Leaders of the Australian Labor Party

The federal Labor Caucus comprising the elected members of the Labor party in both Houses of the national Parliament is involved in the election of the federal parliamentary leaders from among its members. The leader has historically been a member of the House of Representatives. Caucus also has the power to dismiss a party leader in a process called a leadership spill. Until 2013, a spill vote could be called at any time and a simple majority of votes in Caucus was sufficient to remove a leader. Following the return of Kevin Rudd to the leadership of the ALP in 2013, he sought changes to the party's rules so that leadership spills would be more difficult to launch in future, including a requirement for 75% majority in Caucus for a leadership spill against a sitting Labor prime minister, or 60% against an opposition leader.[1] The changes also provided for equally weighted voting rights between Caucus and party rank and file members. These changes were adopted by Caucus in July 2013, which was not a change to the party's constitution[2] (and theoretically can be reverted by a simple majority in Caucus). At the October 2013 leadership spill Bill Shorten was the first leader elected under the new rules. Shorten received 55-43 votes in Caucus, which was sufficient to overcome his 40% support among party members.[3]

When the Labor Party is in government, the party leader becomes the Prime Minister and the deputy leader becomes the Deputy Prime Minister. If a Labor prime minister resigns or dies in office, the deputy leader becomes party leader and is sworn in as prime minister on an interim basis until a party successor is elected. This was the case upon the death in office of John Curtin on 5 July 1945. Frank Forde, the deputy party leader, was sworn in as interim prime minister until Ben Chifley was elected by Caucus as party leader on 13 July. If the leader is out of the country or is on leave, the deputy leader acts as party leader and prime minister, without being sworn into the office.

According to recent convention, the leader and deputy leader must be from different factions and from different states.[4] With two exceptions since 2001 (Rudd/Albanese in 2013 and Albanese/Marles from 2019), the leadership and deputy leadership have also been gender-balanced.

The federal Leaders of the Australian Labor Party have been as follows (acting leaders indicated in italics):

#	Leader		Term start	Term end	Time in office	Prime Minister
1		Chris Watson	20 May 1901	30 October 1907	6 years, 163 days	Yes (1904)
2		Andrew Fisher	30 October 1907	27 October 1915	7 years, 362 days	Yes (1908–09, 1910–13, 1914–15)
3		Billy Hughes	27 October 1915	14 November 1916	1 year, 18 days	Yes (1915–23)
4		Frank Tudor	14 November 1916	10 January 1922†	5 years, 57 days	No
5		Matthew Charlton	16 January 1922	16 May 1922	111 days	No
			16 May 1922	29 March 1928	5 years, 318 days
6		James Scullin	26 April 1928	1 October 1935	7 years, 128 days	Yes (1929–32)
7		John Curtin	1 October 1935	5 July 1945†	9 years, 277 days	Yes (1941–45)
–[5]		Frank Forde	6 July 1945	13 July 1945	7 days	Yes (1945)
8		Ben Chifley	13 July 1945	13 June 1951†	5 years, 335 days	Yes (1945–49)
9		H. V. Evatt	20 June 1951	9 February 1960	8 years, 241 days	No
10		Arthur Calwell	7 March 1960	8 February 1967	6 years, 338 days	No
11		Gough Whitlam	9 February 1967	22 December 1977	10 years, 316 days	Yes (1972–75)
12		Bill Hayden	22 December 1977	3 February 1983	5 years, 43 days	No
13		Bob Hawke	3 February 1983	20 December 1991	8 years, 320 days	Yes (1983–91)
14		Paul Keating	20 December 1991	2 March 1996	4 years, 73 days	Yes (1991–96)
15		Kim Beazley	19 March 1996	22 November 2001	5 years, 248 days	No
16		Simon Crean	22 November 2001	2 December 2003	2 years, 10 days	No
17		Mark Latham	2 December 2003	18 January 2005	1 year, 47 days	No
(15)		Kim Beazley	18 January 2005	4 December 2006	1 year, 320 days	No
18		Kevin Rudd	4 December 2006	24 June 2010	3 years, 202 days	Yes (2007–10)
19		Julia Gillard	24 June 2010	26 June 2013	3 years, 2 days	Yes (2010–13)
(18)		Kevin Rudd	26 June 2013	13 September 2013	79 days	Yes (2013)
–		Chris Bowen	18 September 2013	13 October 2013	25 days	No
20		Bill Shorten	13 October 2013	30 May 2019	5 years, 229 days	No
21		Anthony Albanese	30 May 2019	Incumbent	1 year, 245 days	No

Shown in chronological order of leadership

#	Deputy Leader		Term start	Term end	Time in office	Leader
1		Gregor McGregor	20 May 1901	30 July 1914	13 years, 71 days	Chris Watson
						Andrew Fisher
2		Billy Hughes	18 September 1914	27 October 1915	1 year, 39 days
3		George Pearce	27 October 1915	14 November 1916	1 year, 18 days	Billy Hughes
4		Albert Gardiner	14 November 1916	30 June 1926	9 years, 228 days	Frank Tudor
						Matthew Charlton
5		James Scullin	17 March 1927	29 March 1928	1 year, 12 days
6		Arthur Blakeley	26 April 1928	5 February 1929	285 days	James Scullin
7		Ted Theodore	5 February 1929	19 December 1931	2 years, 317 days
8		Frank Forde	16 February 1932	28 September 1946	14 years, 224 days
						John Curtin
						Ben Chifley
9		H. V. Evatt	31 October 1946	20 June 1951	4 years, 232 days
10		Arthur Calwell	20 June 1951	7 March 1960	8 years, 261 days	H. V. Evatt
11		Gough Whitlam	7 March 1960	9 February 1967	6 years, 339 days	Arthur Calwell
12		Lance Barnard	9 February 1967	12 June 1974	7 years, 123 days	Gough Whitlam
13		Jim Cairns	12 June 1974	2 July 1975	1 year, 20 days
14		Frank Crean	2 July 1975	22 December 1975	173 days
15		Tom Uren	22 December 1975	22 December 1977	2 years, 0 days
16		Lionel Bowen	22 December 1977	4 April 1990	12 years, 103 days	Bill Hayden
						Bob Hawke
17		Paul Keating	4 April 1990	3 Jun 1991	1 year, 60 days
18		Brian Howe	3 June 1991	20 June 1995	4 years, 17 days
						Paul Keating
19		Kim Beazley	20 June 1995	19 March 1996	273 days
20		Gareth Evans	19 March 1996	19 October 1998	2 years, 214 days	Kim Beazley
21		Simon Crean	19 October 1998	22 November 2001	3 years, 34 days
22		Jenny Macklin	22 November 2001	4 December 2006	5 years, 12 days	Simon Crean
						Mark Latham
						Kim Beazley
23		Julia Gillard	4 December 2006	24 June 2010	3 years, 202 days	Kevin Rudd
24		Wayne Swan	24 June 2010	27 June 2013	3 years, 3 days	Julia Gillard
25		Anthony Albanese	27 June 2013	14 October 2013	109 days	Kevin Rudd
26		Tanya Plibersek	14 October 2013	30 May 2019	5 years, 228 days	Bill Shorten
27		Richard Marles	30 May 2019	Incumbent	1 year, 245 days	Anthony Albanese