Famous Australian Leaders

John Howard is an Australian former politician who served serving as the prime minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest-serving Australian prime minister, behind Sir Robert Menzies. As the prime minister, John Howard enforced new gun laws after the Port Arthur massacre of 1996. His tenure as PM has inspired several books.

Harold Holt was an Australian politician and the 17th prime minister of Australia. On 17 December 1967, Holt disappeared while swimming in rough conditions at Cheviot Beach. Following his disappearance, which gave rise to several conspiracy theories, Harold Holt was presumed dead. The Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre in Melbourne is named in his honor.

Scott Morrison served as the 30th prime minister of Australia between 2018 and 2022. He led his coalition to an unexpected victory in the 2019 election. Morrison's term witnessed increased tension between China and Australia. He was criticised for failure to adequately address climate change in Australia. His coalition was defeated in 2022 election and subsequently he resigned as the leader of the Liberal Party.

Paul Keating is an Australian politician who served as the 24th Prime Minister of Australia and was in the office from 1991 to 1996. He previously served as the deputy prime minister of Australia and the treasurer of Australia. His tenure as the prime minister witnessed the enactment of the landmark Native Title Act to enshrine Indigenous land rights.

Robert Menzies was an Australian politician who served as the prime minister of Australia on two non-consecutive terms. He served over 18 years in total, becoming the longest-serving prime minister in Australian history. His government is known for its emphasis on higher education, national security policies, and immigration schemes. After retirement, he became the chancellor of the University of Melbourne. 

Tony Abbott is a former politician who served as Australia's 28th prime minister from 2013 to 2015. Over the years, Abbott has had a major impact on society, thanks to his community service. He is an active volunteer for agencies and institutions like the New South Wales Rural Fire Service and Queenscliff's Surf Life Saving Club.

Malcolm Turnbull is a retired Australian politician. From 2015 to 2018, Turnbull served as the 29th prime minister of Australia. He also served as the leader of the Liberal Party on two occasions. For his service to the Parliament of Australia, Turnbull was awarded Companion of the Order of Australia during the 2021 Australia Day Honours. 

Born to Irish immigrants, John Curtin had witnessed working-class uprisings in his younger days, which led him to join Australia’s Labour Movement. He was the only Australian prime minister with a Western Australian seat. The strenuous job of leading his country during World War II affected his health.

Penny Wong is an Australian politician. She has been a senator for South Australia since 2002. Currently, she is leader of the opposition in the senate. She is a qualified lawyer and has previously worked as a political advisor. She is a member of the LGBTQAI+ community and played a key role in the legalization of same-sex marriage in Australia. 

The first prime minister of Australia, Edmund Barton had also been a senior judge at the High Court of Australia. The federation movement leader was also a major force behind the drafting of the constitution of his country. After rejecting the knighthood thrice, he finally accepted the honor in 1902.

Son of King George V and Queen Mary, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, was educated at Eton, becoming the first son of a monarch in Britain to attend school. He made headlines with his affair with Beryl Markham. Owing to his multiple strokes, he was wheelchair-bound in his final years.

Julie Bishop is an Australian former politician who once served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs. For several years, she was the deputy leader of the Liberal Party. She studied law at the University of Adelaide and worked as a commercial lawyer before venturing into politics. In 2020, she became the first woman chancellor of the Australian National University.  

Peter Garrett is an Australian musician, activist, environmentalist, and former politician. Renowned for his eccentric dance style and signature bald head, Garrett is best known for his association with the popular rock band Midnight Oil where he performs as the lead singer. A football fan, Peter Garrett supports the Essendon Bombers of the AFL.

Gough Whitlam was an Australian politician who served as the prime minister of Australia from 1972 to 1975. During the 1972 election, Whitlam played a major role in bringing the Australian Labor Party to power. During the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, he was dismissed by Governor-General John Kerr, becoming the only prime minister to be dismissed in this manner.

Peter Cosgrove is an Australian retired Army officer. From 2014 to 2019, he served as the governor-general of Australia. Cosgrove achieved popularity when he commanded the International Force for East Timor, a multinational peacemaking task force, which ensured peace and safety during East Timor's transition to independence in 1999.  Peter Cosgrove also played an important role in the Vietnam War.

Pauline Hanson is an Australian politician who has been serving as a senator for Queensland since 2016. Hanson is credited with founding a right-wing political party called One Nation, for which she also serves as the leader. Also an author, Pauline Hanson has published many books, including her autobiography, Untamed and Unashamed.

John Monash was an Australian military commander during World War I. He played a major role in the Gallipoli campaign, which took place from February 1915 to January 1916 on the Gallipoli peninsula. John Monash is widely regarded as the most popular commander in Australian history and one of the most prominent allied generals of World War I.

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has been an Australian Labor Party leader and his country’s foreign affairs minister, too. After graduating in Chinese studies, he directly stepped into a diplomatic career. He has also worked for KPMG Australia as a Senior China Consultant and has penned a memoir.

Former premier of New South Wales, the biggest state economy of Australia, Gladys Berejiklian was born to Armenian immigrants in Sydney. She made headlines when she resigned from her premiership in October 2021, amid investigations on corruption and the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a regular at the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The second prime minister of Australia and Federation movement leader Alfred Deakin had developed an interest in literature and philosophy and had written several pieces of drama and poetry while studying to be a barrister. He later joined the Liberal Party. He spent his final years struggling with memory loss.

Australian prime minister and Labor Party leader Ben Chifley is chiefly remembered for introducing banking reforms, the expansion of social programs such as immigration schemes, and his light on the hill speech. Born to a blacksmith, he initially worked as a railwayman and then joined politics through trade union movements.

Jacqui Lambie is an Australian politician who was a senator for Tasmania from 2014 to 2017. she was re-elected in 2019. She was initially affiliated with the Palmer United Party (PUP). Following her resignation, she was an independent for a while. Today, she is the leader of her own political party, the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN).

Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek-Australian economist and politician who served as minister of finance for a few months in 2015 under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Essex. He began a career in academic economics before entering politics. Along with US Senator Bernie Sanders, he launched the Progressive International. 

Australian special operations soldier Leonard Siffleet was an avid sports lover in his youth. Although rejected from the police force due to poor vision, he made it to the army. He went down in history for being brutally beheaded by the Japanese army, a photograph of which was later retrieved by American soldiers.

Daniel Andrews is an Australian politician who is currently serving as the premier of Victoria. He has been the leader of the Labor Party in Victoria since 2010. Prior to this, he worked as a research and political officer. He is a popular politician, and he received praise for his leadership during the 2019–20 Victorian bushfires and the Covod-19 pandemic. 

Henry Parkes was a politician who served as the premier of the Colony of New South Wales. Serving at different time periods throughout the 1870s and 1880s, Parkes was the longest non-consecutive premier in the Colony of New South Wales history. Considered the Father of Federation, Parkes was described as the most commanding figure in Australian politics by The Times.

Bill Shorten is an Australian politician who served as the leader of the Labor Party from 2013 to 2019. He was also the Leader of the Opposition during this period. He is considered a senior figure in the right faction of the Labor Party. He studied law at Monash University and pursued a legal career before joining politics. 

Edith Cowan was an Australian social reformer best remembered for serving as a member of parliament; she was the first Australian woman to do so. She is also remembered for working for the welfare and rights of children and women. In recognition of her contribution, Cowan has been depicted on Australia's fifty-dollar note since 1995.

William McMahon was an Australian politician whose 21-year ministerial service is the longest continuous service in the history of Australian politics. From 1971 to 1972, William McMahon served as the prime minister of Australia. He also played an important role in the Second World War; serving in the Australian Army and reaching the rank of major.

Zali Steggall is an Australian lawyer turned politician. She has been serving as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Division of Warringah since 2019. She is a former Olympic athlete as well and is considered Australia's most internationally successful alpine skier. She became a lawyer after retiring from skiing and eventually entered politics as well. 

Quentin Bryce is an Australian academic and politician. She served as the 25th Governor-General of Australia from 2008 to 2014 and is the first woman to have held the position. She attended the University of Queensland, where she studied law and became one of the first women accepted to the Queensland Bar. Following a legal career, she entered politics.