Australian Federal Elections
AS OF 2026-07-22 · 48 CONTESTS · federal election, 3 May 2025 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
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Where the chamber sits · 3.4 of 10, left to right, spread 0.6 →
Every Australian federal election from Federation in 1901 to 2025: the results, the leaders, the preferences and the turnout, from Barton's first parliament to the 2025 landslide, for novices who want the story and experts who want the numbers.
Federal elections
48
1901–2025
Latest
2025
Labor · Anthony Albanese
House seats today
150
76 for a majority
Turnout since 1925
~95%
compulsory voting since 1924, the world's steadiest electorate
The chronology
Every federal election, newest first, grouped into nine eras. Click any election for the full result, the party table and the story.
The modern seesaw · 2010–2025
A hung parliament in 2010, a decade of leadership coups on both sides, the teal-independent wave of 2022 and a fragmenting primary vote — then Anthony Albanese's 2025 landslide, the largest seat haul either party has ever recorded, bucked the fragmentation story.
Labor 94Liberal–National Coalition 43Independents 10
Labor 77Liberal–National Coalition 58Greens 4others 10
Liberal–National Coalition 77Labor 68Greens 1others 3
Liberal–National Coalition 76Labor 69Greens 1others 2
Liberal–National Coalition 90Labor 55Greens 1others 2
Labor 72Liberal–National Coalition 72Independents 4
The Howard era · 1996–2007
John Howard's 1996 landslide began eleven years of Coalition government: gun laws, the GST election of 1998 won with a minority of the two-party vote, Tampa and national security in 2001, and interest rates in 2004 — until WorkChoices and Kevin Rudd ended it in 2007, taking Howard's own seat with it.
Labor 83Liberal–National Coalition 65others 2
Liberal–National Coalition 87Labor 60others 3
Liberal–National Coalition 82Labor 65others 3
Liberal–National Coalition 80Labor 67others 1
Liberal–National Coalition 94Labor 49others 5
Fraser, then Hawke and Keating · 1977–1993
Malcolm Fraser consolidated the post-Dismissal order until Bob Hawke's consensus politics delivered Labor four straight wins from 1983. Paul Keating took the leadership in 1991 and won 1993's 'sweetest victory of all' against the GST.
Labor 80Liberal–National Coalition 65others 2
Labor 78Liberal–National Coalition 69others 1
Labor 86Liberal 43National 19
Labor 82Liberal–National Coalition 66
Labor 75Liberal–National Coalition 50
Liberal–National Country Coalition 74Labor 51
Liberal–National Country Coalition 86Labor 38
Holt to the Dismissal · 1966–1975
The Coalition's Vietnam-era landslide of 1966 gave way to Gough Whitlam's 'It's Time' victory in 1972 — Labor's first win in 23 years. Three years, two elections and one constitutional crisis later, the Dismissal made 1975 the most bitter election in Australian history.
Liberal–National Country Coalition 91Labor 36
Labor 66Liberal–Country Coalition 61
Labor 67Liberal–Country Coalition 58
Liberal–Country Coalition 66Labor 59
Liberal–Country Coalition 82Labor 41others 1
The Menzies ascendancy · 1946–1963
Robert Menzies rebuilt the shattered non-Labor side as the Liberal Party and won in 1949 on anti-socialism and postwar prosperity. The Labor split of 1955 and DLP preferences kept him in power; he retired unbeaten after seven straight wins.
Liberal–Country Coalition 72Labor 50
Liberal–Country Coalition 62Labor 60
Liberal–Country Coalition 77Labor 45
Liberal–Country Coalition 75Labor 47
Liberal–Country Coalition 64Labor 57
Liberal–Country Coalition 69Labor 52
Liberal–Country Coalition 74Labor 47
Labor 43Liberal–Country Coalition 29Independents 2
Depression and war · 1931–1943
The Depression split Labor and handed power to Joseph Lyons's new United Australia Party. As war came, the UAP crumbled; John Curtin's Labor took office in 1941 without an election and then won the 1943 wartime landslide, still Labor's biggest.
Labor 49Country–United Australia Coalition 23others 2
United Australia–Country Coalition 36Labor 32Labor (Non-Communist) 4
United Australia–Country Coalition 43Labor 29others 2
United Australia 33Labor 18Country 14
United Australia 33Country 16Labor 15
Hughes, Bruce and the coalition habit · 1919–1929
Billy Hughes's Nationalists absorbed the Labor defectors, the new Country Party learned to name its price, and from 1923 the non-Labor side governed as a coalition — a habit Australian politics never broke. It ended with Stanley Bruce losing his own seat in 1929.
Labor 46Nationalist–Country Coalition 24Independents 4
Labor 31Nationalist 29Country 13others 2
Nationalist 37Labor 23others 15
Labor 29Nationalist 26Country 14others 7
Nationalist 37Labor 26others 12
Labor against the Fusion · 1910–1917
The anti-Labour forces fused into a single Liberal party in 1909, and in 1910 Andrew Fisher's Labor won the world's first majority labour government at national level. War, conscription and the great Labor split of 1916 remade the landscape.
Nationalist 53Labor 22
Labor 42Liberal 32others 1
Liberal 38Labor 37
Labour 42Liberal 31others 2
Founding the Commonwealth · 1901–1906
The first Commonwealth parliaments were three-cornered contests between Protectionists, Free Traders and the rising Labour movement. Governments formed and fell on shifting alliances — Australia changed prime ministers five times in its first decade without an election deciding it.
Labour 26Anti-Socialist 26Protectionist 16others 5
Protectionist 26Free Trade 24Labour 22
Protectionist 32Free Trade Party 25Labour 16
The long arc in charts
A century and a quarter of results. Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout, 1901–2025
Voluntary voting produced turnouts as low as 39% in 1903; compulsory voting from 1924 snapped it above 90% and it has never left.
The major-party grip
Combined first-preference vote of Labor and the Coalition family against Labor's share of House seats. The primary-vote grip has slid for decades, yet preferences still deliver majority governments.
Records & superlatives
Highest turnout (compulsory era)
96.3%
1943 federal election
Lowest turnout since 1925
89.8%
2022 federal election
Most seats won
94
Liberal–National Coalition, 1996
Biggest share of the House
71.7%
Liberal–National Country Coalition, 1975: 91 of 127 seats
Highest primary vote
56.7%
Labor, 1929
Biggest primary swing
-21.7 pts
Labor, 1931
Changes of Prime Minister at the ballot box
13
of 48 elections — most recently 2022
How Australian federal elections work
Preferential voting
Voters number every candidate. If nobody has a majority of first preferences, the last-placed candidate is excluded and their ballots flow on, which is why a party can trail on primaries and still win the seat, and why the two-party-preferred count decides elections.
Compulsory voting
Enrolment and turning out have been compulsory since 1924. Turnout jumped from 59% to 91% at the first compulsory election and has stayed above 90% ever since, the steadiest participation of any major democracy.
The Coalition
The Liberal Party and the Nationals (once the Country Party) have contested elections as a standing coalition for a century, functioning as one side of a two-party system against Labor while remaining separate parties.
Three-year terms
The House serves a maximum of three years, among the shortest terms anywhere, and a government can call a double dissolution of both chambers to break Senate deadlocks, as in 1914, 1951, 1974, 1975 and 2016.