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

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 matched Harold Holt’s term of 1 year, 10 months, 23 days and became the 22nd longest-serving prime minister. He overtook Tony Abbott’s term of 1 year, 11 months, 28 days on May 20, 2024, becoming the 21st longest-serving prime minister.

Albanese surpassed James Scullin’s term of 2 years, 2 months, 16 days on August 8, 2024. He will match Edmund Barton’s term of 2 years, 8 months, 24 days on February 16, 2025.

• CHRONOLOGICAL LIST of Prime Ministers since 1901
• Prime Ministers by AGE UPON TAKING OFFICE
• Prime Ministers By ORDER OF DEATH
• Prime Ministers and Living Ex-Prime Ministers
• Number of Elections Won by Australian Prime Ministers
• Which former Prime Minister Left Parliament the Quickest?
• 2013 and the Years of Three Prime Ministers
• Jan 3, 2013: Julia Gillard’s Place Amongst The List Of Australian Prime Ministers
• Sept 17, 2013: Why is Kevin Rudd Still Prime Minister?

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

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

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.