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Terms of Australian Prime Ministers Since 1901

This table shows all of Australia’s 31 prime ministers by the length of their time in office.

Four prime ministers have served non-consecutive terms of office: Deakin (3), Fisher (3), Menzies (2) and Rudd (2). They are ordered by their total time as prime minister.

Anthony Albanese

Albanese

Anthony Albanese was first elected to the House of Representatives as the Labor member for Grayndler in 1996. He served as a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments between 2007 and 2013. Following the 2019 election, Albanese was elected leader of the ALP to replace Bill Shorten.

Albanese won office at the May 21, 2022 elections, joining Fisher, Scullin, Whitlam, Hawke and Rudd, who all led the ALP from opposition into government at an election.

In his first 100 days as prime minister, Albanese overtook the terms of office of the three stop-gap prime ministers – Forde, Page and McEwen – as well as the 40-day term of Arthur Fadden.

On April 10, 2023, Albanese overtook George Reid’s term of 10 months, 18 days and became the 25th longest-serving prime minister. Previously, on September 13, 2022, Albanese surpassed the 3 months, 21 days term of the first Labor PM, Chris Watson.

On April 15, 2024, Albanese will match Harold Holt’s term of 1 year, 10 months, 23 days and become the 22nd longest-serving prime minister.

Australian Prime Ministers Since 1901 – by length of time in office
No. Name Party Period in Office Length of term Born Died Age
1.
Menzies, Robert Gordon
Lib
26.04.1939 – 29.08.1941
19.12.1949 – 26.01.1966
2 years, 4 months, 4 days
16 years, 1 month, 8 days
Total: 18 years, 5 months, 12 days
20.12.1894
15.05.1978
83
2.
Howard, John Winston
Lib
11.03.1996 – 03.12.2007
11 years, 8 months, 22 days
26.07.1939
84
3.
Hawke, Robert James Lee
ALP
11.03.1983 – 20.12.1991
8 years, 9 months, 9 days
09.12.1929
16.05.2019
89
4.
Fraser, John Malcolm
Lib
11.11.1975 – 11.03.1983
7 years, 4 months
21.05.1930
20.03.2015
84
5.
Hughes, William Morris
ALP
Nat
27.10.1915 – 09.02.1923
7 years, 3 months, 14 days
25.09.1862
28.10.1952
90
6.
Lyons, Joseph Aloysius
UAP
06.01.1932 – 07.04.1939
7 years, 3 months, 2 days
15.09.1879
07.04.1939
59
7.
Bruce, Stanley Melbourne
Nat
09.02.1923 – 22.10.1929
6 years, 8 months, 14 days
15.04.1883
25.08.1967
84
8.
Deakin, Alfred
Prot
Lib
24.09.1903 – 27.04.1904
05.07.1905 – 13.11.1908
02.06.1909 – 29.04.1910
7 months, 4 days
3 years, 4 months, 9 days
10 months, 28 days
Total: 4 years, 10 months, 10 days
03.08.1856
07.10.1919
63
9.
Fisher, Andrew
ALP
13.11.1908 – 02.06.1909
29.04.1910 – 24.06.1913
17.09.1914 – 27.10.1915
6 months, 21 days
3 years, 1 month, 26 days
1 year, 1 month, 11 days
Total: 4 years 9 months, 28 days
29.08.1862
22.10.1928
66
10.
Chifley, Joseph Benedict
ALP
13.07.1945 – 19.12.1949
4 years, 5 months, 7 days
22.09.1885
13.06.1951
65
11.
Keating, Paul John
ALP
20.12.1991 – 11.03.1996
4 years, 2 months, 20 days
18.01.1944
80
12.
Morrison, Scott John
Lib
24.08.2018 – 23.05.2022
3 years, 8 months, 30 days
13.05.1968
55
13.
Curtin, John
ALP
07.10.1941 – 05.07.1945
3 years, 8 months, 29 days
08.01.1885
05.07.1945
60
14.
Gorton, John Grey
Lib
10.01.1968 – 10.03.1971
3 years, 2 months
09.09.1911
19.05.2002
90
15.
Gillard, Julia Eileen
ALP
24.06.2010 – 27.06.2013
3 years, 3 days
29.09.1961
62
16.
Turnbull, Malcolm Bligh
Lib
15.09.2015 – 24.08.2018
2 years, 11 months, 9 days
24.10.1954
69
17.
Whitlam, Edward Gough
ALP
05.12.1972 – 11.11.1975
2 years, 11 months, 7 days
11.07.1916
21.10.2014
98
18.
Rudd, Kevin Michael
ALP
03.12.2007 – 24.06.2010
27.06.2013 – 18.09.2013
2 years, 6 months, 22 days
2 months, 22 days
Total: 2y, 9m, 12d (1019d)
21.09.1957
66
19.
Barton, Edmund
Prot
01.01.1901 – 24.09.1903
2 years, 8 months, 24 days
18.01.1849
07.01.1920
70
20.
Scullin, James Henry
ALP
22.10.1929 – 06.01.1932
2 years, 2 months, 16 days
19.09.1876
28.01.1953
76
21.
Abbott, Anthony John
Lib
18.09.2013 – 15.09.2015
1 year, 11 months, 28 days
04.11.1957
66
22.
Holt, Harold Edward
Lib
26.01.1966 – 19.12.1967
1 year, 10 months, 23 days
05.08.1908
17.12.1967
59
23.
Albanese, Anthony Norman
ALP
23.05.2022 –
02.03.1963
61
24.
McMahon, William
Lib
10.03.1971 – 05.12.1972
1 year, 8 months, 25 days
23.02.1908
31.03.1988
80
25.
Cook, Joseph
Lib
24.06.1913 – 17.09.1914
1 year, 2 months, 25 days
07.12.1860
30.07.1947
86
26.
Reid, George Houston
FT
18.08.1904 – 05.07.1905
10 months, 18 days
25.02.1845
12.09.1918
73
27.
Watson, John Christian
ALP
27.04.1904 – 17.08.1904
3 months, 21 days
09.04.1867
18.11.1941
74
28.
Fadden, Arthur William
CP
29.08.1941 – 07.10.1941
1 month, 9 days
13.04.1894
21.04.1973
79
29.
McEwen, John
CP
19.12.1967 – 10.01.1968
23 days
29.03.1900
20.11.1980
80
30.
Page, Earle Christmas Grafton
CP
07.04.1939 – 26.04.1939
20 days
08.08.1880
20.12.1961
81
31.
Forde, Francis Michael
ALP
06.07.1945 – 13.07.1945
8 days
18.07.1890
28.01.1983
92

Legend:
ALP = Australian Labor Party
CP = Country Party
FT = Free Trade (fused with Protectionists to form Liberal Party in 1909)
LP = Liberal Party (first formed in 1909 from Free Traders & Protectionists; reformed in 1944 to replace UAP)
NAT = Nationalist (formed out of Liberal Party and ALP defectors in 1916)
PROT = Protectionist (fused with Free Traders to form Liberal Party in 1909)
UAP = United Australia Party (formed out of Nationalists and ALP defectors in 1931)

Scott Morrison

Morrison

Scott Morrison was elected leader of the Liberal Party on August 24, 2018, replacing Malcolm Turnbull. In the first ballot, Morrison reportedly won 38 votes, to Peter Dutton’s 36 and Julie Bishop’s 11. With Bishop eliminated, Morrison defeated Dutton 45-40. Morrison was sworn in as the 30th prime minister at 6.14pm by the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove.

Morrison led the coalition to its third election victory on May 18, 2019. By then, he had overtaken the terms of five prime ministers: Frank Forde, Earle Page, John McEwen, Arthur Fadden and Chris Watson. Following the election, he surpassed George Reid (July 12, 2019), Joseph Cook (November 18, 2019), William McMahon (May 19, 2020), Harold Holt (July 17, 2020), Tony Abbott (August 21, 2020), James Scullin (November 9, 2020), Edmund Barton (May 18, 2021), Kevin Rudd (June 5, 2021) and Gough Whitlam (July 31, 2021).

On August 2, 2021, Morrison equalled his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull’s term and became the 15th longest-serving PM. He equalled Julia Gillard’s term of 3 years, 3 days on August 27, 2021, becoming the 14th longest-serving prime minister and the longest-serving since John Howard.

Morrison surpassed John Gorton’s term of 3 years, 2 months on October 24, 2021, becoming the 13th longest-serving PM.

On May 23, 2022, following his defeat in the May 21 elections, Morrison surpassed John Curtin’s time in office on the day his resignation took effect, finishing his term on 3 years, 8 months, 30 days.

Morrison handed over to Anthony Albanese two days after the election. The previous fastest handover was Gough Whitlam’s appointment as prime minister on December 5, 1972, just three days after the election. Whitlam and his deputy, Lance Barnard, governed as a two-man ministry until December 19, 1972, by which time the election results were finalised and the ALP caucus had met to elect the ministry.

Malcolm Turnbull

Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull became the 29th Prime Minister of Australia when he took office on September 15, 2015, following his leadership challenge against Tony Abbott on September 14, 2015.

In his first year in office, Turnbull surpassed the terms of six prime ministers – Forde, Page, McEwen, Fadden, Watson and Reid – who each served for less than a year. None of them won an election.

After being returned to office with a one-seat majority at the July 2016 federal election, Turnbull overtook the terms of Joseph Cook (Dec 10, 2016), William McMahon (Jun 10, 2017), Harold Holt (Aug 7, 2017), Tony Abbott (Sep 13, 2017), James Scullin (Dec 1, 2017), Edmund Barton (Jun 8, 2018), Kevin Rudd (Jun 30, 2018) and Gough Whitlam (Aug 22, 2018). In surpassing Whitlam, Turnbull became the 15th longest-serving prime minister. Turnbull lost the prime ministership to Scott Morrison two days later, on August 24, 2018. On August 2, 2021, Turnbull dropped to 16th longest-serving, with Morrison moving into 15th position.

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