2023 in Australia

Incumbents

State and territory leaders

• Premier of New South Wales – Dominic Perrottet, then Chris Minns
• *Opposition Leader – Chris Minns, then Mark Speakman
• Premier of Queensland – Annastacia Palaszczuk, then Steven Miles
• *Opposition Leader – David Crisafulli
• Premier of South Australia – Peter Malinauskas
• *Opposition Leader – David Speirs
• Premier of Tasmania – Jeremy Rockliff
• *Opposition Leader – Rebecca White
• Premier of Victoria – Daniel Andrews, then Jacinta Allan
• *Opposition Leader – John Pesutto
• Premier of Western Australia – Mark McGowan, then Roger Cook
• *Opposition Leader – Mia Davies, then Shane Love
• Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory – Andrew Barr
• *Opposition Leader – Elizabeth Lee
• Chief Minister of the Northern Territory – Natasha Fyles, then Eva Lawler
• *Opposition Leader – Lia Finocchiaro

  Governors and administrators

• Governor of New South Wales – Margaret Beazley
• Governor of Queensland – Jeannette Young
• Governor of South Australia – Frances Adamson
• Governor of Tasmania – Barbara Baker
• Governor of Victoria – Linda Dessau, then James Angus, then Margaret Gardner
• Governor of Western Australia – Chris Dawson
• Administrator of the Australian Indian Ocean Territories – Natasha Griggs, then Farzian Zainal
• Administrator of Norfolk Island – Eric Hutchinson, then George Plant
• Administrator of the Northern Territory – Vicki O'Halloran, then Hugh Heggie

  Events

January

• 1–10 January – The Kimberley and northern parts of Western Australia are severely affected by flooding caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie. The Fitzroy River at Fitzroy Crossing peaks at a record 15.81 metres on 4 January, with the bridge which carries the Great Northern Highway across the river damaged beyond repair. Over 200 people evacuated from several communities with authorities declaring it the worst flooding the state has ever seen prompting prime minister Anthony Albanese and state premier Mark McGowan to visit the flood affected areas to inspect the damage. The system eventually dissipates on 8 January and the Australian Defence Force is deployed to the area to help with the recovery efforts.
• 1 January – Residents in Menindee, New South Wales are warned to prepare for the highest flood levels in fifty years with the Darling River expected to peak at 10.7 metres.
• 2 January – A mid-air collision occurred in which two helicopters on the Gold Coast near Sea World which kills four people and injures nine others.
• 3 January – A Tasmanian prisoner who absconded from custody while receiving treatment at the Royal Hobart Hospital just before 11 pm the previous evening is found shot dead at Granton at approximately 1:30 am. Three men are subsequently charged with his murder and an investigation into how he escaped from custody is launched.
• 10–16 January – An incident involving a radioactive capsule occurs in Western Australia when a tiny radioactive capsule goes missing along a 1,400-kilometre stretch of the Great Northern Highway in Western Australia.
• 10 January – Residents across Northern Australia report shaking when the 7.6 magnitude undersea earthquake strikes near the Tanimbar Islands at 3:17 am ACST.
• 12–17 January – Heavy rainfall causes widespread flooding across large parts of North Queensland.
• 12 January –
• *Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese becomes the first foreign leader to address the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea. Albanese and Papua New Guinea prime minister James Marape also sign a joint statement pledging that the two countries will reach a new security deal by the end of April.
• * The leader of the National Socialist Network Thomas Sewell is sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order with 150 hours of community for affray and recklessly causing injury.
• * Liberal Premier of New South Wales Dominic Perrottet reveals that he wore a Nazi uniform as fancy dress at his 21st birthday, apologising at a media conference after a cabinet minister was made aware of the incident.
• 15 January – A 29-year-old Sydney teacher is one of 72 passengers and crew killed when Yeti Airlines Flight 691 crashes near Pokhara International Airport just prior to its schedule landing after arriving from Kathmandu.
• 18 January – An engine fails on a Qantas twin-jet Boeing 737 aircraft en route from New Zealand to Australia prompting the pilot of flight QF144 to declare a mayday before it arrives safely in Sydney.
• 22 January – Two West Australian women are killed when a boat crashes into a channel marker in the Mandurah estuary including the mother of West Coast Eagles player Rhett Bazzo. The skipper of the boat is later charged with two counts of manslaughter.
• 24 January – Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Alice Springs amid the town's youth crime crisis but is criticised for only spending four hours in the community. Restrictions on the sale of alcohol in Alice Springs are introduced by the Northern Territory government in an attempt to combat the amount of crime. The restrictions are put in place following calls from mayor Matt Paterson for the Australian Federal Police to be deployed to the town.
• 25 January – An arrest warrant is issued for pro-Russian YouTuber Simeon Boikov after failing to appear in court accused of assaulting a 76-year-old man at a pro-Ukraine rally at Sydney Town Hall in December 2022, prompting Boikov to take refuge in the Russian consulate.
• 26 January – A 10-year-old boy survives being struck by lightning while swimming at Warilla Beach in the Illawarra. He receives CPR and is then taken to the Children's Hospital at Westmead under police escort where he is admitted in a critical but stable condition prior to making a full recovery.
• 30 January –
• *Victoria coroner Simon McGregor hands down his findings into the death in custody of Veronica Nelson at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre on 2 January 2020 four days after her arrest on suspicious of shoplifting on 30 December 2019. He criticises the state government for failing to implement recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and finds the state's bail act discriminatory towards First Nations people, incompatible with the Charter of Human Rights and that the changes to the act in 2018 were a "complete, unmitigated disaster".
• *Thousands of people at the Alice Springs Convention Centre for a "Save Alice Springs" town meeting organised by local business owner Garth Thompson to discuss the crime issues affecting the town. Residents discuss the possibility of launching a $1.5 billion compensation claim against the Northern Territory Government for negligence. The one-hour meeting ends after just 20 minutes after attendees shouted down Thompson for suggesting truant school children be reported to police for a welfare check.

  February

• 1 February – An incident involving a radioactive capsule concludes in Western Australia when a search team from Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and the WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services finds a missing caesium-137 capsule 74 km south of Newman.
• 2 February –
• *The Reserve Bank of Australia announces that King Charles III will not appear on the new five-dollar banknote. A design celebrating First Nations peoples will appear instead.
• *Hundreds of protesters march outside St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney during the funeral service for George Pell.
• 3 February – Despite pleading guilty one count of common assault, Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios has the charge dismissed by ACT magistrate Beth Campbell who decides no conviction should be recorded against Kyrgios.
• 4 February – A 16-year-old girl is killed in a shark attack while swimming in the Swan River at Fremantle, Western Australia.
• 6 February – A Boeing 737-300 owned by Coulson Aviation and serving as a firefighting air tanker crashes in the Fitzgerald River National Park in southern Western Australia.
• 9 February – Former Liberal Minister for Education and Youth Alan Tudge announces his resignation in parliament, effective from the end of the following week.
• 12–15 February – At least 21 structures including homes are destroyed in several bushfires burning on Queensland's Western Downs. The separate fires near Tara, Miles and Jandowae burn a combined total of 150,000 hectares of land.
• 16 February – Katter's Australian Party announces on Facebook that its MPs will not support the Voice.
• 17 February – New South Wales finance minister Damien Tudehope resigns from state cabinet after it's discovered he failed to disclose he has shares in Transurban.
• 18 February – At a Country Liberal Party meeting, party members vote to oppose the Voice to Parliament.
• 23 February – The national campaign in favour of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum officially begins at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Adelaide.
• 26 February – Papua New Guinea prime minister James Marape announces that University of Southern Queensland professor Bryce Barker and two of his colleagues have been released from captivity more than a week after they were kidnapped by a criminal gang while doing archaeological fieldwork in Papua New Guinea.

  March

• 1–15 March – Major flooding in the upper Victoria River affects remote Northern Territory communities prompting the evacuation of residents to Darwin. The flooding also severs road and rail links between the Northern Territory and Western Australia impacting the supply of fresh food and essential supplies.
• 5 March – 50,000 people march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the Pride March on the final day of WorldPride.
• 6 March – The historic Pride of the Murray paddle wheeler sinks in the Thomson River at Longreach in Central West Queensland with police treating the incident as suspicious. The vessel, which had been trucked to Longreach from Victoria in 2022, is raised from the riverbed in September 2023 with the owner hopeful of it being restored in time for its 100th anniversary in 2024.
• 8 March – Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese commences a four-day bilateral visit to India at the invitation of Indian prime minister Shri Narendra Modi. During the visit, both prime ministers ride in a chariot in a lap of honour at the fourth cricket test at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
• 15 March – Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating uses a National Press Club address to criticise the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine deal the federal Labor government had reached with the United Kingdom and the United States, describing it as the worst international decision made by an Australian government since conscription in World War I. Keating also criticises Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Anthony Albanese, Richard Marles, Penny Wong, Peter Hartcher, Matthew Knott, Olivia Caisley and Australian security agencies. However, Keating defends China and claims the country doesn't pose a threat. Keating is criticised for his behaviour towards journalists at the press club.
• 18 March – Approximately 30 members of the National Socialist Network, including Thomas Sewell, attended a rally in Melbourne in support of British anti-transgender activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, who spoke at the rally while visiting the city on her Australian tour. Members of the NSN marched down Spring Street, displayed a banner that read "DESTROY PAEDO FREAKS", performed Nazi salutes on the stairs of Victorian Parliament House. A counterprotest in support of transgender rights, attended by many students, transgender activists, and socialists, clashed with the group. While the police, including several mounted officers, attempted to separate the two groups. The events were condemned by the Labor Party, the Liberal Party and the Greens.
• 19 March – Victorian Liberal leader of the opposition, John Pesutto announced, that he would move to have Moira Deeming expelled from the parliamentary Liberal Party after she spoke at an anti-trans rally outside the Victorian Parliament. In the end, a compromise was made with Deeming accepting a nine-month suspension from the party instead of expulsion from the party.
• 22 March – Ten Australian Defence Force personnel survive after the MRH-90 Taipan army helicopter they were on ditches into the sea at Jervis Bay during counterterrorism exercises.
• 25 March – New South Wales State election elected the 58th Parliament. Chris Minns won after 12 years in opposition for Labor.
• 26 March – Former US president Barack Obama arrives in Australia for several public speaking engagements. Controversy arises when organisers of the event in Melbourne prevent 78-year-old Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy from delivering the Welcome to Country and is allegedly told she was being "too difficult" for requesting a support person and the opportunity to present Obama with a gift as per cultural practice.
• 30 March – Following the 2023 New South Wales state election, Mark Latham NSW One Nation leader published a tweet in response to comments by gay politician Alex Greenwich. Latham's tweet included an explicit and derogatory description of anal sex: "Disgusting? How does that compare with sticking your dick up a bloke's arse and covering it with shit?". The comments were deemed to be homophobic by Alex Greenwich and other politicians, Conservative commentator Andrew Bolt and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson criticised Latham and called for him to apologise.