Alexander John Gosse Downer is an Australian former politician and diplomat who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1995, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007, and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2014 to 2018.
Official portrait, 2014
Downer during the 1990s.
Downer's 2003 official portrait
Downer with former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer at Parliament House, Canberra, February 2005
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia. The party is one of the two major parties in Australian politics, the other being the Australian Labor Party. The Liberal Party was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Australia Party. Historically the most successful political party in Australia's history, the party is now in opposition at a federal level and does not hold government in any Australian state or territory with the exception of the island state of Tasmania.
Sir Robert Menzies, founder of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister 1939–41 (UAP) and 1949–66
Sir Robert Menzies, Dame Enid Lyons (the first female member of an Australian Cabinet), Sir Eric Harrison, Harold Holt (Menzies' successor) and Tom White, in 1946.
Harold Holt, Prime Minister 1966–67
Prime Minister Harold Holt (second from left), with SEATO leaders in Manila, in 1966. The Liberal Party was in power through much of the early Post-War period in which Australia's allegiances, immigration and trade policies shifted away from reliance on the United Kingdom.
