National Party of Cygnia (Joan of What?)

National Party of Cygnia
Leader	Scott Morrison
President	Nick Greiner
Deputy Leader	Josh Frydenberg
Founded	16 October 1944 79 years ago
Preceded by	United Cygnia Party
Headquarters	RG Menzies House, Cnr Blackall and Macquarie Streets, Northam, TS 1000
Student wing	National Students' Federation of Cygnia
Youth wing	Young Nationals
Women's wing	Federal League of National Women
International wing	Nationals Overseas
Membership (2016)	5,992,303
Ideology	Conservatism Economic liberalism Fiscal conservatism Social conservatism
Political position	Centre-right
International affiliation	International Democrat Union Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (regional partner)
Colours	Blue
House of Representatives	142 / 300
Senate	36 / 86
State governments	9 / 21
Territorial governments	0 / 6
State and territorial legislatures	560 / 1,537
Website
nationals.org

The National Party of Cygnia (NPC), colloquially referred to as the Nats or Tories, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Cygnia, the other being its historic rival, the Labour Party.

There have been 9 National chancellors, the first being Robert Menzies, the longest-serving Chancellor in Cygnian history from 1949 to 1965. The most recent National chancellor was Malcolm Turnbull, who served from 2015 to 2017. The current leader of the National Party is Scott Morrison, who is the current Leader of the Opposition. The Nationals currently control 9 of the 21 state governments.

The National Party's history stretches back to anti-Federalist and traditionalist groupings formed during the late 1780s and early 1790s, and the party was first known as the Tories. While the Federalists advocated a federal government grounded in a strong, explicit constitution, the Tories advocated a continuation of the convention-centric and uncodified constitutional traditions of the United Kingdom. The Tories evolved into a socially conservative political party, becoming the Conservative Party in 1834.

In the 1880s, internal conflict over economic policy resulted in the Conservatives splitting into the Protectionist and Free Trade Parties. The split greatly weakened the conservatives' position in Northam, as the conservative voting bloc was divided between the two parties. This resulted in the Liberal Party's dominance between 1877 and 1901, when the Liberals themselves collapsed, allowing the Protectionists under Edmund Barton to form a minority government.

Despite the Protectionists' stronger position in 1901, no stable government could be formed until 1909, when under the leadership of Protectionist Alfred Deakin and Free Trader Joseph Cook, the two parties reunified in response to the growing threat of the Cygnian Labour Party. Deakin became the first Chancellor from the new Conservative Party in the same year, following the collapse of Chris Watson's government.

In 1915, a right-wing faction of the Labour Party under the leadership of Chancellor Billy Hughes split off from the main party to form the National Labour Party. Hughes then negotiated the NLP's merger with the Conservative Party, which then formed the Nationalist Party. Another split in the Labour Party in 1931 led to the Nationalists merging with Labour dissidents led by Joseph Lyons, who thereafter led a new United Cygnia Party to a landslide victory in the 1932 federal election. After a string of electoral disasters in the 1940s as the wartime Labour government of John Curtin proved increasingly popular, the Unionist Party was reorganised by its leader, Robert Menzies, into the current National Party. The Nationals went on to dominate Cygnian politics between 1949 and 1973.

The National Party's current ideology is centre-right conservatism. This contrasts with Labour's social democracy and liberalism. The National Party's platform involves support for free enterprise, business, a strong national defence, deregulation, restrictions on labour unions, social-conservative policies (particularly opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage), and traditional values, usually with a Judeo-Christian ethical foundation. The party's core support comes from the rural central and eastern regions of Cygnia, particularly the Wheatbelt and the Northeast, as well as conservative Catholics and evangelicals across the country. However, the Nationals' support base has since 1977 been dwindling as demographic changes have resulted in a younger, more multi-ethnic and more socially liberal population.