While the Liberal Movement was short lived, it was successful in providing a mouthpiece for the small-l liberal constituency in Australia. This constituency later formed the base for the more succesful Australian Democrats.
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