Abbott marks Liberals' 70th birthday

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has paid tribute to the Liberal Party on the eve of its 70th birthday for helping to build modern Australia.

The party name was adopted on October 16, 1944, and two months later its organisational and constitutional framework was drawn up.

By May 1945, the party's ranks had grown from an initial meeting of 80 men and women in Canberra to 40,000 members.

Party founder Sir Robert Menzies had hoped it would change the "current of Australian politics".

"The Liberal Party hasn't just changed our politics. It has helped to build modern Australia," Mr Abbott said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Liberals fought their first election in 1946 and in 1947 won state government in Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria.

In 1949 the Liberals, in coalition with the Country Party, were elected to national government.

Sir Robert Menzies went on to lead the party and the nation for 17 years, before retiring from politics in 1966.

Mr Abbott said the party stood for "the citizen over the official, the community over the state and the family over everything".