The Nationalist Party of Australia was a liberal-conservative political party in Australia that was active from 1917 to 1931. The party was founded as a merger of the Commonwealth Liberal Party and Billy Hughes' nationalist faction of the Australian Labor Party (which split from the main party in 1916 over the issue of conscription during World War I). Most of Hughes' support came from the conservative side, the liberal party, the Protestant churches, business, and the middle class, while his opponents were the trade unions, most of the Labor Party, the working-class Catholic vote, and women (wives and mothers). In May 1917, the party won a huge electoral victory, with a large number of Labor MPs defecting to the Nationalists. The party became the main opposition to the Labor Party, and, in 1931, it merged with pro-Joseph Lyons Labor defectors to form the United Australia Party.
Historica Wiki