The party was founded in early 2004 as the Country Alliance by four Victorians—Fiona Hilton-Wood, a staffer for independentMPRussell Savage; Russell Bate, a Shire of Mansfield councillor; Bob Richardson, a former union official; and Russell Pearson, a member of the Sporting Shooters Association. As the Country Alliance, the party contested the 2006 and 2010 Victorian state elections. In July 2011, the Country Alliance was registered with the Australian Electoral Commission. In August 2015, the Victorian Electoral Commission approved a name change for the party, adopting the name Australian Country Party. In October 2015, the Australian Electoral Commission approved the party's name change for federal elections. In August 2018, the party lodged a change of name application to change its name to the Australia Party/Give it Back, but withdrew the application before processing was completed. In September 2018, the VEC approved a similar application, with the party registered in Victoria as the Australian Country Party/Give It Back. In January 2019, the party applied to revert its Victorian registration to the Australian Country Party. In January 2019, Glenn O'Rourke became the Party's Federal Chairman. The Party commenced its national expansion and reposition as a democratic grassroots, centrist Party On 8 January 2020, Australian Country Party, Applied to the Australian Electoral Commission to change its name to Australian Federation Party. On February 27, 2020, the Party was formally renamed to the Australian Federation Party.
Electoral results
Federal
As the Country Alliance, the party contested the 2013 Australian federal election in several Victorian lower house seats, as well as fielding Senate candidates in South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. The party received 6,440 votes, 0.05% of all votes cast. The Australian Country Party fielded two Senate candidates and three candidates for seats in the House of Representatives, all in Victoria, in the 2016 federal election. In 2020 the party contested its first election as The Australian Federation Party, fielding a candidate in the 2020 Eden-Monaro Byelection held on 4 July.
Victoria
As the Country Alliance, the party contested the three rural upper house regions in the 2006 state election, receiving 13,329 first preference votes and finishing in 9th place overall. In the Western Victoria Region, preferences from the Country Alliance and the Labor Party flowed to the Democratic Labour Party's lead candidatePeter Kavanagh, resulting in Kavanagh securing the fifth and final seat, defeating Greens candidate Marcus Ward. The party nominated 37 candidates for the 2010 state election, standing in four upper house seats—Western Victoria, Eastern Victoria, Northern Victoria and Northern Metropolitan—and most of the lower house seats in regional Victoria. At the election, the party's best result in the lower house was in the district of Shepparton where it polled 20.5% of the primary vote and 39.8% of the two-candidate preferred vote after preferences. In the Legislative Council, the party was in contention for the final spot in the three country regions. In Northern Victoria Region, Country Alliance polled 6.8% of the primary vote and fell short by approximately 1,900 votes on the final count after the distribution of preferences. In February 2014, the Victorian branch of Katter's Australian Party merged with Country Alliance, announcing the newly-combined party would contest the 2014 state election as the Australian Country Alliance. At the election, the Australian Country Alliance received 1.28% of the vote in the lower house and 0.68% in the upper house in the 2014 Victorian state election. As Australian Country Party/Give It Back, the party contested two lower house seats—Ovens Valley and South-West Coast—as well as all eight upper house regions in the 2018 state election. Both lower house candidates received over 8% of first preference votes. It did not receive as much as 2% of first preference votes in any region for the upper house, with an average result of 0.68%. In July 2019, the party was de-registered by the Victorian Electoral Commission. In 2020, the party changed its name to the Australian Federation Party, and is currently registered to contest elections Federally and in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Northern Territory
In February 2019, the Australian Country Party applied for registration with the Northern Territory Electoral Commission. As of March 2020, the party is registered in the Northern Territory as the Federation Party Northern Territory.
On 30 June 2020, the application to register Federation Party Australian Capital Territory was lodged with the Australian Capital Territory Electoral Commission. On 28 July 2020 the Australian Capital Territory Electoral Commission confirmed the registration of the Australian Federation Party Australian Capital Territory.
