Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia
The Leader of the Liberal Party, also known as Leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, is the highest office within the Liberal Party of Australia and is the leader of the Liberal–National Coalition. The incumbent leader is Sussan Ley, who was elected on 13 May 2025.
History
The Liberal Party leadership was first held by former United Australia Party leader and eventual co–founder Robert Menzies, along with eighteen political organisations and groups.Following the oustings of two Liberal prime ministers in three years, Scott Morrison introduced a new threshold to trigger a Liberal Party leadership change in government, requiring two-thirds of the partyroom vote to trigger a spill motion. The change was introduced at an hour long party room meeting on the evening of 3 December 2018. Morrison said the changes, which were drafted with feedback from former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, would only apply to leaders who lead the party to victory at a federal election.
Role
Since the days of Menzies, the Liberal Party has either been in government in a coalition or in opposition to Labor. Thus, the leader of the Liberal Party has always served as either the Prime Minister of Australia or the Leader of the Opposition. Furthermore, the leader picks the Cabinet and is also the leader of the Coalition. The Liberal Party has only had one leader of the party from the Senate, John Gorton, for a brief period in January 1968 before he resigned from the Senate to contest the Higgins by-election in February 1968.Leaders of the Liberal Party
Federal leaders by time in office
This list ranks federal leaders of the Liberal 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.| Rank | Leader | Time in office | |
| 1 | 1st | Robert Menzies | 20 years, 133 days |
| 2 | 8th | John Howard | 16 years, 184 days |
| 3 | 6th | Malcolm Fraser | 7 years, 355 days |
| 4 | 13th | Tony Abbott | 5 years, 287 days |
| 5 | 12th | Malcolm Turnbull | 4 years, 59 days |
| 6 | 9th | John Hewson | 4 years, 50 days |
| 7 | 14th | Scott Morrison | 3 years, 279 days |
| 8 | 7th | Andrew Peacock | 3 years, 142 days |
| 9 | 3rd | John Gorton | 3 years, 59 days |
| 10 | 15th | Peter Dutton | 2 years, 338 days |
| 11 | 5th | Billy Snedden | 2 years, 91 days |
| 12 | 2nd | Harold Holt | 1 year, 333 days |
| 13 | 4th | William McMahon | 1 year, 270 days |
| 14 | 11th | Brendan Nelson | 292 days |
| 15 | 16th | Sussan Ley | |
| 16 | 10th | Alexander Downer | 252 days |