page_title: Liberal Party of Australia
section_title: McMahon Government and Snedden leadership
hierarchical_section_title: Liberal Party of Australia / History / McMahon Government and Snedden leadership
caption_attribution_description: Australian Prime Minister William McMahon during a visit to the US in 1971
context_page_description: The Liberal Party of Australia is a major centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Australia Party.
  The Liberal Party is the larger and dominant party in the Coalition with the National Party of Australia. Except for a few short periods, the Liberal Party and its predecessors have operated in similar coalitions at federal level since the 1920s. The party's leader is Scott Morrison, the incumbent prime minister, and its deputy leader is Josh Frydenberg. The pair were elected to their positions at the August 2018 Liberal leadership ballot, with Morrison and Frydenberg replacing Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop respectively. The Coalition has been in power since the 2013 federal election, forming the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison Governments.
  The Liberal Party has a federal structure, with autonomous divisions in all six states and the Australian Capital Territory. The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory is an affiliate.
context_section_description: Former treasurer, William McMahon, replaced Gorton as Prime Minister. Gorton remained a front bencher but relations with Fraser remained strained. The McMahon Government ended when Gough Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party out of its 23-year period in Opposition at the 1972 election.
  The economy was weakening. McMahon maintained Australia's diminishing commitment to Vietnam and criticised Opposition leader, Gough Whitlam, for visiting Communist China in 1972—only to have the US President Richard Nixon announce a planned visit soon after.
  During McMahon's period in office, Neville Bonner joined the Senate and became the first Indigenous Australian in the Australian Parliament. Bonner was chosen by the Liberal Party to fill a Senate vacancy in 1971 and celebrated his maiden parliamentary speech with a boomerang throwing display on the lawns of Parliament. Bonner went on to win election at the 1972 election and served as a Liberal Senator for 12 years. He worked on Indigenous and social welfare issues and proved an independent minded Senator, often crossing the floor on Parliamentary votes.
  Following Whitlam's victory, John Gorton played a further role in reform by introducing a Parliamentary motion from Opposition supporting the legalisation of same-gender sexual relations. Billy Snedden led the party against Whitlam in the 1974 federal election, which saw a return of the Labor government. When Malcolm Fraser won the Liberal Party leadership from Snedden in 1975, Gorton walked out of the Party Room.
caption: William McMahon, Prime Minister 1971–72
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