Leaders of the Australian Labor Party


The leader of the Australian Labor Party is the highest political office within the federal Australian Labor Party. Leaders of the party are chosen from among the sitting members of the parliamentary caucus either by members alone or with a vote of the party's rank-and-file membership. The current leader of the Labor Party, since 2019, is Anthony Albanese, who has served as the prime minister of Australia since 2022. There have been 21 leaders since 1901 when Chris Watson was elected as the inaugural leader following the first federal election.
Every Australian state and territory has its own branch of the Australian Labor Party, which has its own leader elected from the party members of that jurisdiction.

Background

The federal Labor Caucus comprising the elected members of the Labor party in both Houses of the national Parliament is involved in the election of the federal parliamentary leaders from among its members. The leader has historically been a member of the House of Representatives. Caucus also has the power to dismiss a party leader in a process called a leadership spill. Until 2013, a spill vote could be called at any time and a simple majority of votes in Caucus was sufficient to remove a leader. Following the return of Kevin Rudd to the leadership of the ALP in 2013, he sought changes to the party's rules so that leadership spills would be more difficult to launch in future, including a requirement for 75% majority in Caucus for a leadership spill against a sitting Labor prime minister, or 60% against an opposition leader. The changes also provided for equally weighted voting rights between Caucus and party rank and file members. These changes were adopted by Caucus in July 2013, which was not a change to the party's constitution. At the October 2013 leadership spill Bill Shorten was the first leader elected under the new rules. Shorten received 55-43 votes in Caucus, which was sufficient to overcome his 40% support among party members.
When the Labor Party is in government, the party leader becomes the Prime Minister and the deputy leader becomes the Deputy Prime Minister. If a Labor prime minister resigns or dies in office, the deputy leader becomes party leader and is sworn in as prime minister on an interim basis until a party successor is elected. This was the case upon the death in office of John Curtin on 5 July 1945. Frank Forde, the deputy party leader, was sworn in as interim prime minister until Ben Chifley was elected by Caucus as party leader on 13 July. If the leader is out of the country or is on leave, the deputy leader acts as party leader and prime minister, without being sworn into the office.
According to recent convention, the leader and deputy leader must be from different factions and from different states. The leadership and deputy leadership have also been gender-balanced.

Federal leadership

Leader

The federal Leaders of the Australian Labor Party have been as follows :

Deputy Leader

;Notes

Senate Leader

State and territory heads of government

Australian Capital Territory

This list ranks federal leaders of the Labor Party by their time in office. Leaders that also served as Prime Minister are in bold. Where leaders served non-consecutive terms, their total time as leader is ranked together.
RankLeaderTime in office
111thGough Whitlam10 years, 317 days
27thJohn Curtin9 years, 277 days
313thBob Hawke8 years, 314 days
49thH. V. Evatt8 years, 241 days
52ndAndrew Fisher7 years, 362 days
615thKim Beazley7 years, 203 days
76thJames Scullin7 years, 128 days
810thArthur Calwell6 years, 338 days
921stAnthony Albanese
101stChris Watson6 years, 163 days
115thMatthew Charlton6 years, 64 days
128thBen Chifley5 years, 335 days
1320thBill Shorten5 years, 229 days
144thFrank Tudor5 years, 57 days
1512thBill Hayden5 years, 48 days
1614thPaul Keating4 years, 91 days
1718thKevin Rudd3 years, 281 days
1819thJulia Gillard3 years, 2 days
1916thSimon Crean2 years, 10 days
2017thMark Latham1 year, 47 days
213rdBilly Hughes1 year, 18 days