Commonwealth Party of Australia

The Commonwealth Party of Australia, more commonly known as the Commonwealth Party, is a centre to centre-right political party that split from the Liberal Party of Australia in September 2021.

Formation and Liberal Party split
On September 14, Liberal Party member and former Prime Minister Riley8583 successfully spilled Liberal Party leader and moderate 12MaxWild for the party leadership. After the spill, rumours circulated that 12MaxWild was forming a new party, which was fuelled by Riley's past anti-lockdown and anti-vax comments. Liberal Party President and fellow moderate, Russian Hacker, ran against Riley8583, declaring that he would "reinforce the party's centre-right values". Russian Hacker lost the spill 6-7, leading to further speculation about a party split, which Russian Hacker denied in a statement.

In the following days, many journalists reported on this speculation, with some saying that a 'New Liberals' project was emerging and that "numerous people were involved in the creation of a new party". Tim Schenectady from Pitchfork News released a press piece where an anonymous source told him that "the [New Liberal] project is basically ready to go. We have the numbers to cripple the Liberal Party," adding that "Riley's hostile takeover of the party is essentially a coup."

On 23 September, 12MaxWild officially announced the formation of the Commonwealth Party in a press statement. The following day, former Liberal Party leader Russian Hacker announced his intention to join the Commonwealth Party, where he explained his reasoning in a special piece for the Commonwealth Times, claiming that he could "no longer work with an insensitive leadership group who treats you with so much disrespect", while also revealing that Liberal Party Deputy Leader and Riley8583 supporter Winston_Wilhelmus had called him an "autistic child" during Shadow Cabinet discussions. Other high-profile figures joined the party after the announcement, including former Deputy Prime Ministers GHagrid and tbyrn21 and Liberal senator Chi. Former UDP Prime Minster BloodyChrome announced his intention to leave the High Court and join the party a few weeks later.