The National Party of Australia (also known as The Nationals or simply, The Nats) is an Australian political party. Traditionally representing graziers, farmers, and rural voters generally, it began as the Australian Country Party in 1920 at a federal level. It would later briefly adopt the name National Country Party in 1975, before adopting its current name in 1982. Federally, and in New South Wales, and to an extent in Victoria and historically in Western Australia, it has, in government, been the minor party in a centre-right Coalition with the Liberal Party of Australia, and its leader has usually served as Deputy Prime Minister. In Opposition the Coalition was usually maintained, but otherwise still generally continued to work in co-operation with the Liberal Party of Australia (and their predecessors the Nationalist Party of Australia and United Australia Party). In Queensland however, they were the senior coalition party between 1925 and 2008, after which they merged with the junior Liberal Party of Australia to form the Liberal National Party (LNP). Despite taking a conservative position politically, the National Party has long pursued agrarian socialist economic policies. Ensuring support for farmers either through government grants and subsidies or through community appeals is a major focus of National Party policy. The unusual hybrid of welfare and free market attitudes that characterise the party has led to it being often accused of seeking to privatise profits and socialise costs for the agricultural and mining sectors. The current leader of the National Party is Michael McCormack, who won a leadership spill following Barnaby Joyce’s resignation in February 2018. The deputy leader of the Nationals, since 7 December 2017, is Bridget McKenzie.
