Outdoor Recreation Party

This article is about an Australian political party. For a political party of a similar name, see Outdoor Recreation New Zealand.

The Outdoor Recreation Party is a minor political party in Australia. It largely represents the outdoor community and such interests as cycling, mountain biking, bushwalking, camping, kayaking, 4WDing, skiing, fishing lobbies, as well as similar recreational groups with an interest in the outdoors. Their main platform is based around community involvement with nature.

In 1996 Glenn Druery was instrumental in the formation of the Outdoor Recreation Party, a group Malcolm Jones would later commandeer. In 1997 the party ran in the Sutherland by-election, the candidate, Glenn Druery received 2.13% of the primary vote. The party subsequently contested several federal and state elections. At the 1999 NSW general election Druery was the brains behind the "Table Cloth Ballot Paper" and the intellect behind the ORP. In a number of meetings he organised for the Independents and the Minor parties his skills as a negotiator became apparent when he diplomatically persuaded them to adhere to his innovative preference-swapping arrangements. Three people were subsequently elected to the upper house, including the now infamous Malcolm Jones.

Jones was the only person the party managed to put into public office, he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council in March 1999 due to a Druery’s complex preference harvesting system despite receiving only 0.2% of the primary vote. Malcolm Jones resigned in 2003 amidst a corruption scandal and an ICAC inquiry into his conduct, and party member Jon Jenkins was elected by the Legislative Council to serve out the remainder of Jones' term.

As regards the internal party politics of the ORP, its constitution made it difficult for the rank and file to implement change in the direction of the party to a wider platform, and as a result many members became disillusioned with the party. The ORP is currently altering the processes required for implementing change and has adopted a wider set of policies on many social issues. The ORP passed the political party registration process as required by the NSW Electoral Office in June 2006, allowing it to contest the 2007 New South Wales state election. Jenkins resigned his seat several weeks before the election. The ORP contested the election on a joint Upper House ticket with the Horse Rider's Party. However, the party failed to recapture Jones' seat having achieved only 0.6% of the vote, and consequently it no longer has parliamentary representation.

In late 2009, the Liberal Democratic Party in NSW merged with the Outdoor Recreation Party (ORP) to run in the next NSW state election, in March 2011.

The ORP had its roots in the New South Wales 4WD movement. Considerable success was achieved in getting a member elected to the Legislative Council (the NSW Upper House) at the 1999 State Election. However subsequent changes to the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act 1912 have made it very difficult for small parties to succeed.

As a result the party’s Executive concluded that a merger with a like-minded party made the most sense. That ultimately led to a proposal to merge with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

The LDP shares the ORP’s ambitions in relation to access to national parks. It also supports less regulation, greater personal responsibility and lower taxes, all values that are consistent with those of the ORP.

There is additional synergy since the LDP happens to be registered for Federal elections but not for NSW, whilst the ORP is registered for the State but not Federally. The two parties will share resources and knowledge, but their electoral focus remains distinct.

External links

• The Outdoor Recreation Party Official Website
• LDP Announcement ORP joins forces with the Liberal Democrats