Liberal Party of Australia in the context of "Major party"

The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia and one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party has been in government since the 2022 federal election, and with political branches active in all the Australian states and territories, they currently hold government in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory. As of 2025, Queensland, Tasmania and Northern Territory are the only states or territories where Labor currently forms the opposition. It is the oldest continuously operating political party in Australian history, having been established on 8 May 1901 at Parliament House, Melbourne, the meeting place of the first Federal Parliament.

The ALP is descended from the labour parties founded in the various Australian colonies by the emerging labour movement. Colonial Labour parties contested seats from 1891, and began contesting federal seats following Federation at the 1901 federal election. In 1904, the ALP briefly formed what is considered the world's first labour party government and the world's first democratic socialist or social democratic government at a national level. At the 1910 federal election, Labor became the first party in Australia to win a majority in either house of the Australian parliament. In every election since 1910 Labor has either served as the governing party or the opposition. There have been 13 Labor prime ministers and 10 periods of federal Labor governments, including under Billy Hughes from 1915 to 1916, James Scullin from 1929 to 1932, John Curtin from 1941 to 1945, Ben Chifley from 1945 to 1949, Gough Whitlam from 1972 to 1975, Bob Hawke from 1983 to 1991, Paul Keating from 1991 to 1996, Kevin Rudd from 2007 to 2010 and 2013, Julia Gillard from 2010 to 2013, and Anthony Albanese since 2022.

A federal election was held on 21 August 2010 to elect members of the 43rd Parliament of Australia. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard won a second term against the opposition centre-right Liberal Party of Australia led by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Coalition partner the National Party of Australia, led by Warren Truss, after Labor formed a minority government with the support of three independent MPs and one Australian Greens MP.

Labor and the Coalition each won 72 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, four short of the requirement for majority government, resulting in the first hung parliament since the 1940 election. Six crossbenchers held the balance of power. Greens MP Adam Bandt and independent MPs Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor declared their support for Labor on confidence and supply. Independent MP Bob Katter and National Party of Western Australia MP Tony Crook declared their support for the Coalition on confidence and supply. The resulting 76–74 margin entitled Labor to form a minority government. The Prime Minister, government ministers and parliamentary secretaries were sworn in on 14 September 2010 by the Governor-General Quentin Bryce. In November 2011, Coalition MP and Deputy Speaker Peter Slipper replaced Labor MP Harry Jenkins as Speaker of the House of Representatives, increasing Labor's parliamentary majority from 75–74 (not including Jenkins as he was unable to vote on legislation due to his role as Speaker) to 76–73 (not including Slipper as he was unable to vote on legislation due to his role as Speaker).

The politics of Australia has a mild two-party system, with two dominant political groupings in the Australian political system, the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party of Australia. Federally, 13 of the 150 members of the lower house (Members of Parliament, or MPs) are not members of major parties, as well as 20 of the 76 members of the upper house (senators).

The Parliament of Australia has a number of distinctive features including compulsory voting, with full-preference instant-runoff voting in single-member seats to elect the lower house, the Australian House of Representatives, and the use of the single transferable vote to elect the upper house, the Australian Senate.

A federal election was held on 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal–National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth consecutive term in office but was defeated by the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Up for election were all 151 seats in the lower house, the House of Representatives, as well as 40 of the 76 seats in the upper house, the Senate. The voter turnout of 89.82% in this election was the lowest in modern history, falling below 90% for the first time since 1922, prior to the introduction of compulsory voting in Australia.

The Labor Party achieved a majority government for the first time since 2007, winning 77 seats in the House of Representatives. Albanese was sworn in as Prime Minister on 23 May 2022, becoming the fourth Labor leader to win government from opposition since World War II, after Gough Whitlam in 1972, Bob Hawke in 1983, and Kevin Rudd in 2007. Every state and territory except Tasmania swung to Labor on a two-party-preferred basis. The largest two-party preferred swing was in Western Australia (10.6%), where Labor won a majority of seats for the first time since 1990. The Coalition suffered severe losses, winning 58 seats, its lowest share in the House of Representatives since 1946, the first federal election contested by the Liberal Party. On election night, Morrison conceded defeat and announced he would resign as Liberal leader, and was subsequently replaced by Peter Dutton.

The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world.

The meaning of liberal varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems of Australia and Canada share many similarities, the Liberal Party of Australia is Australia's major party on the centre-right, while the Liberal Party of Canada is typically described as centre-left.

In Australia, liberalism has a vast interpretation and a broad definition. It dates back to the earliest Australian pioneers and has maintained a strong foothold to the present day. Modern-day Australian liberalism is the successor to colonial liberalism, and has been compared to British liberalism for its similarity. The primary representation (and political entity) of Australian liberalism is the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Unlike in the United States, in Australia, the term "liberal", is often associated with conservatism.

In Australian parliamentary practice, the Opposition or the Official Opposition consists of the second largest party or coalition of parties in the Australian House of Representatives, with its leader being given the title Leader of the Opposition. The Opposition serves the same function as the official opposition in other Commonwealth of Nations monarchies that follow the Westminster conventions and practices. It is seen as the alternative government and the existing administration's main opponent in the Australian Parliament and at a general election. By convention, the Opposition Leader in the federal Parliament comes from the House of Representatives, as does the deputy, although the Government and Opposition may also both have leaders in the Senate. The Opposition is sometimes styled as His Majesty's Loyal Opposition to show that, although the group may be against the sitting government, it remains loyal to the Crown (the embodiment of the Australian state), and thus to Australia.

The current Opposition at a federal level is the centre-right Liberal Party/National Party Coalition, led by Sussan Ley.

Anthony John Abbott (/ˈæbət/; born 4 November 1957) is an Australian former politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He led the Liberal Party and represented the New South Wales seat of Warringah from 1994 until 2019.

Abbott studied economics and law at the University of Sydney before attending Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Prior to entering politics, he trained briefly for the priesthood and worked in journalism and political advisory roles.

Warren Errol Truss AC (born 8 October 1948) is a former Australian politician who served as the 16th deputy prime minister of Australia and the minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development in the Abbott government and the Turnbull government. Truss served as the federal leader of the National Party of Australia (The Nationals) between 2007 and 11 February 2016 when he announced his decision to retire and not contest the 2016 federal election. He was the member of the House of Representatives for Wide Bay from the 1990 election until his retirement in May 2016. Following the merger of the Queensland branches of the Nationals and Liberals, Truss was re-elected in 2010 for the Liberal National Party.