Why does the Australian Labor Party spell use the American spelling instead of the Australian spelling?

Question

Australia uses British English for their spelling, which spells labour as in physical work, with a "u", where the Australian Labor Party spells it without a "u".This is in contrast to the British Labour Party which uses a "u".

Why the difference?

Interestingly, the Australian National Dictionary has no entry for "labor" but, under "labour", consistently uses the former spelling in the section about the formation and early history of the Labor Party. — Matthew Read, Mar 02 '16 at 04:43

needshelp · Answer 1 · 2016-04-04T22:21:03.243

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The Australian Labor Party uses this spelling because, in 1912, an American-born Australian politician King O'Malley made a successful case to have the spelling 'modernised' to the way that the Americans spelt it. Some other Australian politicians just wanted to have the name distinguish from the worldwide labour movement, hence the change.

edited Apr 04 '16 at 22:21

answered Mar 06 '16 at 23:18

needshelp

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Any sources on this? – Mar 06 '16 at 23:19
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http://www.alp.org.au/about/history.php – needshelp Mar 06 '16 at 23:20
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Labor_Party#Name_changes – needshelp Mar 07 '16 at 09:53
Sources above @LegoStormtroopr – needshelp Mar 07 '16 at 09:54

Why does the Australian Labor Party spell use the American spelling instead of the Australian spelling?

1 Answers1