The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is to advertise its intention to register the LDP tomorrow (1 August). Barring any valid objections, the party will be federally registered in early September.
However, the LDP is no longer the Liberal Democratic Party. It is now the Liberty and Democracy Party. This change became necessary because the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) would not register the party under its old name.
Under S129(1)(da) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 the AEC is not permitted to register a party if its name:
..is one that a reasonable person would think suggests that a connection or relationship exists between the party and a registered party if that connection or relationship does not in fact exist
The AEC said that it believed “a reasonable person might think that Liberal Democrats have some affiliation with the Liberal Party of Australia.”
The need for an alternative name had been somewhat anticipated, as S129(1)(da) was introduced in 2006 with the intention of stopping liberals for forests. An alternative was selected by the party’s National Conference in January.
Nonetheless, we hoped it might survive due to the fact that the party could just as easily be confused with the Democrats as the Liberals. Indeed, we think an appeal to the AAT might have been successful, on that basis and also the fact that the words ‘liberal’ and ‘democratic’ are generic terms that should not be owned by particular parties. The AAT previously applied that argument when it initially registered the liberals for forests party.
But that would have involved substantial legal expenses and prevented us from contesting the federal election. In addition, opinions were divided as to whether the new name was actually better than the old one. A change of name was the only pragmatic option.
The main website www.ldp.org.au is about to be updated and the activity level of the party will now increase substantially. More later.
Posted by davidleyonhjelm 
