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Country Democratic Party

The Country Democratic Party was an progressive agrarian political party in New England. With string ties to the rural centres, the party saw itself as an outlet for socially progressive farmers and small businessman wishing to maintain some protection for local industries. The party was strongest in the north of New England, and held most of it's seats in Macintye and Severnshire.

The party proved to be a highly successful movement and held at least one seat in the House of Assembly from it's establishment in 2019 until it merged with the Liberal Party and Green Party to form the New England Alliance in 2028. The party left behind a significant legacy, much of which has become the basis of many of the policies advocated by the New England Alliance.

• History
• Policy
• Election Results
• Party Leaders

History

The Country Democratic Party proudly stood in two separate political traditions, and saw itself as a unification of those historical ideals. In this way, the party saw itself as decendant of the Country Party as led by Earle Page in the 1920s and of the Australian Democrats of Don Chipp in the 1980s. Such disperate politcal asperations were the brainchild of Timothy Dent, a United Party Member of Parliament for West Inverell from 2012 until 2026. Dent was a centrist who had joined the United Party in 2008, and had played a major part in the militia campaigns across northern New England during the Civil War.

As the United Party slowly began to unravel in the 2010s, Dent created a political action committee (PAC) with the mission to investigate the needs of rural New England, and what policies, both social and economic would led to best outcomes for the people. The PAC recommended the creation a new political party to espouse Dent's newly articulated progressive agarianism. On the eve of the 2020 election, Dent resigned from the United Party and formed the Country Democrats. At the subsquent poll, and despite an excellent campaign, Dent was the only candidate from the party returned to parliament after he was re-elected to his constituency of Rob Roy.

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Policy

The policies of the Country Democrats reflected a commitment to agrarianism and social liberalism. In areas of economic management, the party strongly advocated a form of social protectionism for New England's farmer, with the party instrumental in securing funding for farming infrastructure across the country. The greatest legacy of the party was the decentralisation policies adopted by the Davidson and Corbett governments in the 2020s which saw settlement in Armidale curtailed in favour of development in smaller regional centres such as Glen Innes, Grafton and Inverell.

Socially, the Country Democrats were more progressive than their economic policies might have suggested. They supported the Civil Unions Act that abolished marriage as a legal institution in 2023, and worked to negotiate a solution to tackle recreational drug use. The party disliked war, and threw it's weight behind multilateral diplomacy in order to find solutions to the dispute with Australia. The party worked to ease the impact of the environmentalist policies of the Davidson government, with inititives and subsidies to train farmers in new green industries.

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Election Results

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Party Leaders

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