In a unique way. The word unique, even though starts with a vowel, it is actually pronounced as, yoo-neek. As the starting sound is a non-vowel sound of yoo, we use a instead of an.
In Australian politics, Labor has traditionally been perceived as the party of big government and the Liberals the party of small government. The Australian government is one of the smallest governments in the developed world and Australia is one of the lowest-taxed countries in the developed world.
So, sometime between the 1860s and 1936, the (Democratic) party of small government became the party of big government, and the (Republican) party of big government became rhetorically committed to curbing federal power.