Useful Notes / Prime Ministers of Australia

The Prime Minister of Australia is the head of government. They are, as a rule, a sitting MP in the federal House of Representatives and the leader of the majority party in that chamber — they are in charge of the Cabinet (which consists of Ministers drawn from the House or the Senate) and generally run the whole show. The current Prime Minister is Anthony Albanese.

Also included are a list of Deputy Prime Ministers, and Opposition Leaders who, for one reason or another, ultimately failed to fulfil their ambitions and never became Prime Minister.

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Prime Ministers of Australia

A ^note Relatively Brief Summary of Each Australian Prime Minister:

Sir Edmund Barton.

• Sir Edmund Barton (Protectionist Party) was Australia's first prime minister, from January 1901 to September 1903. A key member of the Federation movement in the 1890s, he was conservative, rich, and racist — the first law his government passed was the foundation of the White Australia Policy, which effectively banned non-white people from immigrating to Australia. Media nickname "Toby Tosspot", owing to his fondness of long dinners and the bottle. He actually didn't really achieve much as Prime Minister at all, as the main focus of the inaugural government was to organise the country's first federal elections — which the Protectionists ended up winning with support from the Labour Party. One thing the Barton Government did achieve was to give women the right to vote — which happened in 1902. In 1902 he became the first of two Prime Ministers to receive a knighthood in office^note Earle Page was the only one to receive one before becoming PM... and was also the first of two Prime Ministers to resign by his own free will — both distinctions he shares with Robert Menzies. Deciding he'd had enough of front-line politics, Barton resigned in September 1903 to become one of the founding High Court judges. He was a pretty so-so High Court Judge too, and acted much the same way as he did as Prime Minister. Died in 1920.

Alfred Deakin.

• Alfred Deakin (Protectionist Party) succeeded Barton, and his first stint as Prime Minister lasted seven months between September 1903 and April 1904 — he would go on to serve as Prime Minister on three non-consecutive occasions between 1903 and 1910. Among people familiar with history, Deakin is remembered rather more favourably than Barton — and was in fact universally liked, only making actual enemies as a result of The Fusion. His policies were small-l liberal, and during his time in the Victorian Government before Federation, he was instrumental in bringing in liberal reforms, as well as helped introduce irrigation. Had he not focused his efforts on Federation, he may well have ended us as Premier of Victoria. Served as Attorney-General in the Barton Government, where he helped establish the High Court. Deakin is also known for believing he could commune with dead politicians, who advised him on tactics.
  
  His first stint as Prime Minister, however, didn't really lead to many achievements of note. He led the Protectionists into the 1903 election, campaigning vehemently in support of the White Australia Policy. He succeeded in retaining government, but a swing to Labour gave all three major parties near-equal representation in the House, making it much harder to get anything done. In April 1904 the unofficial alliance between the Protectionists and Labour fell apart, and Deakin ended up resigning in frustration. Opposition Leader George Reid declined to form government, so the job of Prime Minister went to....

Chris Watson.

• John Christian Watson (Labour Party), Prime Minister for four months between April and August of 1904 after Deakin's resignation. He was the ALP's first ever Prime Minister, at 37 the youngest Prime Minister ever, and the first Prime Minister to come from a social democratic party in the entire world ... but he couldn't really achieve much in his brief tenure, generally having more success in wringing concessions out of Protectionist Party governments. He suffered the same problem that Deakin had due to the three major parties having about equal power, so couldn't accomplish much more than passing supply bills — though it is generally agreed that had it not been for these circumstances, he would have made a fine Prime Minister. When he couldn't persuade the Governor-General to dissolve Parliament and call an early election, he resigned as PM. Continued on as Labour leader until resigning in 1907 in favour of Andrew Fisher due to his wife's ill health. Was regarded as a moderate and pragmatist, and later in life defected to the Nationalist Party after being expelled from the Labor Party along with Billy Hughes and several others in 1916. Also noteworthy for having become Prime Minister without being an Australian citizen or even a British (Empire) subject: he was born in Valparaíso (Chile) to a German-Chilean father and a New Zealander mother, and was never naturalised. He grew up in New Zealand and first moved to Sydney at the age of 19. Died in 1941.

George Reid.

• George Houston Reid (Free Trade Party), Prime Minister from August 1904 to July 1905. He was the earliest-born of all Prime Ministers (in 1845) and the only Free Trade Prime Minister. In the event, he accomplished very little as PM, like Watson and Deakin before him. Aware that he would only be able to serve for a brief period of time, he waited until the unofficial Protectionist-Labour alliance was re-established – which they did in July 1905, at which point he stepped down from the Prime Ministership gracefully. He spent a much longer period of time as Leader of the Opposition. Also served as Premier of New South Wales during the 1890's, where he is generally considered to have been more effective than as PM. Changed the name of the Free Trade Party to the Anti-Socialist Party in 1906 in order to remain relevant and to differentiate themselves from the other major parties. Opposed the idea of The Fusion, Reid stepped down as the Anti-Socialist leader in 1908 in favour of Joseph Cook, and retired from Parliament the following year. Later became Australia's first High Commissioner in London, where he proved to be extremely popular. As a result, he ended up joining the House of Commons as a member of the Conservative Party, and served until his death in 1918 — the first former Prime Minister to die.
  • In his lifetime, Reid was also (in)famous for his wit, and was acclaimed as "perhaps the best platform speaker in the Empire". Much of his audience would attend his election meetings as entertainment, and Reid had the ability to amuse and at the same time inform the audiences. However, not everyone enjoyed his humour, with Alfred Deakin in particular disliking him as a result.
  Heckler: [Pointing out Reid's large belly] What are you going to call it, George?
  Reid: If it's a boy, I'll call it after myself. If it's a girl I'll call it Victoria. But if, as I strongly suspect, it's nothing but piss and wind, I'll name it after you!
• Alfred Deakin again (Protectionist Party), this time serving from July 1905 to November 1908. Fifteen months and two prime ministers after first resigning the position, Deakin became PM again. Successfully passed protectionist legislation... after which there wasn't much left that distinguished his party from the Free Traders/Anti-Socialists, resulting in them losing supporters. Nevertheless, his second tenure in office is overwhelmingly considered his most successful, with achievements such as the establishment of an Australian administration in the territory of Papua; the Bureau of Census and Statistics; the Bureau of Meteorology; the Copyright Act; and began the process of organising an independent Australian Navy as well as Australia's own currency. Not the flashiest of reform administrations, but essential for the development of the Commonwealth in its first decade. Managed to hold onto minority government after the December 1906 election despite having won the least number of seats of the three parties, but was forced to resign in November 1908 after Labour finally withdrew support for the Protectionists.

Andrew Fisher.

• Andrew Fisher (Labour Party) replaced Deakin as Prime Minister, and served from November 1908 to June 1909 — like Deakin, he would ultimately serve three non-consecutive occasions between 1908 and 1915. Left-wing and reformist, he was one of Labour's most successful Prime Ministers in the early 20th century. Fisher first became PM of a minority government in November 1908 after forcing Deakin out, when the Protectionist-Labour alliance broke down again. This time around, he only lasted seven months before Deakin took back the government.
• Alfred Deakin yet again (Commonwealth Liberal Party).
  • (June 1909 - April 1910) With the Protectionist Party bleeding supporters to Labour and to the Anti-Socialists, and most of supporters being admirers of Deakin himself rather than the party, Deakin organised a merger of the Protectionists and the Anti-Socialists into the "Commonwealth Liberal Party" with himself as leader, giving them a majority and effectively creating Australia's modern two-party system. It backfired: a good deal of liberal Protectionists felt that Deakin had sold out his principles, and voted him out in the next election. Died in 1919.
• Andrew Fisher again (Labor Party — they dropped the "u" during his tenure, in 1912).
  • (April 1910 - June 1913) Won big in the 1910 election, becoming the first person to be elected the head of a majority government in Australia. Passed a huge number of reforms, only one of which was officially changing his party's name to a misspelling — on the advice of American-born King O'Malley. Lost the 1913 election by one seat.

Joseph Cook.

• Joseph Cook (Commonwealth Liberal Party), Prime Minister from June 1913 to September 1914. Former member of the Labour Party who steadily moved to the Right. Understandably fed up with governing with a one-seat majority and a hostile Senate, he obtained a double-dissolution election, the first in Australia's history — only to have the outbreak of World War I take place in the middle of the election campaign. Thrown into an accidental khaki election, Cook and the Commonwealth Liberals ended up losing to Fisher and Labor. Cook stayed on as Opposition Leader until he returned to government as Billy Hughes' deputy in the aftermath of Labor's conscription split in 1916-17. He retired from politics in 1922 so he could replace Andrew Fisher as High Commissioner in London. Died in 1947.
  • Cook has the unusual distinction of being the only deceased former PM not to have a federal electorate named after him. There is a division named Cook in southern Sydney, but it is named after Captain James Cook; although there have been proposals to make it so that the division jointly honours both figures, they have not yet come to pass. Incidentally, the division of Cook has been held since 2007 by former PM Scott Morrison.
• Andrew Fisher yet again (Labor Party).
  • (September 1914 - October 1915) Having won back the position of Prime Minister, he didn't keep it very long, resigning after a year due to ill health. Most of his final term in office was spent concentrating on the First World War, in which Fisher famously proclaimed that Australia would "stand beside the mother country to help and defend her to the last man and the last shilling". Became Australia's new High Commissioner in London the following year, succeeding George Reid. Died in 1928.

Billy Hughes.

• William Morris Hughes (Labor Party, then National Labor Party, then Nationalist Party) succeeded Fisher and served from October 1915 to February 1923, thus becoming the longest-serving PM until Menzies. The most xenophobic PM Australia has had (Former PM Malcolm Fraser even referred to his politics as 'evil'). He was kicked out of the Labor Party in 1916 over the issue of conscription (which he supported and most of the party didn't), but stayed Prime Minister by merging his small band of expelled supporters into the Commonwealth Liberal Party to form the Nationalist Party, which formed the new government and won a huge majority in 1917, although conscription failed to pass in a plebiscite. Hughes was re-elected as Prime Minister in 1919 (but came one seat short of a majority in the House, relying on cross-bencher support), and from 1920 onwards he steadily lost the support of right-wing Nationalists. The 1922 election returned a hung parliament, and the Nationalists formed an official coalition with the new Country Party to stay in government^note the coalition still lasts to this day, now as the Liberal/National Coalition – the price of the agreement was that Hughes was forced to resign as Prime Minister, as the Country Party didn't trust him due to his Labor background. Hughes spent his entire career jumping from party to party — Labor to National Labor to Nationalist to independent to Australian to United Australia to independent to Liberal.^note On one occasion when it was referenced that the Country Party was seemingly the only party he never joined, Hughes commented "No, I had to draw the line somewhere." He sat in Parliament for fifty-one years, a record that has yet to be surpassed. Died in 1952 as the last remaining serving MP from Federation as well as second-last surviving (King O'Malley outliving him by around a year).
  • Hughes was extremely racist, and a vehement supporter of the White Australia Policy. At the Paris Peace Conference he was the most vocal opponent of Japan's Racial Equality Proposal (acting as a cat's paw for David Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson, who also opposed the proposal but less openly); the proposal's resultant defeat made Japan quite annoyed.
  • Bizarrely, Hughes genuinely feared an ethnic German uprising in Australia in the midst of WWI, and even had the police draw him secret escape and counter-militia measures, for when the German hordes descended upon the government. Unsurprisingly, and as the police consistently told him, this was totally pointless. Most ethnic Germans had been in Australia for generations. On another note, Hughes also shot invective at Irish and Catholic Australians during his pro-conscription campaign, despite the fact that huge numbers of Irish Australians actively volunteered for service.
  • Hughes was also instrumental in insisting that the Treaty of Versailles should oblige Germany to pay war reparations, ganging up with French PM Georges Clemenceau to browbeat Lloyd George into backing the measure. Reparations, of course, played a huge part in the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism. If only Woodrow Wilson's style had been less Holier Than Thou professorial lecturing and more annoying politicking...
  • In 1917, while Hughes was campaigning in Queensland, an anti-conscription protester lobbed an egg at him, hitting the PM square in the face. Hughes demanded that the man be arrested on the spot, and was furious when the police on the scene refused. So furious, in fact, that he subsequently founded the Commonwealth Police Force, the predecessor to today's Australian Federal Police.
  • Hughes was one of few Prime Ministers who played himself in a movie, along with John Gorton and Gough Whitlam. Hughes appeared as his 28-year younger self in 1946's Smithy, where he is shown refusing to support Charles Kingsford Smith's attempt to enter the England to Australia Air Race.

Stanley Bruce.

• Stanley Melbourne Bruce (Nationalist Party), Prime Minister from February 1923 to October 1929. When the Country Party forced Billy Hughes to resign as PM as a price for entering coalition with the Nationalists, Bruce was picked as his replacement. A veteran of the First World War, he was a conservative, stuck-up, condescending bastard who constantly wore an expression of deep disdain for those around him. His major political achievements were his "Men, Money, Markets" policies (increased immigration, increased government spending, more international trade) which had the cumulative result of driving the country to the ground in the Great Depression, thanks to enormous debt and a uniform economy. Bruce ended up being brought down by the man he replaced: in 1929, Hughes and a few other Nationalists crossed the floor on a crucial industrial relations bill and were expelled from the Nationalists, forcing a federal election — an election which Bruce not only lost, but in which he became the first sitting Prime Minister to actually lose his own seat in Parliament (The only other sitting Prime Minister who lost his seat so far was John Howard in 2007). He was also infamously known for his irrational hatred of unions and the labour movement in general, and passed extremely harsh strike-breaking laws. Later went on to a distinguished, and highly successful diplomatic career, being an advocate for Australian interests in the United Kingdom, at the League of Nations and at the United Nations, entering the Churchill cabinet as Australia's representative during World War II, and defending international cooperation in economic and social affairs, especially those of the developing world, with a particular passion on improving global nutrition, being a key figure in the establishment of the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization, although unfortunately much of his diplomatic career went unnoticed at home. Died in 1967.

James Scullin.

• James Henry Scullin (Labor Party), Prime Minister from October 1929 to January 1932, and the first Catholic and Redhead PM. Was sworn in two days before the Wall Street Crash, which made his entire tenure as Prime Minister all about the Great Depression. Ended up acting as Treasurer as well after the first one, Ted Theodore, was forced to resign in scandal. Spent the entire second half of 1930 in England begging for a loan; he left James Fenton as acting PM and Joseph Lyons as acting Treasurer, who drastically changed government policy to cut spending while he was away. After returning he tried to reinstate Theodore as Treasurer — as a result, his party suffered two splits at once: a faction of rightists (who included Fenton and Lyons) thought Theodore was too radical, and defected to the opposition; another faction (known as "Lang Labor", led by Jack Lang) thought Theodore wasn't radical enough. An early election was forced and Scullin lost in one of the worst landslides in Australian political history. Stayed on as Labor leader until 1935, upon which he stepped down in favour of John Curtin. Became an elder statesman in the Labor Party, whose members often turned to him for advice. Died in 1953.

Joseph Lyons.

• Joseph Aloysius Lyons (United Australia Party), Prime Minister from January 1932 to April 1939. A former Tasmanian Labor Premier who served as a minister under Scullin, he left the party along with four other MPs in 1931 — they combined with the Nationalist Party plus three other independent MPs to form the United Australia Party (the Liberal Party's immediate predecessor). Generally considered one of the more obscure Prime Ministers despite serving throughout most of the 1930s and the Great Depression - largely due to being disowned by the Labor Party as a rat, and not being embraced by the Liberals due to Lyons' strained relationship with Menzies. However, in his time Lyons was arguably among the most popular Prime Ministers, with his popularity among the public rivalled only by Hawke in the future. He was the first and so far only Tasmanian to become Prime Minister.... and also the first Australian PM to die in office, succumbing to a heart attack on Good Friday 1939.

Sir Earle Page.

• Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page (Country Party), served as caretaker Prime Minister for nineteen days in April 1939, taking over after Lyons' death. Only served as PM until the United Australia Party, as the dominant party in the Coalition, could elect a new leader — who turned out to be Robert Menzies, whom Sir Earle hated. His most enduring legacy was actually the Coalition itself - first forming a conservative coalition with Stanley Bruce in 1923 and becoming Bruce and later Lyons' de facto deputy. This partnership between the senior conservative party of the day with the junior rural party has more or less been in place since. Well-known for being strongly against government spending... unless it was directed at rural areas, in which case he was all for it. The third-longest serving federal MP in Australia, after Philip Ruddock (who served from 1973 until 2016) and fellow former PM Billy Hughes. Also the only sitting Prime Minister to have already been knighted (several others were also knighted, but with the exception of Barton and Menzies only after their time in office). Died in 1961, days after losing his seat in that year's election - though he was dying of cancer and in a coma when the results were declared, so he never knew that he lost his seat.
• Robert Gordon Menzies (United Australia Party), Prime Minister on two non-consecutive occasions between 1939 and 1966, and Australia's longest-serving PM. Hugely anti-communist, and massive Britphile — once proclaimed that Australians were "British to [their] bootstraps", and had ambitions to become Prime Minister of the UK someday (obviously, never fulfilled). He ended up founding the Liberal Party, and is regarded as a founding father of modern Australian conservatism. He was the subject of intense anger from World War I veterans (and their organisation, the Returned Services' League) for using his connections to avoid service. Earle Page made a viscious attack on Menzies in the House for what veterans saw as his being a coward and a shirker. Historians and researchers will not find that speech in the Hansard as it was later doctored with mutual consent.
  • (April 1939 - August 1941) His first time as Prime Minister, however, wasn't so successful. He first took over soon after Lyons died, but proved to be not very good as a wartime Prime Minister and was unpopular fairly quickly. Held onto government after the 1940 election returned a hung parliament, but was forced to resign the following year. His successor as party leader was none other than Billy Hughes, who was 78 years old at the time and mainly got the job because there was no one else remotely suitable.
    • Menzies had the nickname "Pig Iron Bob" due to his promotions of iron exports to Japan in the thirties. The joke (and it says a lot about Australians that this is a joke) is that the Japanese gave it back soon after.

Arthur Fadden.

• Arthur William Fadden (Country Party), served as Prime Minister from August to October 1941 after Menzies' resignation, despite being from the Country Party and not the UAP (mainly because of Hughes's advanced age). Likewise, he was almost an accidental Country leader - chosen as a compromise caretaker due to the party unable to decide between Earle Page and John McEwen after Archie Cameron resigned as leader, he would end up serving as their leader for 18 years. As PM however, he only lasted 40 days before the independents who held the balance of power switched their support to Labor due to outrage over the treatment of Menzies - which may have been some small consolation to Menzies. Led the Coalition to a catastrophic defeat in the 1943 elections, where they lost all but one seat outside of the eastern states. He handed the Opposition leadership to Menzies after that, but stayed on as Country leader and became Treasurer after the Coalition returned to power, retiring in 1958 to be replaced by John McEwen. Died in 1973.

John Curtin.

• John Curtin (Labor Party), Prime Minister from October 1941 to July 1945, and also the first agnostic PM. The first Prime Minister from Western Australia, though Curtin was actually born and raised in Victoria. Alcoholism prevented him from becoming a minister under Scullin, and he lost his seat in the 1931 landslide. He soon won back his seat, and then won the leadership after he kicked his alcoholism and Scullin retired. Led Australia during World War II, and is credited with starting Australia's close alliance with the US. Considered one of our greatest Prime Ministers, for his war-time leadership, great oratory and general sympathy for the poor guy. Had ill health all through his tenure owing to the consequences of past alcoholism and chain smoking, and ended up being the second Australian Prime Minister to die in office - from heart disease on the eve of victory in the Pacific, in July 1945. Ended up getting a TV film made about him, and was chosen as the Australian Leader when Australia finally became a playable Civ in Civilization VI.

Frank Forde.

• Francis Michael Forde (Labor Party), caretaker Prime Minister for seven days in July 1945 after Curtin's death, until losing a ballot for the Labor Leadership to Ben Chifley - the shortest tenure in the history of the country. After a brief career as a backbencher in the Queensland state Parliament, Forde switched to federal politics in 1922. After briefly serving as a minister in the Scullin Government, Forde became Deputy Labor leader in 1932 — a position he would hold for the next fourteen years. When Scullin retired over ill health in 1935, Forde lost the leadership vote to John Curtin by just one vote, but stayed on as Deputy. Well respected for his loyalty to his party, and gave his full support as Deputy to Curtin and Chifley. Carried on as Minister for the Army and Minister for Defence after his week-long Prime Ministership; however, backlash over the way he handled demobilisation saw Forde losing his own seat in the 1946 election even as the Government was returned comfortably. Replaced as Deputy Labor leader by H.V. Evatt, Forde was given the consolation post of High Commissioner to Canada; a post he served with distinction. He briefly returned to state politics and most likely would have become state Labor leader had he not lost his seat in the aftermath of the Split. Forde was also remembered for being the longest-lived Prime Minister (having lived to age 92 years, 194 days) until his record was surpassed by Gough Whitlam in 2009. Died in 1983.

Ben Chifley.

• Joseph Benedict Chifley (Labor Party), Prime Minister from July 1945 to December 1949. Became Prime Minister one week after John Curtin died, and was re-elected with a handsome, though reduced majority the following year (defeating former Prime Minister Robert Menzies, the first leader of the Liberal Party). The last truly socialist Prime Minister of Australia, and one of the most influential. Is something of a hero of the Australian left, for introducing a large number of social programs — though was still a staunch supporter of White Australia, as was all Prime Ministers until Holt. The Snowy Mountain Scheme was initiated under Chifley's watch, as was the establishment of ASIO; the Commonwealth Employment Service; the nationalisation of Qantas; the establishment of an Australian citizenship distinct from Britain; and a post-war immigration scheme under the slogan "populate or perish". Though a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme was established, an attempt to bring in universal healthcare modelled on the British NHS was unsuccessful — universal healthcare in Australia would have to wait until the Whitlam era.
  
  Chifley ended up suffering a huge backlash in 1948 and 1949 for trying to nationalise the banks and for a crippling coal strike during the winter of 1949. Though the strike was crushed when Chifley brought in the troops to reopen the mines, Menzies managed to exploit the issue to portray Labor as soft on the Communists. The decision to reintroduce petrol rationing just before the 1949 election helped out a struggling Britain, but sealed Chifley's political fate. He lost the subsequent rematch election to Menzies in a landslide. Stayed on as Opposition leader, though divisions over the Communist issue within Labor that would ultimately lead to a major Split were starting to be sewn. Died in 1951 shortly after losing another election that year.
  • Chifley is best remembered for his "light on the hill" speech, which is seen as encapsulating the Australian Labor movement's ideals and aspirations. The appropriate section is quoted below:
    Chifley: I try to think of the Labor movement, not as putting an extra sixpence into somebody's pocket, or making somebody Prime Minister or Premier, but as a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people. We have a great objective — the light on the hill — which we aim to reach by working the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labor movement would not be worth fighting for. If the movement can make someone more comfortable, give to some father or mother a greater feeling of security for their children, a feeling that if a depression comes there will be work, that the government is striving its hardest to do its best, then the Labor movement will be completely justified.
  • Before Chifley, Labor had generally been against immigration. By contrast, his government saw the beginning of a large wave of European immigration. This was the first mass-migration program to include non-British immigrants. This did not mark the end the White Australia Policy; both Labor and the Coalition favoured this policy until the 1960s. Still, it was a first step.
  • Chifley's time in office, as well as the early years of the Menzies era leading up to the 1955 Labor Split, would end up being portrayed in True Believers, a 1988 TV miniseries.

Sir Robert Menzies.

• Sir Robert Gordon Menzies again (Liberal Party), for a long time this time — serving from December 1949 until January 1966. Founded the Liberal Party while out of power, merging the United Australia Party with several minor parties, and became its first leader. Lost the 1946 election against Chifley, and was widely regarded as unelectable until the whole debacle over bank nationalisation in 1948. The nationalisation issue, a crippling coal strike in 1949, and the re-introduction of a petrol tax helped ensure Menzies make his comeback, and he returned to the Prime Ministership after winning the election at the end of 1949. Though his second prime ministerial tenure went on to become by far longest in Australian history, it is not considered to have been particularly eventful, with many shorter prime ministerships providing more excitement. Menzies did however expand Australia's university system; instate the Colombo Plan; develop Canberra as a capital; give state aid to independent and Catholic schools; and in 1963 became the second sitting Prime Minister to get a knighthood — after Barton. He did also fail to have the Communist Party banned, presided over the Korean War and the Malayan Emergency, and took Australia into Vietnam — a decision that would haunt his Liberal successors.
  
  Menzies more or less cruised through his time as PM without serious opposition due to the ALP-DLP split over the Communist issue in 1955 — though he did lose the popular vote several times, and relied on DLP preferences to remain in power. He lasted forever and ever and ever, governing for 17 years straight and finally not so much resigning as ascending to Camelot. His time after office were not filled with happiness; within a few years he suffered a stroke and his health went into decline, and he became so disillusioned with his Liberal successors and their "small l liberalism" that he ended up voting for the DLP several times. He returned to voting Liberal after Malcolm Fraser became leader, but even Fraser ended up disappointing Menzies. Died in 1978.
  • Having a conservative founding and leading a 'Liberal' party might sound odd to American readers. Menzies said about the party he founded: "We took the name 'Liberal' because we were determined to be a progressive party, willing to make experiments, in no sense reactionary but believing in the individual, his rights, and his enterprise, and rejecting the socialist panacea."
  • On the other hand, he was a dedicated social conservative. He successfully exploited anti-communist sentiment on more than one occasion, even unsuccessfully trying to ban the Communist Party. Menzies was probably the last PM to consider himself to be British, saying in an Australia Day speech in 1950 that "You and I are Australians. We are also British. We do not and cannot think of the people of the other British nations as a foreign people". Menzies was a staunch supporter for the White Australia Policy. When in 1964 one of his ministers, Hubert Opperman, argued the policy was based on discrimination Menzies argued discrimination against non-Whites was 'the right sort of discrimination'. Menzies was essentially the last defender of for this rigid race-based ideology. During his government, restrictions that prevented Aboriginals from voting ended on both a federal and state level.
    • He also made one of the classic heckler putdowns:
      Heckler: I wouldn't vote for you if you were the Archangel Gabriel!
      Menzies: Madam, if I were the Archangel Gabriel, I'm afraid you wouldn't be in my constituency.
    • Menzies was well-known for his wit, so much that a collection titled The Wit of Robert Menzies was the best-selling non-fiction book in Australia for a period.
  • Menzies, like his successor Malcolm Fraser was a life-long Carlton supporter, and was its number one ticket holder during his time in office. He was such a fan that after he suffered a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair, the Carlton Football Club had a special ramp built at their home stadium so that Menzies could drive up in his Bentley and watch the game from his car.

Harold Holt.

• Harold Edward Holt (Liberal Party) — Prime Minister from January 1966 to December 1967, taking over after Menzies' retirement and winning re-election later that year. Didn't make much of a mark during his relatively short tenure: he was mainly known for winning the largest victory at an election during the Coalition rule in 1966, being a strong supporter of the Vietnam War (which was popular at the time), expanding Australia's troop commitment and coming up with the quote "All the way with LBJ." Vietnam aside, Holt and his successors were less conservative than Menzies, and began to further ease restrictions on Asians and other non-White people by effectively dismantling the White Australia Policy; supported a successful referendum recognising Aboriginals in the census; and dropped the inter-changeability of 'British' and 'Australian'. What Holt is most famous for nowadays is how he died — or rather, how he disappeared without a trace. One day in December 1967, after a few drinks and a tough day at the office, Harold Holt plunged into the surf at Portsea to impress a woman generally considered his mistress, and was never seen again.
  • And in true Australian spirit, in Melbourne a council swimming pool was named after him.
  • Harold Holt's death was the subject of many conspiracy theories that continue to this day. Theories range from him having deliberately committed suicide, to having faked his own death, to having been kidnapped in the water by a Chinese submarine.
    • And some Aussies love mocking the conspiracy theories.
    • Yes, haven't you heard? They're now looking for a dingo with a snorkel.

John McEwen.

• John McEwen (Country Party), caretaker Prime Minister after Holt's disappearance from December 1967 to January 1968... well, actually it was only 23 days, but it lasted over the New Year. McEwen was leader of the Country Party, and is still revered by Nationals supporters for his leadership to this day. It was expected that the Liberals' deputy leader Billy McMahon would take over as PM in short order — but McEwen, who hated McMahon, officially said "No way in hell" and refused to let McMahon's candidacy even be considered, throwing the Coalition into crisis. The job inevitably went to the newly-elected Liberal leader John Gorton, who then made McEwen the first official Deputy Prime Minister. Due to his stature and the respect he commanded, it is widely speculated that had McEwen switched parties from his beloved Country Party to the Liberals, he would have easily stayed Prime Minister. Tragically, he is the only Prime Minister to have committed suicide, starving himself to death in 1980 after a lifetime of battling severe dermatitis. Also the last surviving PM to have served in World War I^note though never saw combat, as the war ended before he could be shipped off.

John Gorton.

• John Grey Gorton (Liberal Party), Prime Minister from January 1968 to March 1971, and the first openly non-religious PM. After Harold Holt disappeared, Gorton was plucked from the Senate to be his permanent replacement, being selected after a lot of factional in-fighting within the Coalition over who'd take over. Described by John Howard as a "Tory Larrikin" and "Australian to the boot-heels", Gorton was a proud nationalist who fought as a fighter pilot in World War II and was severely wounded several times (his face literally bearing the scars of war). He was also one of the Liberal Party's most progressive Prime Ministers, to the point that he alienated hardline conservatives and traditionalists, who railed against "Gortonism". The Gorton Government saved the Great Barrier Reef from oil drilling, supported equal pay and increased funding for Aboriginal affairs, provided free health care for 250,000 poor families, expanded the social services system, increased Commonwealth education spending, revitalised the Australian film industry, and gave vital government support to the arts.
  
  Gorton ended up losing much of his initial popularity (largely due to the rise of Gough Whitlam and Coalition disunity), and was narrowly re-elected in 1969 (and only then due to DLP preferences). He resigned from the leadership in March 1971 after Malcolm Fraser - who until then had been one of Gorton's top supporters - resigned as Defence Minister and openly denounced him on the floor of Parliament; Billy McMahon replaced Gorton as Prime Minister. Gorton continued his progressive streak after office, co-sponsoring a successful motion to decriminalise homosexuality, supported legalising abortions and no-fault divorce, and as the 70s progressed he campaigned for decriminalising drugs and prostitution. In 1975 Gorton left the Liberal Party in disgust when Fraser replaced Billy Snedden as Liberal leader, and unsuccessfully ran as an independent ACT Senate candidate. He denounced "The Dismissal" and ultimately endorsed and voted for Labor in the subsequent election. Upon retirement from frontline politics, Gorton lent his support to Don Chipp's Democrats until he rejoined the Liberal Party in the 1990's. Died in 2002.
  • Gorton was Prime Minister during the Lunar landings of 1969. He also presided over the greatest loosening of censorship laws Australia has ever seen (spear-headed by Minister for Communications and his good mate, Don Chipp). And as a youth, one of his schoolmates was Errol Flynn.
  • Gorton was also the first and so far only member of the Upper House to become Prime Minister. By convention, the PM is supposed to be a member of the Lower House, so Gorton resigned his seat and ran in a by-election for Holt’s vacated Lower House seat, which he won. What this means is that, for a few weeks in February of 1968, Australia was in the peculiar position of having a Prime Minister who was not technically a member of parliament.
  • Gorton was a heavy drinker, a heavy smoker and a heavy womaniser. Not uncommon among Australian PMs by any means (his predecessor, Harold Holt, drowned while showing off in front of his mistress); unfortunately, Gorton was rather determinedly indiscreet about it. He was so well-known for taking the odd day off Parliament that his go-to excuse of having a touch of the flu became a punch-line: around Canberra, the phrase "Gorton flu" became a popular euphemism for a hangover.
  • Gorton was also infamous for appointing Ainsley Gotto, a young woman as his private secretary. He relied on her for advice and she was reviled for having too much power. When Dudley Erwin was sacked as Minister for Air, Erwin's famous excuse was that "It wiggles, it’s shapely, it’s cold-blooded and its name is Ainsley Gotto".
    • Forty-odd years later, history would repeat itself — with Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin.
  • Gorton also holds the distinction of being the only Prime Minister to vote himself out of office. Well, kind of. After Defence Minister Malcolm Fraser resigned over Gorton interfering with his portfolio and denouncing him as "unfit to hold the great office of Prime Minister", Gorton called for a motion of confidence in his leadership. Faced with an evenly-split confidence vote in the party room and realising that he could not credibly hold onto the leadership, Gorton announced that he was using his tie-breaking vote as chairman to kick himself out. Technically, the chairman didn't get a casting vote in these proceedings, but in the heat of the moment nobody was about to argue with him.
    • After Billy McMahon was elected to replace him, Gorton successfully stood for McMahon's freshly vacated position of Deputy Liberal leader, and also became Defence Minister. It didn't last, and Gorton was sacked for disloyalty within six months by McMahon, who in any case was looking for any excuse to get rid of him.
    • In stark contrast to Malcolm Fraser's later reconciliation and friendship with his one-time foe Gough Whitlam, Gorton never forgave Fraser for his role in Gorton's downfall. He resigned from the Liberal Party when Fraser became leader, and voted for Labor after "The Dismissal". When Fraser lost the 1983 election, Gorton went out of his way to congratulate Bob Hawke for "rolling that bastard Fraser". Even up to his death at the age of 90, he reportedly could not bear to be in the same room as him.
  • Gorton was one of few Prime Ministers who played himself in a movie, along with Billy Hughes and Gough Whitlam. In recognition of Gorton's role in revitalising the Australian film industry, Gorton was cast to play himself in a cameo appearance at the start of 1976's Don's Party. Gorton is also known for appearing on the popular music television series Countdown — and wasn't the only Prime Minister to appear on the program, with both Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke appearing as well. There was also a song written about Gorton — "The Ballad Of John Grey Gorton" by John Vincent.

Billy McMahon.

• William McMahon (Liberal Party), Prime Minister from March 1971 to December 1972. From a well-to-do New South Wales family, McMahon climbed steadily through the ministerial ranks after being elected to Parliament in 1949. Following the disappearance of Harold Holt in 1967, McMahon looked like a strong contender to become Prime Minister. However, a long-running feud with the Country Party leader and (de facto) Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen put paid to this; McEwen stated that he and his party would refuse to serve under McMahon. John Gorton, the victor in the ensuring leadership contest, became increasingly divisive within the Liberals towards the end of his tenure, and McMahon finally seized his chance to become PM after McEwen retired and Malcolm Fraser fatally wounded Gorton politically. Never actually won an election: he became PM through a leadership challenge and lost the election the following year after 23 years of Coalition rule. Generally considered to be among the worst Prime Ministers, and disliked by his colleagues and opponents alike for his tendencies to leak to journalists; to not be always be entirely truthful; and for his relentless ambition. Gough Whitlam described McMahon as being 'Tiberius with a Telephone', and this became the title of a McMahon biography. Also known for having the nickname "Billy Big Ears". Stayed on in Parliament until 1982, largely to spite Fraser, who he had fallen out with and who flatly refused to put McMahon in the ministry. Died in 1988.
  • His wife, Sonia, is also remembered for wearing a scandalous (at the time) side-split dress to meet Richard Nixon at the White House.
  • His son is the actor Julian McMahon, who is best known for playing one of the lead roles in the American series Nip/Tuck.

Gough Whitlam.

• Edward Gough Whitlam (Labor Party), Prime Minister from December 1972 to November 1975, longest-lived former PM and last surviving PM to have served in World War II. After replacing Arthur Calwell as Labor leader in 1967, Whitlam reformed and rebuilt his party from within, and led the party to government within six years. Made an astonishing number of reforms during his brief tenure, and completely changed Australia as a result. Huge increases in education funding, universal health care, decriminalisation of homosexual acts, withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, opening relations with mainland China, abolished conscription, the final and public abandonment of the White Australia Policy, introducing the Racial Discrimination Act, granting Aboriginal land rights, ambitious new cultural policies, urban renewal projects for Australia's impoverished communities, free tertiary education, etc. Faced several scandals in government and severe inflation, owing partly to the fact that his ministers (none of whom had ever held government before) wanted to accomplish all their projects as quickly as possible and damn the consequences - in Whitlam's own words, "Crash or crash through". Though to be fair, the 1973 oil shock effectively ended the post-war economic boom, and sent much of the western world into recession - Australia under Whitlam actually avoided recession and performed better than their international counterparts.
  
  In 1975, thanks to state Premiers replacing Labor senators who either retired from politics or died with conservative senators, the Opposition now led by Malcolm Fraser ended up refusing to pass the government supply bills (i.e. the budget) unless an early election was held. The ensuing stand-off ultimately ended on Remembrance Day when Governor-General John Kerr deceived Whitlam, dismissed his Government and appointed Fraser as caretaker PM. Though Whitlam advised supporters to "maintain the rage", Fraser won the election by a landslide a month later. Whitlam never recovered politically, and ultimately retired after losing a rematch election in 1977 by almost the same margin, handing the Labor leadership over to Bill Hayden. The left idolises Whitlam for his reforms (and despises John Kerr), while the right hate him with a passion. Not only did he live to the longest age (98 years) but he was the last Australian Prime Minister whose lifespan overlapped with that of every other PM to date^note Which is every PM born before George Reid's death in 1918, and died after Scott Morrison's birth in 1968 - Fadden, Menzies, McEwen, Forde, McMahon, Gorton and Whitlam. Died in 2014.
  • Like Menzies, he's also remembered for his "zingers". In reply to persistent questioning about his views on abortion: "In your case, it should be retrospective".
    • When an opposing politician stated "I am a Country member!" ^note that is: a member of the Country Party, Whitlam slyly responded "I remember."
    • Gough is often held to be an Awesome Egotist too. Legend says that Cabinet once refused to follow his example by flying in economy class. Gough purportedly replied "I am a great man and I could fly in economy class and I would still be a great man. You all are pissants and you could all fly in first class and you would still be pissants."
  • While still Opposition Leader in 1976, Whitlam embarked on an official trip to China. While staying in Tianjin, the 7.6 magnitude Tangshan earthquake took place, which led to the deaths of more than a quarter million people; it damaged the hotel the Whitlam entourage were staying at, and Whitlam's wife Margaret was injured. Shortly afterwards, a newspaper cartoonist for The Age drew a cartoon of the Whitlams in bed, with Margaret asking Gough "Did the earth move for you too, dear...". Gough loved it, and had the original framed and hung over the Whitlam marital bed.
  • Whitlam was one of few Prime Ministers who played himself in a movie, along with Billy Hughes and John Gorton - and the only one to do so as a sitting PM. Whitlam played himself in 1974's Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, where he bestowed a damehood to who would famously become Dame Edna - ironic, given Whitlam was against knighthoods and damehoods, and never awarded any during his time in office. Whitlam's Dismissal would also be turned into a 1983 TV miniseries by Mad Max and Happy Feet director George Miller.
    • Whitlam also made a cameo appearance as an extra in the 1937 film The Broken Melody. At the time, Whitlam was a law student at the University of Sydney, and he was asked to appear as an extra because he owned a formal dinner suit. He appears in the background of a cabaret scene, wearing his dinner suit.

Malcolm Fraser.

• John Malcolm Fraser (Liberal Party), Prime Minister from November 1975 to March 1983, and also the only PM of Jewish descent^note Fraser's maternal grandfather was Jewish. Fraser himself had a Presbyterian upbringing, and in later life was agnostic. Instrumental in bringing down two Prime Ministers — Gorton and Whitlam, and won the Liberal leadership by knifing Billy Snedden. Won the 1975 election against Whitlam after getting media support from Rupert Murdoch's papers, economic problems, the numerous scandals by Whitlam government ministers, and giving the reassurance that, unlike Gough, you could trust him not to change too much too quickly. His time as PM isn't approved of by the left or right - though Fraser took in refugees, was opposed to apartheid, created SBS and supported multiculturalism, the left never forgave him for his role in "The Dismissal". The Right meanwhile regard his government as a wasted opportunity because he didn't roll back enough of Whitlam's program and he wasn't enough like Margaret Thatcher.
  
  Fraser's final term in office saw his Government's economic record tarnished by its failure to modernise, and poorly handled the early 80s recession. The final term also saw Andrew Peacock resign as Industrial Relations Minister and then challenge Fraser for the leadership; though unsuccessful, the challenge damaged Fraser's political standing. As the economic situation deteriorated and a terrible drought took hold, Fraser decided to call an early election - only to have to face the freshly-minted Labor superstar Bob Hawke. The result was a landslide defeat that famously reduced Fraser's trademark "Easter Island Statue" facial expression to tears. Fraser immediately handed the Liberal leadership over to one-time rival Peacock and retired from politics. Over time, Fraser gradually became estranged from the Liberal Party, eventually leaving them altogether in 2009 when Tony Abbott became the Liberal Leader (saying that the Liberal Party was "no longer a liberal party but a conservative party"), and patched things up with Gough (the two campaigned together in support of a republic for the 1999 referendum). Died in 2015.
  • He got respect from liberals (not Liberal party Liberals that is, the other kind, which isn't mutually exclusive) who respect his opposition to apartheid and for his humanitarianism, particularly his embrace of (following Vietnam) what is likely the largest single intake of Asian refugees the country has ever seen. Similar refugees in the modern day are locked up, often for years, while security goes through paperwork, while some governments have gone to great lengths to stop asylum seeker boats (purportedly to prevent the risk of deaths at sea, at least within Australian waters), policies that Fraser repeatedly criticised in his later years.
  • Ended his period as Prime Minister by rather spectacularly mis-judging the 1983 election date. He called it earlier than he needed to in order to catch the Labor Party off-guard, as he was hearing rumours that they were about to undergo a change in their leadership. Just before he visited the Governor-General, Labor replaced its leader, Bill Hayden, with the more popular Bob Hawke. Had he managed to visit the Governor-General just a couple of hours earlier, then Hayden would have likely remained Labor leader for the election period, and the outcome may have been less catastrophic.
  • Like Menzies, Fraser was a die-hard Carlton supporter, and was its number one ticket holder during his time in office. When Carlton won two back to back Grand Finals in the early 1980s, Fraser invited the team to The Lodge on both occasions — and specifically said that football invitations to The Lodge were reserved for Carlton for every Grand Final they won. Fraser also recorded a tribute segment for Carlton legend Alex Jesaulenko, for the TV show This Is Your Life.

Bob Hawke.

• Robert James Lee Hawke (Labor Party), Prime Minister from March 1983 to December 1991. Gained public fame and popularity during his decade as head of the ACTU, and within three years of entering Parliament he replaced Bill Hayden as Labor leader and then defeated Malcolm Fraser with a landslide majority in the elections held less than a month later. Famous for his blokeiness: he held the world record for drinking an entire yard glass of beer (eleven seconds, during his days at Oxford), and after Australia's win in the 1983 America's Cup he proclaimed "Any boss who sacks a bloke because he doesn't turn up for work today is a bum!" After decades of almost unbroken defeats, Hawke developed an innovative new strategy for the Labor Party: be the Liberal Party instead. Hawke (or more precisely, treasurer Paul Keating) actually presided over the most extensive and thorough regime of deregulation and privatisation the Australian economy has ever seen, before or since. Even centrist and leftist academic economists accept the benefits brought by his reforms, and these were combined with the establishment of Medicare (Fraser having previously watered down Whitlam's universal healthcare program), increased funding for schools, public housing, welfare funds, and the introduction of occupational superannuation. As of now Hawke remains the longest-served Labor Prime Minister, though his tenure ultimately ended when he was defeated in a leadership challenge by Keating in 1991. Died in 2019.
  • Though never actually appearing in a feature film, Hawke did appear as himself while he was a sitting PM in an episode of A Country Practice. Hawke also made multiple appearances in Countdown, and would even get a song and a TV film made about him.
  • Hawke was prominently featured in Episode 6 of Season 4 of The Crown (entitled "Terra Nullius"), in which he was played by Richard Roxburgh. The episode centres on the March-April 1983 royal tour of Australia carried out by the Prince of Wales and his wife and son; Hawke's republicanism, and possible plans to leverage the royal tour into a denunciation of the excesses of the monarchy (plans that never came to anything) are a key part of the plot.

Paul Keating.

• Paul John Keating (Labor Party), Prime Minister from December 1991 to March 1996. Is remembered for being PM during the "recession we had to have", in his words, for making the Redfern speech, and for introducing compulsory superannuation. Despite low popularity he won the "unwinnable" 1993 election often attributed to his small-l liberal Liberal (told you it was confusing) opponent Dr John Hewson being unable to explain the GST in Layman's Terms on national television, but lost the 1996 election due to John Howard taking out the lower-middle-class support base — "Howard's battlers". His time as PM polarises people to this day, though most agree that he was one of Australia's greatest treasurers when he served under Hawke. Has the honour of being the only Australian Prime Minister to have a musical dedicated to him: Keating! The Musical. Like Menzies and Whitlam, Keating is also notorious for his zingers — a good sampling appears on the page for the aforementioned musical.
  • Keating gave arguably the best-ever response to the cliched "Why won't you call an election?" question. In responding to John Hewson, he simply stated "Because, mate, I want to do you slowly".

John Howard.

• John Winston Howard (Liberal Party), Prime Minister from March 1996 to December 2007. Famed for his huge eyebrows and ridiculous voice, loved by political cartoonists everywhere. After presiding over a deteriorating economy as Treasurer under Fraser, Howard spent the 1980s in leadership musical chairs with Andrew Peacock. By the early 1990s, Howard was considered a spent force, though after the dual failures of John Hewson and Alexander Downer in taking on Paul Keating, the Liberals took a gamble and put Howard back in the leadership. The gamble paid off, and a year after Howard replaced Downer, he managed to turn the spotlight on Keating's unpopularity and longevity, and won the 1996 election in a landslide. A friend of George W. Bush, Howard instituted the Pacific Solution to deal with asylum seekers which was rather controversial (later dismantled by Rudd, and re-introduced by Gillard). Won a narrow victory (losing the popular vote) in 1998, exploited voters' fears after 9/11 to win the 2001 election, and cruised to a victory in 2004 over the loud-mouthed and slightly unhinged Mark Latham. Actually had two ministers named Abbott and Costello (Health minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Peter Costello, who often give off the vibe of absolutely hating one another).
  
  Howard was a divisive Prime Minister. Controversies include: switching back to supporting the GST before the 1998 election, the resignation of one of the Governor-Generals he appointed, support for Bush's foreign policy and denying climate change. The last straw was the introduction of his WorkChoices program in 2006, which gave huge amounts of power to employers in bargaining & contracting while massively undercutting workers' ability to collectively bargain — he lost the election the following year, and became the second ever sitting PM of Australia to lose his seat (the first being Stanley Bruce in 1929). Depicted in a negative light in Keating! The Musical, and generally despised by the Australian left. A whole lot of (anti) political music has been written about him (see Like A Dog by Powderfinger and The King is Dead by The Herd for some examples). Of particular note for enacting Australia's now-infamous gun control laws through the National Firearms Agreement of 1997 following the Port Arthur Massacre of 1996, an act that is generally viewed in a mixed-but-mostly positive light throughout the nation. Currently the oldest-living former Prime Minister, as Howard is five years older than his predecessor Keating.

Kevin Rudd.

• Kevin Michael Rudd (Labor Party), a.k.a. "Kevin07", "Kevin24/7", "Kevvie" or "K-Rudd"^note the first was his own campaign slogan; the rest are nicknames, Prime Minister from December 2007 to June 2010. Looks a lot like an overgrown schoolboy, speaks Mandarin. Presented himself as a moderate fiscal conservative. His Prime Ministership involved successfully guiding Australia through the recession, making the first official apology to Indigenous Australians, and abolishing overseas detention centres for asylum seekers ^note and instead processing refugees on Australian soil. Failed attempts at reform include a 40% profit tax on mining companies and a draconian attempt to set up a mandatory internet filter. He's in about as many rap songs as John Howard, usually in reference to replacing him.
  
  Despite being highly popular throughout most of his first prime ministership, Rudd's policy decisions, to use his own words, caused a political shit-storm alienating several figures in his party and he was eventually ousted in a leadership challenge on 23-24 June, 2010 (when his own party pulled a Praetorian Guard on him), being replaced by then-Deputy PM Julia Gillard.

Julia Gillard.

• Julia Eileen Gillard (Labor Party), Prime Minister from June 2010 to June 2013. Australia's first female Prime Minister — although interestingly, she is not the first atheist ^note there's been at least one other (John Gorton) plus three agnostics (John Curtin, Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke) or the first redhead.^note James Scullin She replaced Kevin Rudd after a leadership challenge and narrowly stayed in power after the 2010 election produced a hung parliament, thanks support of one Greens MP and three independents. She generally been portrayed by satirists, comedians, and the press in general as a backstabber for ousting Rudd (cartoonists also tend to drastically exaggerate her nose). Her government was overshadowed by infighting between the Rudd and Gillard supporters that led to a decline in the polls. Rudd quit the cabinet after failing to defeat her in a leadership challenge in February 2012, before he finally succeeded in June 2013.
  
  Gillard's policies included some social conservatism (such as reducing immigration, attempts to follow Howard's offshore processing of asylum seekers and declining to support gay marriage until after she left office) but with less economic statism than Rudd tended to advocate. In 2012, she made the celebrated Misogyny speech that drew international attention. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had criticised her for defending the scandal-tainted and "misogynist" Speaker Pete Slipper, and had accused the government of sexism—which, given his own personal history in that respect, was a drastic tactical error. In her famous response, Gillard pointed out that Abbott had been a firm supporter of Slipper until it was politically expedient for him not to be one, and reeled off a blistering list of some of Abbott's own displays of misogynistic behaviour.
• Kevin Michael Rudd again (Labor Party), for three months from June to September 2013, before his party was defeated. Brought back mainly to help "save the furniture" in the face of inevitable electoral defeat (Labor was expecting a much worse electoral wipeout had Gillard stayed on), Rudd's most noteworthy action during this brief period was to become the first sitting PM to support same-sex marriage. Rudd quit Parliament not long after the election, and has since gone on to write a two-part autobiography; be snubbed for the nomination of UN Secretary-General by the Turnbull Government; and is currently running a campaign against the Murdoch press, calling for a Royal Commission into the Murdoch media's role in Australian democracy.

Tony Abbott.

• Anthony John Abbott (Liberal Party), served from September 2013 to September 2015. He was initially considered an unelectable budgie-smugglers-wearing Catholic firebrand when he became opposition leader in 2009. Yet Abbott won the 2013 election resoundingly, in part because voters were fed up with the fratricidal Labor government, and many voters thought that his would be able to avoid this.
  
  After an unpopular budget in 2014 (to writ, one of the items included young people who lose their job to get no benefits for six months, then apply for forty a month to be entitled to them,) that cut spending Abbott's popularity — never strong — dropped and never recovered. Conservative even in relation to his own party, Abbott was mocked for being nostalgic for decisions such as reintroducing knighthoods and refusing to let his party members vote on gay marriage. Other controversies included trying to downplay the issue of climate change and (despite trying to fend off accusations of misogyny) appointing just one woman to the cabinet. He fulfilled his promise to abolish the carbon tax, in favour of a Suspiciously Similar Substitute. He also developed a reputation for being gaffe-prone and for engaging in rather odd and eccentric behaviour, such as when he famously ate a raw onion with skin on. In foreign policy, his government received praise for its handling of the downing of Flight MH17, which killed 38 Australians, and they entered Australia into combat operations in Iraq in response to the rise of ISIS.
  
  Discontent grew against Abbott within his party, with his subordinates disliking his centralised leadership and the powerful role he gave to his chief of staff Peta Credlin.^note (Abbott proceeded to defend her by accusing her critics of misogyny) History quickly repeated itself. Abbott was defeated in a leadership challenge by his predecessor as opposition leader (seen below). As he said over Australian deaths in Iraq, "shit happens." And the greatest irony of all? He destroyed two prime ministers, but failed to outlast either of them. His continued refusal to accept the science of climate change would eventually lead to his own constituents in his blue-ribbon Liberal seat turning against him, and voting him out in favour of the Independent former Olympian Zali Steggall in 2019.

Malcolm Turnbull.

• Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (Liberal Party) from September 2015 to August 2018. When things were getting really bad for the government, Turnbull finally stepped in and ousted Abbott in a quick and relatively bloodless contest that was over by midnight the day he announced it (and in doing so reclaimed the Liberal leadership after Abbott snatched it off Turnbull in 2009), with Julie Bishop supporting him as deputy leader of the Liberals. Turnbull's coup was largely welcomed by the Australian public, although it was a nightmare for the hard right, to say the least. For the left, it was initially seen as a mixed blessing: Turnbull would be more moderate than Abbott, but probably harder to beat. However, it soon became apparent that Turnbull wasn't willing to change any Coalition policies, including those that he had publicly disagreed with Abbott on in the past (such as marriage equality and climate change).
  
  As a result, by the time Turnbull called the 2016 election, his honeymoon was over and he and the Coalition were facing a knife-edged battle to stay in power. They ultimately won, but with only 76 seats out of 150 including the non-voting Speaker — literally the smallest majority government possible. Plus, despite changes in Senate rules to avoid "preference gaming" which resulted a rather hostile Senate in 2013, the election returned an equally hostile Senate with an even larger cross-bench than before — complete with two power blocs in the form of One Nation and the Nick Xenophon Team, both of whom hate each other and are likely much less inclined to capitulate to the government than Clive Palmer ever was, and the government needs both their support to pass anything not supported by Labor or the Greens. Barely a month after the election, Turnbull had already had to deal with plenty of party infighting and an emboldened right-wing who are still very bitter over the Abbott coup (hell, the election result hadn't even been called before right-wing figures started calling for Turnbull's head, forgetting that had Abbott taken his government to an election it would have been a bloodbath).
  
  Another matter of note in Turnbull's administration is the same-sex marriage debate, which had been building throughout the 2000s and 2010s, eventually coming to a head. Although widely seen as in favour, Turnbull as noted was rather beholden to the significant hard-right faction of his party which was intractably opposed, thus preventing a debate in parliament on the issue — but a smaller but equally significant bloc of his party was threatening to "cross the floor" (namely, start voting against the government) in order to force a conscience vote on it. Eventually a compromise solution was reached — a voluntary postal survey conducted between September and November 2017, the result of which would determine whether the issue would be debated in parliament. This was widely seen as a cynical attempt at kicking the can down the road by trying to ensure that as few people would respond as possible, in the hopes that either few enough voters would respond to enable the government to ignore the survey or that the hardcore "No" voters would turn out in droves to ensure a No victory. If this was the real plan, however, then it backfired rather hilariously when 61% of the public ended up voting "Yes". Though the vote was not legally binding to the government, enough of the eligible population (about 80%) had responded to make it clear that it nevertheless would be political suicide for the government to either continue ignore the issue or whip votes against it, and so after a conscience vote in parliament an act legalising same-sex marriage in Australia was passed in December 2017.
  
  Then the parliamentary eligibility crisis of of 2017 came out of nowhere and bit the government in the ass harder than anyone thought.^note The whole mess started when two Greens senators (Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters) immediately resigned due to running afoul of Section 44 of the Constitution (which forbids Members of Parliament from holding dual-citizenship). Shortly after the Greens were mocked for not getting their paperwork in order, five other parliamentarians were discovered to also be potentially in breach (three Nationals (National Party Leader and then-Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan and Fiona Nash), one ONP senator (Malcolm Roberts, who hilariously tried the "I don't believe I'm a British citizen so I'm not" argument, which didn't fly in court) and Nick Xenophon himself), none of whom stood down until the High Court ruled that all but Canavan and Xenophon were disqualified, leaving the Greens with the moral high ground in this case. And immediately after the "Citizenship Seven" were dealt with, more cases started cropping up, including Senate President Stephen Parry and Liberal MP John Alexander. At present, the only Labor casualty is David Feeney, who resigned after being unable to find the relevant documentation, and did not contest the resulting by-election in Batman, Victoria (which Labor nevertheless won). This put the Government in danger of losing the aforementioned one-seat majority, until both Barnaby Joyce and John Alexander were re-elected in late 2017. Nevertheless, the government still has limited crossbench support in the Lower House, and as of April 2018, have passed the threshold of Newspolls of the government trailing behind Labor Turnbull used to justify removing Abbott.
  
  This eventually led to a leadership spill in August 2018, spearheaded by Minister of Home Affairs Peter Dutton in an attempt to claim the position for himself. While Malcolm Turnbull was successfully ousted, Dutton's overall lack of charisma (plus some other errors — his supporters were accused of bullying people into signing the Turnbull spill documentation, which cannot have made him any friends) saw him lose out to...

Scott Morrison.

• Scott John Morrison (Liberal Party), from August 2018 to May 2022. ScoMo, as he is so referred (also known as "Scummo" to those who particularly hate him, or "Scotty from Marketing" due to his marketing background and his primary talent being selling people on a line of bullshit), is the former Treasurer of the Turnbull government before succeeding him as Prime Minister. While preferred to Dutton, he's still considered an absolute pillock by critics as a result of an incident during his time as Treasurer where he brought a lump of coal ^note which had been varnished so it wouldn't get dust all over him into parliament and passed it around as "proof" that fossil fuels can't hurt anyone, along with his obsession of setting up photo ops presenting himself as what market researchers assume is the Australian everyman. Oh, and Morrison has the spectacular dishonour of being the Prime Minister that has lost a vote on significant legislation in parliament for the first time since 1941, when, in Febuary 2019, Labor, the Greens and the crossbenchers united to pass legislation involving the medical evacuation of asylum seekers in offshore detention. In the 2019 federal election, despite the Liberal Party's public blunders and several years of published polls predicting a Labor victory, Morrison defied the odds and managed to secure a slight increase on its slender 2016 majority ^note Comparisons have been made between the 1993 and 2019 elections; both saw the incumbent government (with a relatively new prime minister) heading into the election with both the pollsters and pundits breaking a victory for the opposition. In both cases, the opposition presented to the nation a radical reform agenda that was met with fierce attack, enough to scare the public into re-electing the unpopular government. Most Australians blame the traditionally conservative Queensland, which swung hard to the Coalition's side. While Bill Shorten was absolutely lambasted for being unable to win an election against an opponent as inept as Morrison, as noted on the main page he had defied the Murdoch media machine, and crossing the shadow ruler of Australia turned out to be a death sentence for him., gaining a majority government who no longer needed the help of the cross-bench to legislate the way Turnbull did. Morrison managed to one-up the last 4 Prime Ministers by managing to get through an entire term without a mutiny ^note Albeit after tweaking the rules so that it would be harder to topple a sitting PM, however by the end of his time in office he (as well as deputy PM Barnaby Joyce) was unpopular and disliked to such a historical degree that when the 2022 election came along, Morrison didn't just lose in a landslide, but he also lost seats in what had historically been considered "blue-ribbon" Liberal heartland, being reduced to a rump in suburban Melbourne and Sydney - and left with just one seat in suburban Adelaide and Perth respectively.
  • His promise to lower taxes and energy bills was compromised barely a week after winning and economists were predicting that Australia will go into a recession if things don't change soon, which eventually was declared a reality due to the COVID-19 pandemic being the final nail in the coffin. His visible work ethic didn't do him any favours either, as parliament was noticeably inactive for months on end and his decision to travel to Hawaii without telling anyone right when Australia suffered statewide bushfires outraged a lot of rural voters. Additionally, his initial insipid response to the pandemic was lambasted as the state premiers basically all decided to ignore the indecisive federal government and implement their own measures, even leading some people to idly question why we even need a Federation. With the Pfizer vaccine distribution hitting snag after snag well into the second half of 2021, it was Kevin Rudd of all people who negotiated for a faster delivery. And thanks to Morrison's attempts to deflect criticism of actions (or inaction) like this, he's now gained has a reputation among voters for talking about what his job isn't.
  • And then word got out of a string of sexual assault or misconduct allegations directed at Parliamentary staffers and two Liberal MPs (Attorney General Christian Porter and Queensland MP Andrew Laming), the stink of which managed to rub off on Morrison once word got out that he only started to empathise with the victims after his wife explained to him why he should take rape seriously^note And this was after hiring an empathy consultant at what was estimated to be over $150,000 worth of taxpayer money. Adding to this is that Morrison's target voters were largely retirees and there's been a rising number of post-millennials who were baying for a more progressive government that would turn 18 over the three years, so while he did make it to a full term, his chances of securing a fourth consecutive term for his party were on the wane as early as day 1.
  • Dogged by a persistent rumour that he suffered a public Potty Failure at a McDonalds in the Sydney suburb of Engadine back in 1997, which seemed to humanise him to the public and provided comedic fodder for a while. He asserted once and for all in July 2021 that it did not happen, but the story has already passed into Australian folklore.
  • A few months after he was voted out, it emerged that he had given himself joint control of 8 government portfolios ^note health, finance, home affairs, treasury, industry, science, energy, and resources in the middle of the pandemic, most of them without the knowledge of the ministers that were nominally solely responsible for them. This revelation has called into question the aforementioned numerous times he dismissed an issue as "not my job".

Anthony Albanese.

• Anthony Norman Albanese (Labor Party) from May 2022. Nicknamed "Albo", he succeeded Bill Shorten as Opposition leader after Labor's humiliating defeat in 2019. First elected to Parliament in 1996, Albanese served as Infrastructure Minister in the Rudd-Gillard government, and briefly served as Deputy Prime Minister when Rudd returned to the top job in 2013. While Bill Shorten was more proactive in his approach as Opposition leader, Albanese kept his head down and took a centrist approach up until the next election (the irony of this is that Shorten comes from the right-wing of the Labor Party, whereas Albanese is a left-wing veteran). His campaign was notoriously rocky from the start, as the press did not give him room to make even the tiniest slip-up regardless of how bad his opponent's reputation was. Raised by a single mother in public housing, Albanese's pet policy revolved around creating better living conditions for Australians, such as providing funding for first-home buyers in Sydney's notoriously-expensive housing market. Albanese has also made it a priority to implement the Uluru Statement From The Heart as well as to establish a federal anti-corruption commission. Within a month of taking office, Albanese had raised the national minimum wage and had updated Australia's climate targets for net-zero emissions to bring it more in line with its international counterparts. However, with inflation and fuel prices soaring and an energy crisis impacting Australia, Albanese will have his work cut out for him to steer Australia through its challenges in the years ahead....
  • Albanese is the first Prime Minister not to have a (purely^note Albanese's mother was an Australian of Irish descent) Anglo-Celtic background; his biological father coming from Italy. Albanese was not even aware of his father's identity and didn't get to meet him until 2009. Albanese would find a mentor and father figure in Tom Uren, a former Burma Railway POW who went on to become an icon of the Labor Left, and who briefly served as Gough Whitlam's final deputy Labor leader following The Dismissal.

Deputy Prime Ministers of Australia

And as a bonus, here's a Brief Summary of Each Deputy Prime Minister:

• John McEwen (Country Party), from January 1968 to February 1971. Though McEwen and his predecessors had long been regarded as de facto Deputy PMs, John Gorton on becoming Prime Minister decided to make the role official - in large part as recognition of McEwen's stature as the most experienced and longest-serving man in the government. Dropped his veto against William McMahon after the Coalition nearly lost office in the October 1969 election, although Gorton was easily re-elected after a challenge by McMahon and David Fairbairn. Retired in 1971, with Doug Anthony replacing him as Country leader - by which time McEwen was the last serving parliamentarian to have been elected during the Depression. Died in 1980.
• John Douglas Anthony (Country Party), the second and (to date) longest-serving Deputy PM, though he would serve two non-consecutive stints in the role due to the Coalition being in Opposition during Gough Whitlam's tenure as PM. Doug Anthony was first elected to Parliament in 1957 at the age of 27, replacing his father Larry who had served as a Menzies minister and died in office. Entered the ministry in 1963 and rapidly rose through the ranks, becoming McEwen's deputy Country leader in 1967.
  • (February 1971 - December 1972) Replaced the septuagenarian McEwen as Country leader and Deputy PM in February 1971, barely a month before John Gorton was ousted as PM and replaced by McMahon. Like his predecessor, Anthony had a notoriously poor relationship with McMahon, to the point where by mid-1972 the two were not on speaking terms at all - McMahon infamously refused to inform Anthony about the date of the 1972 election, and Anthony had to find out through the Prime Minister of New Zealand Jack Marshall. Stayed on as Country leader after the Coalition lost office in that election.

Lance Barnard.

• Lance Herbert Barnard (Labor Party), from December 1972 to June 1974. Became deputy Labor leader when Gough Whitlam replaced Arthur Calwell as Labor leader in 1967. Like his predecessor (and successor) as Deputy PM Doug Anthony, Barnard had won a seat previously held by his father, in his case Chifley-era minister Claude Barnard. Most famous for having been one half of Whitlam's "duumvirate" ministry where the two held 27 government portfolios between them for a fortnight before the rest of the ministry could be sworn in. Once the full ministry was sworn in, Barnard became Defence Minister, upon which he merged all the smaller ministerial departments of the Army, Navy, and Air - until then having their own separate ministers - into the Defence portfolio. Lost his position as deputy Labor leader, and consequently as Deputy PM to Jim Cairns following the 1974 election; Barnard quit politics soon after, and was given an ambassadorship to Sweden, Finland and Norway by Whitlam as consolation for losing the deputy leadership. Died in 1997.

Jim Cairns.

• James Ford Cairns (Labor Party), from June 1974 to July 1975. Widely regarded as an icon of Labor's left wing, Jim Cairns had emerged as Whitlam's chief leadership rival during the years in Opposition. Led the anti-Vietnam War Moratorium Movement in 1970, which had been the largest protest in Australia until the protests against the Iraq War (which Cairns also took part in shortly before his death). Upon the election of the Whitlam Government, Cairns became Trade Minister where he played a key role in establishing trade relations with China. After successfully challenging Lance Barnard for Deputy PM, Cairns won praise for his role (as Acting PM) in leading the recovery of Darwin in the wake of Cyclone Tracy. It was all downhill from there, though.... shortly after swapping roles with Frank Crean and becoming Treasurer, Cairns played a central role in what became known as the Loans Affair, where the government attempted to authorise a petrodollar loan from the Middle East through a dodgy intermediary in Tirath Khemlani. This, combined with his relationship with his secretary Junie Morosi (he would ultimately admit to having an affair with her in 2002) helped bring about Cairns's political downfall; in June 1975 he was demoted from Treasury to the Environment, and then sacked entirely from the ministry and deputy leadership a month later for misleading the Parliament. Cairns would then gradually withdraw from mainstream politics to focus on the counterculture, helping set up the hippie festival ConFest and authoring many books and selling them at markets in Melbourne's outer-eastern suburbs - though he would unsuccessfully run as an independent for the Senate in 1983. Died in 2003.

Frank Crean.

• Francis Daniel Crean (Labor Party), from July to November 1975. Having previously served as Treasurer during the first two years of the Whitlam Government, during which time Frank Crean struggled to deal with the start of what would become known as "stagflation" as well as the effects of the 1973 oil shock, he was made Deputy PM and deputy Labor leader following the political downfall of Jim Cairns. He did not regain the Treasury portfolio though, which by then had gone to Bill Hayden, so Crean remained as Trade Minister. Crean would only serve four months as Deputy PM, however - his tenure would end, along with that of the entire Whitlam Government, with The Dismissal. After the 1975 election disaster, Crean unsuccessfully challenged Whitlam for the Labor leadership before fading out from the political scene and retiring in 1977. His son Simon would himself go on to become Opposition Leader, though he would not stay in the role long enough to contest an election as Labor leader. Died in 2008, on the 36th anniversary of the election of the Whitlam Government.

Doug Anthony.

• John Douglas Anthony again (National Country Party, then National Party), from November 1975 to March 1983. After having spent the Whitlam years advocating a policy of "absolute opposition" to the Labor government and enthusiastically supporting the blocking of supply bills in the Senate, Doug Anthony became Deputy PM again following The Dismissal. He would stay on in that role throughout the entirety of Malcolm Fraser's government, with whom he got along extremely well with and formed part of Fraser's inner circle alongside deputy Country leader Ian Sinclair and fellow Country minister Peter Nixon. Anthony also served as Trade Minister during the Fraser Government, in which he would expand Australia's trade relations with Japan and New Zealand, and strongly supported uranium mining. After the 1983 election loss, Anthony stayed on for a year as Nationals leader before handing over to his deputy Sinclair and retiring from politics - although still relatively young in his mid-fifties, Anthony was already the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives. Kept a low profile in retirement, although he surprised many when he came out in support of an Australian Republic in 1999. Died in 2020.
  • Anthony would serve as Acting PM during the Christmas/New Year period each year while Malcolm Fraser was on holiday, and famously would run the country from his caravan at a beach in his home electorate - with only one telephone line connecting Anthony to the outside world.
  • During Anthony's tenure as leader of what was initially known as the Country Party, he realised that long-term demographic changes would lead to a decline in the rural population as people moved away from the countries and towards the rapidly expanding major cities and suburbs. Sensing that this could eventually lead to an existential crisis for the party, under Anthony the party changed their name twice - initially to the National Country Party in 1974, and then finally to its present name the National Party in 1982.
  • Anthony spent much of his childhood staying in Canberra while Parliament was sitting, and years later would recall roller skating throughout Parliament House and getting to know the political giants of the 30s and early 40s - his fondest memories being reserved for the nights when John Curtin would tell him bedtime stories when they both stayed at the Hotel Kurrajong.
  • Doug's son Larry would eventually enter politics in 1996, representing the same seat (Richmond, in northern NSW) as his father and grandfather, and serving as a minister under John Howard.... before losing his seat to Labor in 2004. This is the only instance of a three-generation political dynasty representing a single federal division in Australia.
  • Doug Anthony's name would remain well-recognised long after his retirement when the musical comedy troupe Doug Anthony All Stars chose him as their namesake. They would also tell international news reporters that Anthony was a much-loved Prime Minister of Australia who was assassinated by right-wing extremists on 11 November 1975. For his part, Anthony took this tribute in his stride, even once taking part in a skit with the group.

Lionel Bowen.

• Lionel Frost Bowen (Labor Party), from March 1983 to April 1990. A successful, if low-key minister from the Whitlam era, Bowen's initial leadership aspirations were quashed when he first unsuccessfully challenged Whitlam for the leadership following the 1975 election disaster, and then unsuccessfully contesting the leadership against Bill Hayden following Whitlam's retirement after another election loss in 1977. He was given the consolation prize of the deputy leadership after the latter though (at the expense of incumbent deputy Tom Uren). During the Hawke Government, Bowen maintained a relatively low profile while also concurrently serving as Trade Minister initially, and then as Attorney-General. It was generally acknowledged though that the de facto number two man in the Hawke Government was Treasurer Paul Keating, who inevitably succeeded Bowen as Deputy PM when Bowen retired from politics in 1990. Bowen was also well-known for his humility and aversion to the trappings of high office - even while he was Deputy PM, Bowen would stay at his friend's garage whenever he was in Canberra. Died in 2012.
• Paul John Keating (Labor Party), from April 1990 to June 1991. Having first served as a minister for barely a month during the final days of the Whitlam Government, Keating's career would have a meteoric rise during the Fraser years while in Opposition. Serving as Treasurer in the Hawke Government and after having completely reformed the Australian economic system, Keating made no secret of his ambition for the Prime Ministership - for which he was in any case long viewed as Hawke's heir apparent. However, Hawke loved the job too much and was reluctant to retire so soon. This led to the infamous "Kirribilli Agreement" in 1988 where Hawke promised a leadership transition for sometime shortly after the 1990 election. After winning that election, Keating was duly made Deputy PM - though this wasn't good enough for Keating, who very quickly grew frustrated by Hawke's unwillingness to step aside for him. After a little over a year as Deputy PM, Keating resigned from both that position and as Treasurer, and unsuccessfully challenged Hawke for the leadership. While it initially failed and Keating went to the backbench, it marked the beginning of the end of Hawke as PM - by the end of 1991 Keating was finally Prime Minister.
  • It was during Keating's time as Deputy PM where he made the infamous "this is a recession that Australia had to have" quote, when it became clear not long after the 1990 election that Australia was undergoing an economic recession. It was also during this period when Keating made his "Placido Domingo" speech, where in frustration and in a barely concealed swipe at Hawke, Keating lamented that Australia has never had great leaders of the calibre of such American leaders as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt - also dismissing Labor icons John Curtin as a "trier" and Ben Chifley as a "plodder".

Brian Howe.

• Brian Leslie Howe (Labor Party), from June 1991 to June 1995. Emerging as a leader of Labor's left wing as figures like Tom Uren retired, Howe was made deputy Labor leader and deputy PM as a result of his, and the majority of his faction's support of Hawke during Keating's first leadership challenge - a role Howe stayed on in well after Keating became PM. Like Lionel Bowen before him, Howe kept a low public profile in the role but was very much active in policy reform, winning praise throughout his ministerial tenure under Hawke and Keating for his social reforms, particularly in the areas of health, disabilities, and housing. It was acknowledged that figures like Howe ensured that Hawke and Keating were able to implement their neoliberal economic reforms while avoiding many of the detrimental social and economic impacts on lower income communities that was seen with their Thatcherite counterparts in the UK, which Howe himself described as "inhumane and vindictive". Stood down from the deputy leadership role in mid-1995, ahead of his retirement from politics in the 1996 election. Currently the oldest living former Deputy Prime Minister.
• Kim Christian Beazley (Labor Party), from June 1995 to March 1996. The son of Kim Edward, who as Education Minister in the Whitlam Government helped abolish university fees, Beazley had been a protege of Bob Hawke's and was a long-serving minister - his most prominent portfolio having been Defence, where he helped establish the Royal Australian Navy's submarine program. Under Keating, Beazley served initially as Employment and Education Minister, and then as Finance Minister, in which he played a central role in establishing compulsory superannuation. By the time he took over the deputy leadership from the retiring Howe, Beazley was viewed as Keating's heir apparent as Prime Minister. It is accepted that Keating had made it clear privately that if Labor were to win the 1996 election, he had no intention of staying for the full three years, and that Beazley would have become Prime Minister mid-way through the next term. Instead, Labor lost the 1996 election in a landslide, and Beazley immediately replaced Keating as Labor leader and became Opposition Leader.

Tim Fischer.

• Timothy Andrew Fischer (National Party), from March 1996 to July 1999. A veteran wounded in the Vietnam War, Fischer became Nationals leader after his predecessor Charles Blunt lost his own seat in the 1990 election. Upon coming to government in 1996, Fischer and John Howard almost immediately had to deal with the Port Arthur Massacre, after which they implemented strict gun control measures - including the banning of automatic and semi-automatic weapons. This had come at a major political risk for Fischer, where there was a substantial backlash towards the gun control measures by the Nationals' rural base. Indeed, there was great concern that as part of the backlash, the Nationals would lose substantial ground to One Nation in the 1998 election; though ultimately the Nationals were able to hold most of their ground. Surprised everybody when he stood down as Nationals leader and as Deputy PM in mid-1999; though it was revealed later that he did so to take care of his family, particularly his son who was diagnosed with autism (Fischer himself believed that he had a form of autism, although he was never diagnosed). Died in 2019, sadly as a long-term consequence of his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam.
  • Fischer was also well-known for his passion and enthusiasm for trains, even penning a book about trains in 2004 called Transcontinental Train Odyssey.

John Anderson.

• John Duncan Anderson (National Party), from July 1999 to July 2005. Anderson had served as Nationals deputy under Tim Fischer from 1993, and upon coming to government three years later he was initially made Primary Industries Minister, and then Transport & Regional Services Minister where he helped establish the Australian Rail Track Corporation. Elected unopposed to succeed Fischer in 1999, Anderson served as Acting PM when the September 11 attacks and the Bali Bombings occurred - on both occasions John Howard happened to be overseas at the time. The National Water Initiative was also set up under his watch, though that would later be abolished by the Abbott Government in 2014. Stood down as Nationals leader and Deputy PM in 2005, ahead of his retirement from politics in 2007. Anderson has since gone on to become a prolific commentator, hosting a podcast and YouTube channel featuring interviews with political figures from both sides of politics.
  • Lamenting the loss of civility in modern political discourse, Anderson attempted a political comeback in 2021 when he put his hand up for the Nationals' NSW Senate preselection. In the event though, Anderson failed to secure a winnable position on the Coalition Senate ticket, so he quit frontline politics for good.

Mark Vaile.

• Mark Anthony James Vaile (National Party), from July 2005 to December 2007. Having served as deputy Nationals leader under John Anderson, he was elected unopposed to succeed him in 2005. Spent most of the Howard Government in the Trade portfolio, although his time as Deputy PM is best remembered for his (mis)handling of the AWB Kickbacks Scandal. This, alongside Australia's overall worsening trade performance saw Vaile ultimately switch portfolios with his deputy Warren Truss to become Transport & Regional Services Minister. Although he initially declared that he would stay on as Nationals leader regardless of whether or not the Coalition would retain office after the 2007 election, Vaile instead handed over the leadership to Truss and within a year was out of politics. Has since taken up positions in coal-related corporations, which as a result led to a severe backlash when he was offered the Chancellorship of Newcastle University in 2021, which Vaile was consequently forced to decline.
• Julia Eileen Gillard (Labor Party), from December 2007 to June 2010. Australia's first female Deputy Prime Minister, although not the first woman to take a leadership role of a major party federally ^note that would be Janine Haines, who was leader of the Australian Democrats in the late 1980s - while the first woman to hold a leadership position in a major party was none other than Gillard's predecessor as deputy Labor leader, Jenny Macklin. Concurrently serving as Education, Employment & Workplace Relations Minister, Gillard's big achievements during this period include major education reforms such as the establishment of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment And Reporting Authority (ACARA), through which the NAPLAN school tests were introduced. Furthermore, Gillard abolished the controversial WorkChoices industrial relations program, replacing it with the Fair Work Act, which more or less remains in place today. Gillard's tenure as Deputy PM ended in June 2010 when she deposed Kevin Rudd as leader, and as a result became Prime Minister.

Wayne Swan.

• Wayne Maxwell Swan (Labor Party), from June 2010 to June 2013. Also known by his nickname "Swanny", Wayne Swan had served as Treasurer since the election of the Rudd Government. In that role, Swan most famously steered Australia through the global financial crisis and successfully prevented Australia from going into recession like many of their international counterparts. Swan had known Kevin Rudd since they went to high school together, and had both risen through the ranks of the Queensland Labor Party at the same time, but in mid-2010 Swan had become one of the central figures in deposing Rudd as PM and supporting Gillard as his replacement. Swan was elected deputy Labor leader and became Deputy PM as a result, and Rudd - who is the godfather to Swan's son - would never forgive Swan. Notably, during his time as Deputy PM Swan was named Finance Minister of the Year in 2011 by the Euromoney magazine - essentially making Swan the only Australian Treasurer alongside Paul Keating to be named "World's Greatest Treasurer". Resigned as deputy Labor leader and from the ministry entirely when Rudd returned as PM, and Swan would remain on the backbench until his retirement from frontline politics in 2019.
• Anthony Norman Albanese (Labor Party), from June to September 2013. A veteran of Labor's left wing who was mentored by Tom Uren, Albanese spent the Rudd-Gillard years in the Infrastructure Portfolio, where he was regarded as highly successful and was praised for delivering all his projects on time and without going over budget. He was also highly regarded as Leader Of The House, and is widely credited for keeping the Gillard Government together and running effectively and productively as a minority government when most other minority governments in Australian history ended up collapsing ignominiously. Albanese also managed to keep out of the Rudd-Gillard leadership turmoil; he supported Rudd in each leadership challenge (and believed from the beginning that Rudd's initial removal was a grave mistake), but also kept loyal to Gillard and remained in both of their good books. Replaced Wayne Swan as deputy Labor leader and deputy PM when Rudd returned to the top job, but only managed to hold the job for three months before Labor lost the 2013 election. Albanese then contested the Labor leadership against Bill Shorten; however, while Albanese won easily amongst party members, Shorten had the numbers among MPs and so became leader instead. But, as we all know now, that wasn't the end of the story for Albo....

Warren Truss.

• Warren Errol Truss (National Party), from September 2013 to February 2016. Having served as deputy Nationals leader under Mark Vaile, Truss took on the leadership of the National Party after the 2007 election - ironically enough, while Vaile had called for a generational change, Truss is himself eight years older than both Vaile and John Anderson. It was during Truss's tenure as federal Nationals leader that the Queensland branch (of which Truss is a part of) decided to merge with the Queensland Liberal Party to form the LNP, although this merger was not replicated federally, or in any other state. Serving as Deputy PM under Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, Truss was regarded as a steady and dependable, if dull and unremarkable, leader - only one in five Australians were found to be familiar with Truss even while he was Deputy PM. This didn't stop him from lifting the Nationals' federal seat number from 10 in 2007, to 15 by the end of Truss's tenure. Stood down from his positions ahead of his retirement from politics in the 2016 election.

Barnaby Joyce.

• Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce (National Party), from February 2016 to February 2018. A very colourful and controversial figure, Barnaby Joyce had previously served as a Senator for Queensland, where he had developed a reputation for being a maverick who was not afraid of crossing the floor, or at the very least making the threat in order to get his way on legislation. Switching chambers (and states - moving to New South Wales) in 2013, Joyce became deputy Nationals leader to Warren Truss, and when the Abbott Government came into office, Joyce became Agriculture Minister. It was during this period that Joyce infamously threatened to euthanise the dogs of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard when they were found to have been brought into Australia illegally - something which brought Joyce international attention and notoriety.
  
  Joyce's first stint as Deputy PM, which began when he was elected unopposed to succeed the retiring Truss as Nationals leader, saw him in 2017 being kicked out of Parliament after it was found that Joyce held dual citizenship with New Zealand (as part of the broader "citizenship saga" of that period, which also claimed the scalp of Joyce's deputy Fiona Nash). He managed to renounce this citizenship and swiftly re-entered Parliament in a by-election for his own seat. However, just as the dust began to settle from that drama, Joyce announced the end of his marriage - and shortly afterwards it was found that Joyce had an affair with, and impregnated his staffer... which made his opposition to same-sex marriage on the grounds of family values all more the more ironic. Finally, allegations of sexual harassment saw Joyce being forced to resign as Nationals leader and Deputy PM - with these allegations proving to be one scandal too many for Joyce to survive.

Michael McCormack.

• Michael Francis McCormack (National Party), from February 2018 to June 2021. Nicknamed "Big Mac" by Scott Morrison, although this nickname failed to catch on in a major way. Generally regarded as more moderate and level-headed than Barnaby Joyce, McCormack was himself no stranger to controversy, particularly when articles he penned in 1993 was unsurfaced where he slammed pride parades and blamed AIDS on homosexuality, as well as called for the reintroduction of corporal and capital punishment - comments he has since repudiated and apologised for. Although he was viewed as nowhere near as divisive as Joyce, McCormack was nevertheless criticised by his own colleagues for failing to cut through with the Nationals' constituency, for being too close with Scott Morrison and the Liberals, and for not standing up hard enough against net-zero by 2050 (with many Nationals being against climate action, and some being outspoken climate change denialists). Nevertheless, there was great shock and surprise when McCormack was rolled as Nationals leader and as Deputy PM in June 2021 by none other than....
• Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce again (National Party), from June 2021 to May 2022. After spending the previous three and a quarter years brooding on the backbench and yelling at the sky, Joyce confounded expectations and managed to muster the numbers in the Nationals' party room to reclaim the leadership and the office of Deputy PM from McCormack - much to the dismay of women, even those from within his own party. Joyce's second tenure is mainly remembered for the times Joyce got drunk in Parliament time and again, and for when texts dating from March 2021 were leaked where Joyce slammed Scott Morrison as "a hypocrite and a liar. By the time the 2022 federal election came about, both Joyce and Morrison had become disliked to such an unprecedented degree that it has been speculated that the fact that Joyce was Deputy PM helped cost the Liberals many (in some cases, traditional blue-ribbon) seats in urban areas. Although the Nationals actually managed not to lose any seats in the 2022 election, it wasn't enough to save Joyce as Nationals leader, and he was promptly rolled from the position by his deputy David Littleproud.

Richard Marles.

• Richard Donald Marles (Labor Party), from May 2022. Marles had briefly served as Minister for Trade in Kevin Rudd's final government in 2013, and had spent much of the years in Opposition as Shadow Defence Minister, where he developed a reputation as a bit of a pro-US hawk. He succeeded Tanya Plibersek as deputy Labor leader following the shock 2019 election loss, and three years later became Deputy Prime Minister when Labor won the 2022 election. In echoes to Gough Whitlam's interim "duumvirate" ministry with his deputy Lance Barnard, Albanese quickly formed an interim five-person ministry with Marles, Penny Wong, Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher - and uniquely, within hours of being sworn in as Deputy PM, Marles found himself as Acting Prime Minister when Albanese and Wong flew to Japan for the international Quad summit. Currently also serving as Defence Minister.

Leaders of the Opposition (who did not become Prime Minister)

Last but not least, here's a Brief Summary of Each Opposition Leader (who did not serve as Prime Minister):

Frank Tudor.

• Francis Gwynne Tudor (Labor Party), from February 1917 to January 1922. A trade unionist who held a senior position in the Felt Hatters' Union and was an early president of the Victorian Life Saving Society, Frank Tudor was elected in the inaugural federal election as one of only two Labour MPs from Victoria ^note at the time, and until the 1980s, Victoria had consistently been Labor's weakest performing state. Tudor immediately became Labour's inaugural chief whip, and while he missed out on a ministerial position under Chris Watson, he would serve in the successive Labour ministries of Andrew Fisher and Billy Hughes, where he won praise as an efficient administrator. When the conscription issue came into the fore in 1916, Tudor came out as one of the leading Labor figures against conscription, and he became the first minister to resign from Hughes' cabinet. The first great Labor split would swiftly take place over the issue, and after Hughes and his supporters walked out of the Labor caucus, Tudor was made Labor leader - it is speculated that he was elected leader simply because he was the first minister to resign over his opposition to conscription.
  
  Tudor was the first Labor leader that was actually born in Australia ^note Chris Watson was born in Chile, while Andrew Fisher and Billy Hughes were born in Scotland and England respectively, and he would become Opposition Leader once Hughes merged with the opposition Commonwealth Liberals to form the Nationalist Party. He would lead Labor to two landslide defeats in the 1917 and 1919 elections, although he did also successfully lead the "No" campaign for the 1916 and 1917 conscription referendums. Although well-liked and respected (and he is generally credited for holding the Labor movement together and preventing it from further splintering and disintegration), Tudor never enjoyed the strong confidence of his party in his leadership, and was regarded as a poor orator and public speaker. It had been hoped that the popular and charismatic Queensland Premier T.J. Ryan would enter federal politics and replace Tudor as leader; in the event Ryan did enter federal politics and became Tudor's deputy, but Ryan suddenly died in 1921 before he could assume the leadership. Tudor's own health was in serious decline by then, and in early 1922 he became the first leader of a major party to die in office - and the first Opposition Leader to never become Prime Minister.

Matthew Charlton.

• Matthew Charlton (Labor Party), from January 1922 to March 1928. A former coal miner who worked as a coal trapper as a child, Matthew Charlton began his political career in the New South Wales Parliament in the 1900s before making the switch to federal politics. While he never made the ministry, Charlton was viewed as a future talent and managed to get along well with both Andrew Fisher and Billy Hughes. When the conscription split took place, Charlton tried to keep Labor together and, while being opposed to conscription, supported Hughes and tried to defend him from attacks within caucus right up to the moment Hughes walked out of the party, after which Charlton proclaimed his loyalty to Frank Tudor. Charlton began to be seen as a potential leader as both Tudor and T.J. Ryan's health went into decline as the 1920s began, and after Ryan died it was expected that Charlton would become the next leader if anything happened to Tudor.
  
  Charlton became Opposition Leader when Tudor died, though it wasn't until May 1922 that his position as Labor leader was formalised. Initially popular, under Charlton Labor began to gain ground, and by the time the federal election of December 1922 came around, Charlton was the favourite to win the election.... but then halfway through the election campaign, Charlton was hospitalised over a serious illness. This killed his campaign momentum, and in the end Labor won the popular vote and the largest number of seats, but failed to win an overall majority - the Nationalists would remain in office by forming a coalition with the nascent Country Party, albeit at the expense of Billy Hughes, who was removed in favour of Stanley Bruce. Charlton stayed on as leader but lost again in 1925 when Bruce managed to win re-election comfortably over the issue of industrial relations. It is generally viewed that Charlton would have made an able Prime Minister had the Labor Party been in a far stronger position throughout the 1920s, and that Charlton happened to be leader at a low period for the party. Ended up standing down from the Labor leadership in 1928, handing over to James Scullin, who would go on to become Prime Minister over a year later. Died in 1948.

John Latham.

• John Greig Latham (Nationalist Party), from October 1929 to May 1931. A distinguished lawyer who served in the intelligence during World War One, John Latham had been a part of the Australian delegation to the Versailles Conference - whereupon he developed a lifelong dislike of Prime Minister Billy Hughes over his attitude and conduct. A conservative who was determined to get Hughes out of office, Latham successfully stood for Parliament as part of the Liberal Union against the sitting Nationalist MP in 1922 under the slogan "Get Rid of Hughes". His first action upon being elected was to collaborate with Earle Page and the Country Party in the Coalition negotiations that culminated in the resignation of Hughes as PM. With the more conservative Stanley Bruce as PM, Latham ended up joining the Nationalists in 1925, upon which he became Attorney-General - a role in which he pursued a hard line on industrial relations. Taking on the additional portfolio of Industry Minister in 1928, Latham would inadvertently play a central role in the downfall of the Bruce Government when he helped come up with a controversial industrial relations bill which led to the government being brought down on the floor of the House.
  
  With Bruce losing his own seat in the 1929 election, Latham duly succeeded him as leader of the Nationalists, and became Opposition Leader ^note the first of three consecutive MPs from the Victorian seat of Kooyong to lead a conservative party - followed by Robert Menzies and Andrew Peacock. During the year and a half he served as Opposition Leader, Latham's most notable acts include his attacking of Treasurer Ted Theodore over the Mungana Affair, and his opposition to the 1931 Statute of Westminster, which legally set Australia further apart from the UK. However, it had also become clear that the Nationalist Party was a spent force politically, and that Latham was not a suitable leader to reshape the conservative side of politics. When the Labor Party began to split in early 1931 and Joseph Lyons led a group of conservative Labor MPs across the floor, Latham (echoing Joseph Cook in 1917 before him) happily stood aside as Opposition Leader and became deputy to Lyons in the new United Australia Party - becoming the first Opposition Leader from the non-Labor side not to become PM, as well as the first not to lead his party into an election. After the UAP won the 1931 election, Latham would serve as Attorney-General and External Affairs Minister for one term under Lyons before retiring from politics to become Chief Justice of Australia - where he was regarded as a conservative judge who had a tendency of involving himself in political matters. Died in 1964.

H.V. Evatt.

• Herbert Vere Evatt (Labor Party), from June 1951 to February 1960. Better known as "H.V. Evatt", "Bert", or simply as "Dr. Evatt", he is regarded as one of Australia's most significant politicians and jurists of the early-to-mid 20th Century. After serving a stint in the state New South Wales Parliament in the late-20s, Evatt was appointed by James Scullin in 1930 as a judge in the High Court - to this day, the youngest-ever appointed judge in the history of the court. He would remain in the High Court for the duration of the 30s, where his most notable act was in defying the Lyons Government in allowing Egon Kisch to enter Australia after having been unjustly banned from entry. Entering federal Parliament in 1940, Evatt would serve as Attorney-General and Foreign Minister in the Labor Governments under Curtin, Forde and Chifley, serving as deputy to Chifley after 1946. Although he contested the Labor leadership after the death of Curtin, Evatt was hampered by the fact that he was travelling back to Australia from the US as the contest took place - returning from a little conference in San Francisco where he played a central role in helping establish the United Nations, for which he would also serve as one of the first Presidents of the UN General Assembly, and would help draft the UN Universal Declaration Of Human Rights.
  
  Evatt would remain as Chifley's deputy after the 1949 election loss, and then took over as Labor leader and Opposition Leader shortly after Chifley's death after the 1951 election. It was during this early period as Opposition Leader when Evatt was at his most effective - successfully leading the campaign against the referendum to ban the Communist Party, and coming extremely close to winning the 1954 election, winning the popular vote but falling short of winning enough seats. But then Evatt's leadership was irrevocably damaged with the Petrov Affair and its aftermath, where Evatt's deficiencies in judgement became evident when he was viewed as soft on communism and naive when it came to dealings with the Soviet government. Paranoid about the anti-communist Catholic Right of the Labor Party, Evatt went on the attack.... which would all culminate in the 1955 Labor Split and the formation of the Democratic Labor Party. Labor was decimated in the election immediately following the Split, and DLP preferences to the Liberals would end up keeping the Coalition in power until 1972. Evatt hung on as a severely diminished leader, and presided over a further loss in 1958 before he was nudged out of politics in 1960 by being appointed Chief Justice of New South Wales. His health was in decline by then, and his brief period as Chief Justice was viewed as ineffectual; a stroke barely two years into the role ended his career. Died in 1965.
  • As Attorney-General under Chifley, Evatt also played a central role in the attempt to nationalise banks, and led the case for it when the issue was taken to the High Court, where the attempt to nationalise was declared unconstitutional. Evatt then appealed to the Privy Council against the High Court decision.... but he was not helped by distractions to do with foreign policy, including having to go to New York to preside over a UN General Assembly session, which all meant that he couldn't fully focus on the bank case. The Privy Council upheld the High Court decision, and the bank nationalisation saga, and the opposition it stirred as a consequence, played a key role in the defeat of the Chifley Government in the 1949 election.

Arthur Calwell.

• Arthur Augustus Calwell (Labor Party), from February 1960 to February 1967. A longstanding official of the Victorian Labor who began his rise within the party as a staunch anti-conscriptionist, Calwell eventually entered Parliament in 1940. Although initially getting along poorly with John Curtin after he became PM, specifically after Curtin decided to introduce conscription during the height of World War II, Calwell became the Minister for Information after the 1943 election. He earned the nickname "Cocky" Calwell during this period due to his poor relations with the press, largely due to his strict adherence to wartime censorship. After Curtin died and was replaced by Chifley, Calwell became Australia's inaugural Immigration Minister. In this role, Calwell declared that Australia must "populate or perish", and so began Australia's massive post-war immigration scheme - which included allowing migrants from the Mediterranean and the Baltic states to enter Australia for the first time. In retrospect, this marked the beginning of the slow dismantling of the White Australia Policy, which Calwell otherwise staunchly supported throughout his career. In Opposition, Calwell became H.V. Evatt's deputy after Chifley's death, and when the 1955 Split took place, the devoutly Catholic and anti-communist Calwell made the personally painful decision of remaining loyal to the Labor Party, which ended up costing him many of his life-long friends who went over to the DLP.
  
  Succeeding Evatt as leader in 1960 and with Gough Whitlam as his deputy, Calwell almost won the 1961 election on the back of the credit squeeze, and winning the popular vote - but DLP preferences in Victoria ensured the Coalition won by one seat. Calwell then went on to lose the 1963 election, held in the wake of the "faceless men" scandal, where he and Whitlam were photographed standing outside Canberra's Kingston Hotel waiting for the ALP's federal executive to come up with Labor's policies for the upcoming election. Also not helping Labor were the issue of state aid for Catholic schools, which the Coalition supported and Labor was bitterly divided over; and the fact that over in the US the assassination of John F. Kennedy took place a week before the election - all of which helped consolidate the position of the ageing Robert Menzies. Staying on as leader anyway, Calwell led the fight against Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, and angered by the re-introduction of conscription, declared that a vote for the Coalition was "a blood vote". Although Calwell would be Vindicated by History for his stance, the war was initially popular and Calwell lost the 1966 election to Menzies' successor Harold Holt in a landslide. Calwell subsequently handed over the Labor leadership to Whitlam, although he would stick around in Parliament until finally retiring in 1972. Died in 1973.
  • Calwell and his deputy Whitlam were never close; indeed, Calwell had never wanted Whitlam as his deputy, having preferred the old-school left-wing firebrand Eddie Ward for the position. Their relationship would further deteriorate in 1965 when Whitlam made comments suggesting that Calwell was "too old and weak" and too old-fashioned to successfully lead Labor to an election victory, and when Whitlam moved to withdraw support of the White Australia Policy from the Labor platform. Calwell even backed moves to have Whitlam expelled from the Labor Party when he expressed support for state aid, and later when Whitlam contradicted Calwell's Vietnam policy of an "immediate and unconditional withdrawal". Whitlam, for his part, unsuccessfully challenged Calwell for the leadership in April 1966.
    • Conversely, like his predecessor as Labor leader Chifley, Calwell was close friends with Robert Menzies in spite of their political differences - so much so that Menzies was devastated when Calwell died, and openly wept while sitting in his car during Calwell's funeral, his health not permitting him from leaving the car.
  • Calwell was the last Labor leader to support the White Australia Policy, and like his Liberal counterpart Menzies would continue to defend it well after their respective parties moved on from the now-controversial policy. Calwell was also the last leader of his party to actively support old-school socialism and nationalisation of major industries; combined with his lack of ease with the onset of the television age, by 1966 Calwell was increasingly viewed as an aged relic of the Depression era. Harold Holt, although having been in Parliament for five years longer than Calwell, managed to successfully present himself as representing a generational change better suited to The '60s than either Calwell or Menzies.
  • Calwell has the distinction of being the only leader of a major party in Australia to this day to be the survivor of an assassination attempt. After addressing an anti-conscription rally in the lead-up to the 1966 election on 21 June, 19-year-old factory worker Peter Kocan went up to Calwell and shot at him. Calwell, who was sitting in his car, escaped with minor injuries - the bullet had shattered the window and rested on his coat lapel, but besides being cut by glass and bullet fragments on his face, Calwell was unharmed. Calwell would later visit Kocan in prison and forgive him, and Kocan would serve 10 years in prison - after which he would go on to become a distinguished author and poet.

Billy Snedden.

• Billy Mackie Snedden (Liberal Party), from December 1972 to March 1975. After several unsuccessful candidacies in his home city of Perth, Billy Snedden moved to Melbourne and was soon elected to Parliament in 1955. Snedden was eventually made Attorney-General by Menzies, a role in which he would help shape the constitutional referendum on Aboriginals, which successfully passed in 1967. Snedden would serve in various ministerial positions under Holt, McEwen, and Gorton - his toughest role being in Labour And National Service, where he was in charge of the government's conscription program during the Vietnam War, and where he controversially remarked that anti-war protestors were "political bikies pack-raping democracy". He became Treasurer and deputy Liberal leader under McMahon, where he struggled to deal with an economy that had started to decline in what is now known as the end of the post-war economic boom. After McMahon lost the 1972 election, Snedden was elected Liberal leader and made Opposition leader.... winning by just one vote over Nigel Bowen.
  
  Snedden as Opposition leader ruthlessly attacked the Whitlam Government over the struggling economy and made a habit of threatening to block supply bills in the Senate - though was otherwise viewed as being on the Liberals' moderate wing, who were his main political power-base. However, Snedden was never able to get the upper hand against the formidable Whitlam and never enjoyed the full confidence of the Liberal partyroom, not helped by him being unable to shake the perception that he was a lightweight. The Liberals lost the 1974 election, after which Snedden was ridiculed for denying that he lost, effectively saying that "we didn't win but we didn't lose" ^note The exact quote from Snedden being “We were not defeated. We did not win enough seats to form a government". In later years, Snedden would attempt to justify the quote by elaborating that he meant that the Liberals didn't "lose all", in that the Liberals still deprived Labor of a Senate majority. Despite Snedden's boasts that his partyroom would "walk through the Valley of Death on hot coals" for him, he was consistently undermined by the Liberals' conservative wing, who strongly backed Malcolm Fraser, after the 1974 election. This all culminated in Snedden being deposed as leader by Fraser in March 1975. He sat out the rest of the Whitlam Government on the backbench, then after The Dismissal and Fraser's 1975 election victory, Snedden was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Remaining as Speaker until his retirement from Parliament after the Fraser Government's defeat in 1983, Snedden would be praised as one of the best and most impartial Speakers since Federation. Died in 1987.
  • Snedden made his first bid for the Liberal leadership in the contest held after the death of Harold Holt, comparing himself to John F. Kennedy and proclaiming that he was "a man on the wavelength of his own era". He was the first of the four contestants eliminated, garnering just six votes - John Gorton would go on to be elected Liberal leader and Prime Minister instead.
  • During a parliamentary debate in February 1975, Snedden suddenly interrupted Gough Whitlam's response to a question about casual Senate vacancies by yelling out "Come on! Woof woof!", to the complete incredulity and embarrassment of Liberal parliamentarians. Whitlam delightedly jumped at the opportunity to demolish Snedden, by saying "The right honourable gentleman seems to be more than usually hysterical. I have never known even him to giggle so much. He is going ga-ga". Snedden would be deposed as Liberal leader barely a month later.
  • Snedden remains well-remembered for the circumstances of his death. After attending John Howard's campaign launch for the 1987 election, Snedden went to a motel and had sex with his son's ex-girlfriend.... during which he suffered a fatal heart attack. Snedden's body would be found the next day by hotel cleaners, wearing nothing but a loaded condom. Newspaper headlines didn't hold back in publishing headlines about how Snedden "died on the job".

Bill Hayden.

• William George Hayden (Labor Party), from December 1977 to February 1983. Making his name as a young left-wing firebrand by winning the Queensland seat of Oxley from Menzies' Health minister Donald Cameron in 1961, Bill Hayden quickly rose through the Labor ranks, and when the Whitlam Government was elected in 1972, he was made Social Security minister. In that position, he played a central role in the introduction of the single mother's pension and, in the face of bitter conservative opposition, of Medibank - Australia's first universal healthcare system. Indeed, it was because Hayden wanted to complete the job on Medibank that he was not appointed Whitlam's Treasurer until June 1975. Hayden would become regarded as by far Whitlam's most successful Treasurer, and his first (and only) budget that he handed down was widely praised, even by conservative opponents, as being strong and responsible. However, this did not stop Malcolm Fraser and the Liberals from blocking the budget in the Senate in October 1975 on political grounds; after The Dismissal and subsequent election, the Fraser Government did not attempt to alter Hayden's budget. The day after that election, Whitlam offered the Labor leadership to a shellshocked Hayden, who angrily refused and instead went to the backbench ^note Hayden at the time did not know if he had even survived the landslide defeat; in the event, Hayden was the only Labor MP from Queensland not to lose his own seat in 1975. Hayden quickly returned though, and after almost successfully challenging Whitlam in mid-1977 after concluding that Whitlam could not win the next election, ended up replacing Whitlam after another landslide election defeat in December 1977 - seeing off, among others, Lionel Bowen who became his deputy.
  
  Hayden spent much of his time as Opposition Leader repairing the damage done to the Labor brand in the aftermath of The Dismissal, and in many ways helped set the groundwork for how Labor would govern during the Hawke-Keating years. He performed strongly in the 1980 election, helping to regain much of Labor's lost ground from the previous two election defeats and coming within one percent of winning the two-party preferred vote against the Coalition. But the election also saw the arrival of the highly ambitious and exceptionally popular Bob Hawke into the Parliament, and the rest of Hayden's time as Labor leader was spent trying to fend off Hawke. In July 1982, Hayden narrowly saw off Hawke in a leadership challenge, but it wasn't enough to prevent Hawke from continuing to plot. After Labor failed to win the Flinders by-election at the end of 1982, widely regarded as winnable, many in the Labor Party feared that Hayden would be unable to defeat Fraser in an election most expected to be held early. So in February 1983, Hayden was forced to resign in favour of Hawke after losing the confidence of his closest supporters, departing with the remark that "a drover's dog could lead the Labor Party to victory". Fraser happened to call that early election the very same day, and one month later Hayden became Foreign Minister in the Hawke Government. Hayden would remain as Foreign Minister until 1988, when Hawke decided to appoint Hayden as Governor-General, partly as consolation for thwarting Hayden from becoming Prime Minister. Hayden would become the second-longest serving Governor-General, staying in the role until retiring in 1996. Died in 2023.
  • For most of his life, Hayden had been a vocal atheist - a feeling that only deepened in 1966 when his daughter Michaela was tragically run over and killed while crossing the road. When he was sworn in as Governor-General, Hayden became the first G-G to make an affirmation rather than an oath, and was also the first to decline the position of Chief Scout of Australia, as his atheism was incompatible with the Scout Promise. However, in 2018 Hayden renounced his atheism and, at the age of 85, got baptised within the Catholic Church.

Andrew Peacock.

• Andrew Sharp Peacock (Liberal Party), from March 1983 to September 1985, and again from May 1989 to April 1990. Entering Parliament at a by-election to replace the retiring Sir Robert Menzies in 1966, Andrew Peacock was seen almost from the beginning as a future leader - and quickly gained the nickname "the Colt from Kooyong". John Gorton made Peacock Army Minister at the end of 1969, and then under McMahon he became External Affairs Minister. It was in this role that Peacock helped play a central role in bringing self-government to Papua New Guinea, and for helping lay the groundwork for its independence. Peacock would support Billy Snedden during the Whitlam years, and then under Malcolm Fraser he would become one of Australia's most successful and distinguished Foreign Affairs Ministers. However, he got along poorly with Fraser, and prominently objected to Fraser's recognition of Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia in 1980. Soon after the 1980 election, Peacock resigned from the Fraser Ministry, and later unsuccessfully challenged him for the leadership in April 1982. He returned to the ministry in the Industry And Commerce portfolio at the end of 1982, but didn't have much time to settle in before the Fraser Government was defeated in the 1983 election.
  
  With Fraser immediately quitting Parliament, Peacock contested the Liberal leadership against Fraser's deputy John Howard and easily won ^note To the surprise of many, given their acrimonious relationship, Fraser backed Peacock over Howard - presumably because Peacock was a Victorian "small l" liberal, while Howard was a hardline conservative from New South Wales. Peacock had the misfortune of assuming the leadership at the start of what is generally regarded as the Liberals' Audience-Alienating Era, where they spent most of The '80s struggling to gain traction against the immensely popular Bob Hawke and were bitterly divided between the moderate "wets", of which Peacock represented, and the conservative "dries", which was represented by Howard. Nevertheless, Peacock surprised everybody by outperforming Hawke in the 1984 election campaign, and winning seats off Labor when it was predicted that the Liberals would go further backwards. This did not dissuade the highly ambitious Howard though, who publicly refused to rule out ever challenging Peacock. Eventually getting fed up, Peacock tried to have Howard replaced as deputy in September 1985, and resigned as leader when Howard retained his position against John Moore - Howard duly replaced Peacock as Liberal leader.
  
  Peacock attempted to reclaim the Liberal leadership after Howard lost the 1987 election, but instead found himself become Howard's deputy. For some time afterwards, it seemed as though the leadership had stabilised and that Howard would go on to contest the 1990 election as leader. However, by early 1989 Peacock's supporters had began to plot against Howard's back, which culminated in a sudden and decisive leadership coup in May 1989 which saw Peacock triumphantly reclaim the Liberal leadership ^note On the same day, the National Party also decided to switch leaders, with veteran Nationals leader and former long-serving minister Ian Sinclair being rolled by clean-skin Charles Blunt. Whatever political honeymoon Peacock would have enjoyed though was destroyed within a week when key Peacock numbers men went on national television and openly bragged about their plotting and the lies that this involved, severely damaging Peacock's revived leadership. Labor, for their part, no longer viewed Peacock as a significant threat ^note Paul Keating scored some of his most memorable zingers against Peacock by asking after he reclaimed the leadership "can a soufflé rise twice?" and describing Peacock as "all feathers, no meat" and the general perception of Peacock became that of a charismatic, but jaded politician who lacked substance on economics. When the 1990 election came along, Peacock managed to win the popular vote but ultimately fell short of his goal to become Prime Minister ^note due to pro-environment preferences going to Labor and the Nationals performing so disastrously that their leader Charles Blunt lost his own seat. Peacock stood down from the leadership for good, and stuck around in Parliament for another four years, mainly to prevent/delay the return of Howard as leader. After retirement, Peacock reconciled with Howard, who after becoming PM would make Peacock Ambassador to the United States, which he served with distinction. Died in 2021.
  • Peacock's first marriage was to prominent Melbourne socialite Susan Rossiter, with whom they were often described as Australia's answer to John and Jackie Kennedy. Susan appeared an an ad for Sheridan Sheets in 1970, with the intention of donating her fee towards school equipment for children in Papua New Guinea. But the ad was immediately controversial, especially since it openly advertised the fact that Peacock was a federal minister. Peacock was horrified and tendered his resignation from the ministry to John Gorton - who immediately rejected his resignation and told Peacock not to be "a bloody fool". Peacock was also supported by Opposition Leader Gough Whitlam - both Whitlam and Gorton concluded the matter was too trivial to make a fuss over.
  • After Peacock's marriage to Rossiter collapsed in the late-70s, he developed a playboy image and enjoyed life as a jet-setting bachelor. By far his most prominent lover during this period (and on-again, off-again throughout subsequent decades) was with high-profile American actress Shirley MacLaine, who boasted that "I thought as long as he's the Minister for Foreign Affairs, I might as well give him one he'll never forget". They even went UFO hunting on one date in Mexico, where Peacock allegedly almost "climbed the sky" when he thought he saw a UFO go past.
  • When Peacock resigned as Industrial Relations Minister in April 1981, he justified it on the grounds that Fraser was grossly disloyal to Peacock, and said that Fraser had "cast aside the stability and sense of direction of the government" and had "bypassed the system of government by acting with a manic determination to get his own way. I find the constant disloyalty and erratic behaviour intolerable and not to be endured". Sound familiar? Peacock went out of his way to echo the wording of Fraser's March 1971 resignation speech which destroyed the prime ministership of John Gorton - who Peacock had been a loyal supporter of.
  • Peacock was at the centre of controversy in March 1987 when a foul-mouthed car phone recording between Peacock and Victorian Liberal leader (and future Premier) Jeff Kennett was leaked to the press. Both Kennett and Peacock openly referred to John Howard as a "cunt" and spent most of the conversation brutally denigrating Howard and his leadership. Howard responded by sacking Peacock from the shadow ministry, though Peacock would be back as Howard's deputy leader just four months later.
  • What was Peacock's biggest regret in his life? He went on record shortly before his death that his greatest defeat was not that he didn't become Prime Minister ^note indeed, Peacock never fully lived down his quote during his resignation press conference as leader in 1985 - when asked if he still wanted to become Prime Minister, Peacock responded "I don't know that I ever did", but instead "Unquestionably, far and away it was the 1974 Melbourne Cup when Leilani was beaten by Think Big". Peacock was a life-long horse-racing enthusiast who was one of the owners of the racehorse Leilani, which was the favourite to win the 1974 Melbourne Cup, but ultimately fell short and came second - something that Peacock joked that he had nightmares about for years afterwards.

John Hewson.

• John Robert Hewson (Liberal Party), from April 1990 to May 1994. Earning a doctorate degree in economics and working as an economic advisor during the Fraser Government, John Hewson developed an interest in politics, especially when he grew frustrated at Malcolm Fraser's reluctance to embrace Thatcherite neoliberalism. Entering Parliament in 1987, Hewson rose quickly and became Shadow Treasurer when Andrew Peacock reclaimed the Liberal leadership in May 1989. Hewson was viewed as the Coalition's strongest performer in the 1990 election, and in spite of his relative lack of parliamentary experience, was duly elected to replace Peacock as Liberal leader and Opposition leader following that election - and his leadership was also viewed as a clean break and a chance to move on from the divisions of the Peacock-Howard years.
  
  Hewson's time as Opposition Leader was most notable for the "Fightback!" package, which was a mammoth neoliberal policy platform that proved controversial, not least of which included the 15% GST. Initially, the plan proved popular in the backdrop of the early-90s "recession we had to have", and an ageing Bob Hawke struggled to come up with a response to "Fightback!". But then Paul Keating replaced Hawke in December 1991, and proceeded to, in his own words, "do Hewson slowly". The end result was that by the 1993 election, despite being incredibly unpopular himself, Keating successfully managed to turn things around and make Hewson and his "Fightback!" package the issue. Hewson's inability to explain the GST in layman's terms on national television using a birthday cake analogy helped finish him off, and the Coalition lost the "unloseable" 1993 election. Despite initially declaring that he wouldn't stay on, Hewson changed his mind - mainly to prevent John Howard's return to the leadership. Hewson stayed on for another year, emphasising his moderate "small l" liberal credentials on social policy, but his support disintegrated until he was ousted by Alexander Downer in May 1994. Hewson quit politics shortly after Howard became leader again, and like Malcolm Fraser before him ^note ironic, given how much they despised each other and how critical Hewson has always been towards Fraser on economics gradually became estranged from the Liberals and ultimately quit the party in 2019 over climate change and the Liberals' overall shift to the right.

Alexander Downer.

• Alexander John Gosse Downer (Liberal Party), from May 1994 to January 1995. The son of a Menzies cabinet minister and the grandson of a South Australian Premier who took part as a delegate in the conventions leading up to Federation, Downer was the first (and so far, only) Liberal leader to come from South Australia. Becoming leader by a desperate Liberal Party who were done with John Hewson but also not prepared to reinstate John Howard, Downer started off his brief tenure relatively popular, and was seen as a breath of fresh air against the unpopular Paul Keating. However, his leadership collapsed within months due to a series of self-inflicted high-profile gaffes, most notoriously when he mocked his own policy slogan "The Things That Matter" by saying that their domestic violence policy should be called "The Things That Batter". Downer also proved no match against the formidable Keating, who made quick work of demolishing Downer, especially when Downer was found to have addressed a far-right group in 1987 and tried to cover it up. After being informed that his leadership would not survive a challenge, Downer agreed to hand over the Liberal leadership to John Howard in January 1995, who went on to lead the Liberals to victory in the 1996 election. Under Howard, Downer became Australia's longest-serving Foreign Affairs Minister, in which he dressed up in fishnet stockings, enthusiastically backed the Iraq War, and sang a parody of The Beach Boys' "Kokomo" at an ASEAN summit. Retired from politics in 2008, and went on to serve as Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Kim Beazley.

• Kim Christian Beazley (Labor Party), from March 1996 to November 2001, and again from January 2005 to December 2006. Elected unopposed as leader of a heavily demoralised Labor Party, it did not take long for Beazley to gain ground on the Howard Government, especially after Howard reneged on his election promise not to introduce the GST. Remarkably, just two years after Paul Keating's landslide defeat, Beazley achieved a big swing and a popular vote victory against the Coalition in the 1998 federal election, although the uneven nature of the swing meant that Beazley fell short of becoming Prime Minister. The next three years saw Beazley and the Labor Party back the unsuccessful Republic referendum, though otherwise generally remained more popular than the Howard Government. Beazley maintained his lead right up until mid-2001, when the Tampa Affair took place and John Howard's hardline stance against taking the refugees was supported by the public. This was compounded by the September 11 terrorist attacks shortly afterwards, and Howard was able to benefit sufficiently enough to win the November 2001 election with a slightly increased majority. Although generally not blamed for the election loss, Beazley took it upon himself to stand down and hand the Labor leadership over to Simon Crean.
  
  Seemingly regretting his decision, Beazley made two unsuccessful attempts at reclaiming the leadership in 2003 as Crean's leadership faltered, then collapsed. After having served as Shadow Defence Minister under Mark Latham, Beazley was able to reclaim the leadership at the beginning of 2005 in the wake of another election loss in October 2004. By this time Beazley, having first been elected in 1980, was the longest-serving MP on the Labor side, and a perception swiftly formed that he was past his prime as leader. Whilst remaining personally popular, Beazley never quite had the run of the ball (to use a sporting analogy) against Howard during his second stint as leader, although he still managed to effectively campaign against the controversial WorkChoices legislation and held the Howard Government to account over the AWB Scandal. Ultimately, after a series of public gaffes towards the end of 2006, Beazley was deposed as leader by Kevin Rudd - a misfortune greatly compounded by the fact that his brother also died the same day. Retired from Parliament in 2007, and has since held the roles of Ambassador to the United States and Governor of Western Australia.

Simon Crean.

• Simon Findlay Crean (Labor Party), from November 2001 to December 2003. The son of Whitlam era Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Frank Crean, Simon Crean held the role of President of the ACTU (often a strong breeding ground for future Labor politicians) from 1985 to 1990. Upon election to federal Parliament in the 1990 election, Crean was immediately appointed to the ministry and became a protege of Bob Hawke's. Crean would hold a number of positions in the Hawke and Keating Governments throughout the 1990s, and became Deputy Labor leader to Kim Beazley following the 1998 election. After Labor's loss in the 2001 election, he became Labor leader, with Jenny Macklin elected as his deputy - the first time a female was elected to a leadership position of a major party federally. Failed to make much of a breakthrough against John Howard during what was arguably the peak of Howard's prime ministership (the War on Terror increased Howard's popularity to a substantial extent). Notably, Crean led Labor in their opposition to the Iraq War, condemning Howard for committing Australian troops to the conflict - though like Arthur Calwell before him, Crean would be Vindicated by History for his anti-war stance, but would not benefit politically for it.
  
  Lack of political headway and poor polling led to a challenge to his leadership by Beazley in June 2003; though Crean saw this challenge off, he would ultimately resign as leader at the end of 2003 when it became clear that he lost the confidence of his colleagues. Crean therefore became the first Labor leader not to lead his party into a federal election ^note well, there's also Billy Hughes, who didn't lead Labor to an election, though he did win several elections as leader of the Nationalists following the conscription split of 1916. His political career was far from over though, and Crean would go on to serve as a senior minister in the Rudd-Gillard Labor governments, and in doing so becoming the only Labor MP since Jack Beasley ^note who served as a minister under Scullin, Curtin, Forde and Chifley to serve as a minister under four different Labor Prime Ministers. Retired from Parliament in 2013 after unsuccessfully standing for Deputy PM against Anthony Albanese when Rudd became PM for a second time. Died in 2023.

Mark Latham.

• Mark William Latham (Labor Party), from December 2003 to January 2005. Started out as a research assistant for Gough Whitlam in the 80s before becoming Mayor of Liverpool in Sydney from 1991 to 1994. Latham would then go on to be elected to Whitlam's old seat of Werriwa in a 1994 by-election, and was elected to the Opposition front-bench after the 1996 landslide defeat. Latham, who was a strong supporter of Simon Crean, would defeat Kim Beazley to succeed Crean as leader at the end of 2003. Known for his outspoken and rather aggressive personality (he famously was alleged to have broken a taxi driver's arm in a dispute about fares) he nonetheless was initially popular with the electorate, at one point becoming the most popular Opposition Leader since Bob Hawke in 1983. In comparison to John Howard, he was charismatic and youthful - indeed, at the age of 42, Latham was the youngest federal Labor leader since Chris Watson in the 1900s. However, the wheels began to come off following his announcement that he would bring Australian troops home from Iraq by Christmas 2004, which at the time was still relatively popular.
  
  A gaffe-ridden 2004 election campaign culminated in him giving an all-too-firm handshake to Howard (whom he towers over in terms of physical statue), while the Coalition successfully managed to highlight Latham's relative inexperience and sew doubts in the electorate as to whether he was temperamentally up to the job. Labor suffered a net loss of seats and the Coalition won control of the Senate; Latham would resign in a rather bitter tone a few months later. It has been speculated that Latham had won the leadership too young and too early in his career, and that he would have had the potential to be a more successful leader had he been given more time to gain experience and skill. This wasn't the end of his story, however. He caused a sensation by releasing his diaries in 2005, which contained an avalanche of criticisms of the ALP and leading figures within it - effectively leading to his Labor colleagues disowning him. He continued to be a high-profile commentator and was a frequent critic of the Rudd and Gillard Labor Governments. His politics would shift further and further to the right, until he quit the Labor Party in 2017 and joined the Liberal Democrats - earning himself a life ban from Labor. Less than two years later, Latham would switch parties again to One Nation, being elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council in 2019 and becoming leader of the party in the state. In 2023, Latham was (inevitably, some might say) sacked by Pauline Hanson as NSW One Nation leader following unprintably homophobic comments on social media. He currently sits as an independent in the legislature, with his term scheduled to run until 2031 (he was re-elected in the 2023 NSW state election).

Brendan Nelson.

• Brendan John Nelson (Liberal Party), from December 2007 to September 2008. A medical practitioner who became the (youngest ever) President of the Australian Medical Association in the early 90s, Brendan Nelson started out as a member of the Labor Party before making the switch to the Liberals in 1994. Winning preselection against David Connolly, a sitting shadow minister, Nelson entered Parliament in the 1996 election and swiftly established himself as a leading "small l" liberal moderate - though as a Catholic he voted in favour of the bill banning territories from legislating on euthanasia. After two terms on the backbench, Nelson entered the Howard ministry and served firstly as Education Minister, then as Defence Minister. Nelson was elected Liberal leader against Malcolm Turnbull following the 2007 election defeat; however the narrow margin of victory over the highly ambitious Turnbull meant that Nelson's position as Opposition leader was never secure. The public never warmed to Nelson either; he was mostly booed across the country when he gave his response to Kevin Rudd's Apology to the Stolen Generation; and at one point his approval ratings sank as low as 7%. Ultimately, after a series of gaffes (particularly over emissions trading and climate change), Nelson was deposed as Liberal leader by Turnbull after less than a year in the job - meaning that like Alexander Downer, Nelson never led the Liberals to an election. Resigned from Parliament a year later, and has since taken ambassadorial positions as well as becoming Director of the Australian War Memorial.

Bill Shorten.

• William Richard Shorten (Labor Party), from October 2013 to May 2019. A leading figure of the Australian Workers Union, Bill Shorten first won preselection in 2006 when he successfully challenged Bob Sercombe, a sitting shadow minister. From there, Shorten very rapidly rose to national prominence for his high-profile role in dealing with the Beaconsfield Mine collapse in Tasmania, dealing with the media daily and taking part in union negotiations. Elected to Parliament in 2007, Shorten would go on to serve in successive ministries under Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd - although he was most notoriously known during this period for his role as a key powerbroker playing a central part in the respective coups against Rudd and Gillard in 2010 and 2013 respectively. Following the 2013 election, Shorten successfully contested the Labor leadership against outgoing Deputy PM Anthony Albanese, winning with the support of Kim Carr's sub-faction in the Victorian Left although losing the rank-and-file vote. Shorten would stay on as Opposition Leader long enough to face three separate Liberal Prime Ministers, although he never at any point enjoyed great personal popularity.
  
  Shorten and Labor were consistently ahead of the Abbott Government in the polls from the disastrous 2014 budget onwards, and it is speculated that Shorten could have become Prime Minister had he faced Abbott in an election. However, Abbott was dumped as PM in favour of the far more popular and moderate Malcolm Turnbull, and Shorten's approval ratings swiftly sank. Nevertheless, Shorten was able to claw back a significant among of ground in the 2016 election, reducing the Coalition Government to a one-seat majority in a severe blow to Turnbull. The subsequent term in office saw Shorten pledge to hold a Republic model plebiscite if elected, and led Labor in support of same-sex marriage in 2017. Shorten and Labor were again consistently ahead throughout most of this period - a lead that only widened with the deposal of Turnbull as PM in favour of Scott Morrison. In the end though, Shorten fell short of winning the 2019 election, with Morrison - not yet politically tarnished - able to raise enough doubts about Shorten and take advantage of his personal unpopularity. Shorten, like John Hewson before him, also made the mistake of running on too big of an agenda, and Queensland in particular also swung firmly to the Coalition due to Shorten's ambivalent stance on coal mining. Shorten duly stood down as Labor leader and made way for one-time rival Albanese, who himself went on to win the 2022 election against Morrison. Currently serving as NDIS minister in the Albanese Government.

Peter Dutton.

• Peter Craig Dutton (Liberal Party), from May 2022. A Queensland former police officer, Dutton was first elected in the 2001 election by defeating high-profile Labor shadow minister and former leader of the Australian Democrats Cheryl Kernot. After 2004, John Howard appointed Dutton to the junior ministry, and was considered a rising star when the Coalition lost the 2007 election; an election in which Dutton himself nearly lost his seat. In Opposition, Dutton was most notable for opposing the Apology to the Stolen Generation and duly abstained from the vote; a stance which he later claimed to regret. Dutton initially served as Health Minister during the Abbott Government, although he would be regarded as among the worst Health Ministers in living memory by the medical industry. He would quickly be moved to the Immigration portfolio, where he began to make his name as a hardline conservative on border protection and national security, and had a natural tendency for gaffes such as accidentally texting to a female journalist that she is a "mad fucking witch", and being caught joking about rising sea waters lapping on the doors of Pacific Islanders. All of which swiftly cemented Dutton as public enemy number one for people on the political left.
  
  Under Turnbull, Dutton in 2017 became Home Affairs Minister, during which time he notably called on Australia to take on more white South African "refugees", something which caused outrage among the South African Government. It was also during his time in the portfolio that Dutton challenged Turnbull for the Liberal leadership in August 2018, playing the central role in bringing down Turnbull as PM in a week of drama and chaos. However, in the final vote, Dutton ultimately lost out to Scott Morrison, who won as the compromise candidate against him and the moderate deputy leader Julie Bishop. Finally, in 2021 Dutton became Defence Minister, where he oversaw the final withdraw of Australian troops from Afghanistan. After Morrison lost the 2022 federal election, Dutton was elected unopposed to replace him as Liberal leader (becoming the first Liberal leader from Queensland) - there being no credible alternatives this time with the outgoing deputy leader and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg losing his seat. Although nobody knows at the time of writing if Dutton will ever win an election and become Prime Minister, he faces an uphill battle to keep the Liberals together and to repair the damage done to the Liberal brand during their last stint in government....