Editing Unity Party (Australia) (section)

===Formation===
Unity attracted much attention when it was founded in 1997, with [[Peter Wong (Australian politician)|Peter Wong]], [[Mary Kalantzis]], [[Bill Cope (academic)|Bill Cope]] and [[Jason Yat-Sen Li]] among those involved in its creation.<ref>{{cite thesis|url=http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:10833/SOURCE01?view=true|first=Stephen|last=Smith|type=Ph.D. thesis|title=A dynamic electorate? Analysing the geography of minor parties at Australian state and federal elections, 1997-2006|publisher=University of New South Wales|year=2011|page=93}}</ref>

The party ran candidates in almost every [[Australian House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] seat at the [[1998 Australian federal election|1998 election]]. While they had hopes of winning a Senate seat in [[New South Wales]] with Jason Li, he fell well short. However, the party outpolled the [[Australian Democrats]] and [[Australian Greens]] in some House of Representatives seats. In the NSW Federal seat of Fowler, investment banker Andrew Su outpolled both the Democrats and One Nation. Subsequently, in the 1999 NSW State Election, Su went on to poll more than the Liberals, Greens and Democrats in the safe Labor seat of [[Electoral district of Cabramatta|Cabramatta]].

The Unity Party was formally registered by the [[Australian Electoral Commission]] on 25 August 1998 under the name "Unity – Say No to Hanson".<ref name=aec>{{cite news|url=https://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/Party_Registration/Deregistered_parties/usnh.htm|title=Unity – Say No to Hanson|publisher=Australian Electoral Commission|accessdate=5 January 2022}}</ref>