Editing Australian Labor Party (section)

== Name and spelling ==
In standard [[Australian English]], the word [[wikt:labour|''labour'']] is spelt with a ''u''. However, the political party uses the spelling ''Labor'', without a ''u''. There was originally no standardised spelling of the party's name, with ''Labor'' and ''Labour'' both in common usage. According to [[Ross McMullin]], who wrote an official history of the Labor Party, the title page of the proceedings of the [[Australian Labor Party National Conference|Federal Conference]] used the spelling "Labor" in 1902, "Labour" in 1905 and 1908, and then "Labor" from 1912 onwards.{{sfn|McMullin|1991|p=ix}} In 1908, [[James Catts]] put forward a motion at the Federal Conference that "the name of the party be the Australian Labour Party", which was carried by 22 votes to 2. A separate motion recommending state branches adopt the name was defeated. There was no uniformity of party names until 1918 when the Federal party resolved that state branches should adopt the name "Australian Labor Party", now spelt without a ''u''. Each state branch had previously used a different name, due to their different origins.{{sfn|McMullin|1991|p=116}}{{efn|According to ''[[The Australian Worker]]'', in 1918 the state parties comprised the Political Labor League (New South Wales), the Queensland Labor Party, the United Labor Party (South Australia), the Workers' Political Labor League (Tasmania), the Political Labor Council (Victoria), and the Australian Labor Federation (Western Australia).<ref>{{cite news |url = https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/72188541 |title = 'The Australian Labor Party: Labor's Uniform Name |newspaper = [[The Australian Worker]] |date = 12 December 1918 |access-date = 15 May 2020 |archive-date = 2 April 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200402162807/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/72188541 |url-status = live }}</ref> However, according to the ''[[South Australian Register]]'', the state parties in New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria had already adopted the standardised name by 1917.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60323264 |title = What's in a Name? |newspaper = [[South Australian Register]] |date = 15 September 1917 |access-date = 15 May 2020 |archive-date = 2 April 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200402162809/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60323264 |url-status = live }}</ref>}}

Although the ALP officially adopted the spelling without a ''u'', it took decades for the official spelling to achieve widespread acceptance.<ref>{{cite book |quote = The Commonwealth conference of the party adopted the spelling 'Labor' in the official title of the Labor Party, but the parliamentary debates did not follow suit. Thereafter the debates recorded the same proceedings with different spellings, and it was many years before the spelling 'Labor' was accepted officially or used consistently in print. |first = Frank |last = Crowley |title = Big John Forrest: A Founding Father of the Commonwealth of Australia |publisher = UWA Press |year = 2000 |page = 394 }}</ref>{{efn|In 1954, Labor MP [[Ted Johnson (politician)|Ted Johnson]] complained in the [[Parliament of Western Australia]] that both ''[[Hansard]]'' and the daily newspapers were still using the spelling "Labour".<ref>{{cite news |url = http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard1870to1995.nsf/0/1cc22d0f70c1928948257a41000ff21d/$FILE/19540707_Assembly.pdf |publisher = Hansard / Parliament of Western Australia |date = 7 July 1954 |title = Australian Labour Party, as to spelling of "Labour" |page = 302 |access-date = 20 November 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181120095713/http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard1870to1995.nsf/0/1cc22d0f70c1928948257a41000ff21d/$FILE/19540707_Assembly.pdf |archive-date = 20 November 2018 |url-status = dead }}</ref> As late as the 1980s, historian [[Finlay Crisp]] used the spelling "Labour" in academic works about the party.<ref>Crisp, Finlay (1978) [1951]. ''The Australian Federal Labour Party, 1901–1951''.</ref><ref>Crisp, Finlay; Atkinson, Barbara (1981). ''Australian Labour Party Federal Parliamentarians, 1901–1981''.</ref>}} According to McMullin, "the way the spelling of 'Labor Party' was consolidated had more to do with the chap who ended up being in charge of printing the federal conference report than any other reason".<ref>{{cite journal |journal = Papers on Parliament |publisher = [[Australian Parliamentary Library]] |url = https://www.aph.gov.au/~/~/link.aspx?_id=0C7E239290F64DD8BD55C6C1E9F185EA&_z=z |title = First in the World: Australia's Watson Labor government |last = McMullin |first = Ross |author-link = Ross McMullin |year = 2006 |issue = 44 |access-date = 15 May 2020 |archive-date = 10 May 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200510045446/https://www.aph.gov.au/~/~/link.aspx?_id=0C7E239290F64DD8BD55C6C1E9F185EA&_z=z |url-status = live }}</ref> Some sources have attributed the official choice of ''Labor'' to influence from [[King O'Malley]], who was born in the United States and was reputedly an advocate of [[English-language spelling reform]]; the spelling without a ''u'' is the standard form in [[American English]].<ref>{{cite book |title = Andrew Fisher: An Underestimated Man |first = Peter |last = Bastian |year=2009 |publisher=UNSW Press |page = 372 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-23079177 |title=Disemvowelled |work=BBC News |date=27 June 2013 |access-date=20 November 2018 |archive-date=2 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200402162743/https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-23079177 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Andrew Scott, who wrote "Running on Empty: 'Modernising' the British and Australian Labour Parties", suggests that the adoption of the spelling without a ''u'' "signified one of the ALP's earliest attempts at modernisation", and served the purpose of differentiating the party from the [[Australian labour movement]] as a whole and distinguishing it from other British Empire labour parties. The decision to include the word "Australian" in the party's name, rather than just "[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]" as in the United Kingdom, Scott attributes to "the greater importance of nationalism for the founders of the colonial parties".<ref>{{cite book |url = https://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30034395/scott-runningonempty-2000.pdf |publisher = Pluto Press |first = Andrew |last = Scott |year = 2000 |title = Running on Empty: 'Modernising' the British and Australian Labour Parties |page = 39 |access-date = 20 November 2018 |archive-date = 11 April 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190411203148/https://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30034395/scott-runningonempty-2000.pdf |url-status = dead }}</ref>