Brief history of the DLP

DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY IN BRIEF

* The DLP was formed in 1955 after a devastating split in the Australian Labor Party.

* It helped keep the federal ALP in opposition for two decades as it held the Senate balance of power between 1955 and 1974.

* All of the DLP's senators lost their seats in the 1974 double-dissolution election and it largely disappeared from the political radar.

* The party rose from the dead in 2010 when blacksmith John Madigan won a Victorian Senate seat in 2010 with only 2.3 per cent of the primary vote.

* The DLP had a minor success when Peter Kavanagh won a Victorian upper house seat in 2006, which he held for one term.