Federal Opposition Leaders

There have been 32 men who have served as Opposition Leader since 1901. They have served 42 separate terms in the position.

All but 14 of the 31 Opposition Leaders served as Prime Minister at some time.

There have been 10 Opposition Leaders who contested elections but never become Prime Minister: Tudor (1917, 1919), Charlton (1922, 1925), Evatt (1954, 1955, 1958), Calwell (1961, 1963, 1966), Snedden (1974), Hayden (1980), Peacock (1984, 1990), Hewson (1993), Beazley (1998, 2001), Latham (2004).

There have been 3 Opposition Leaders who never contested elections and never became Prime Minister: John Latham (1929-31), Downer (1994-95) and Crean (2001-03).

John Watson is the only person to have become Prime Minister before he became Opposition Leader but who never fought an election as Opposition Leader. He was Prime Minister for 4 months in 1904 and became Opposition Leader the day after he was defeated in the House of Representatives. He ceased to be Opposition Leader before the 1906 election.

Federal Opposition Leaders
No.	Name	Party	Period in Office	Length
1	Reid, George Houston	FT	09.05.1901 - 18.08.1904	3 years, 3 months, 10 days
2	Watson, John Christian	ALP	18.08.1904 - 05.07.1905	10 months, 18 days
	Reid, George Houston	FT	07.07.1905 - 16.11.1908	3 years, 4 months, 10 days
3	Cook, Joseph	FT	17.11.1908 - 26.05.1909	6 months, 10 days
4	Deakin, Alfred	LP	26.05.1909 - 02.06.1909	8 days
5	Fisher, Andrew	ALP	02.06.1909 - 29.04.1910	10 months, 28 days
	Deakin, Alfred	LP	01.07.1910 - 20.01.1913	2 years, 6 months, 20 days
	Cook, Joseph	LP	20.01.1913 - 24.06.1913	5 months, 5 days
	Fisher, Andrew	ALP	08.07.1913 - 17.09.1914	1 year, 2 months, 10 days
	Cook, Joseph	LP	08.10.1914 - 17.02.1917	2 years, 4 months, 10 days
8	Tudor, Frank Gwynne	ALP	17.02.1917 - 10.01.1922	4 years, 10 months, 25 days
9	Charlton, Matthew	ALP	16.05.1922 - 29.03.1928	5 years, 10 months, 14 days
10	Scullin, James Henry	ALP	26.04.1928 - 22.10.1929	1 year, 5 months, 27 days
11	Latham, John Greig	Nat	20.11.1929 - 07.05.1931	1 year, 5 months, 18 days
12	Lyons, Joseph Aloysius	UAP	07.05.1931 - 06.01.1932	9 months
	Scullin, James Henry	ALP	07.01.1932 - 01.10.1935	3 years, 8 months, 25 days
13	Curtin, John	ALP	01.10.1935 - 07.10.1941	6 years, 7 days
14	Fadden, Arthur William	CP	08.10.1941 - 23.09.1943	1 year, 11 months, 16 days
15	Menzies, Robert Gordon	UAP LP	23.09.1943 - 19.12.1949	6 years, 2 months, 27 days
16	Chifley, Joseph Benedict	ALP	21.02.1950 - 13.06.1951	1 year, 3 months, 24 days
17	Evatt, Herbert Vere, QC	ALP	20.06.1951 - 09.02.1960	8 years, 7 months, 21 days
18	Calwell, Arthur Augustus	ALP	07.03.1960 - 08.02.1967	6 years, 11 months, 2 days
19	Whitlam, Edward Gough, QC	ALP	08.02.1967 - 05.12.1972	5 years, 9 months, 28 days
20	Snedden, Billy Mackie, QC	LP	20.12.1972 - 21.03.1975	2 years, 3 months, 2 days
21	Fraser, John Malcolm	LP	21.03.1975 - 11.11.1975	7 months, 22 days
	Whitlam, Edward Gough, QC	ALP	27.01.1976 - 22.12.1977	1 year, 10 months, 26 days
22	Hayden, William George	ALP	22.12.1977 - 03.02.1983	5 years, 1 month, 13 days
23	Hawke, Robert James Lee	ALP	03.02.1983 - 11.03.1983	1 month, 9 days
24	Peacock, Andrew Sharp	LP	11.03.1983 - 05.09.1985	2 years, 5 months, 26 days
25	Howard, John Winston	LP	05.09.1985 - 09.05.1989	3 years, 8 months, 5 days
	Peacock, Andrew Sharp	LP	09.05.1989 - 03.04.1990	10 months, 26 days
26	Hewson, John Robert	LP	03.04.1990 - 23.05.1994	4 years, 1 month, 21 days
27	Downer, Alexander John Gosse	LP	23.05.1994 - 30.01.1995	8 months, 8 days
	Howard, John Winston	LP	30.01.1995 - 11.03.1996	1 year, 1 month, 12 days
28	Beazley, Kim Christian	ALP	19.03.1996 - 22.11.2001	5 years, 8 months, 3 days
29	Crean, Simon	ALP	22.11.2001 - 02.12.2003	2 years, 10 days
30	Latham, Mark	ALP	02.12.2003 - 18.01.2005	1 year, 1 month, 16 days
	Beazley, Kim Christian	ALP	28.01.2005 - 04.12.2006	1 year, 10 months, 6 days Total: 7 years, 6 months, 9 days
31	Rudd, Kevin	ALP	04.12.2006 - 03.12.2007	1 year
32	Nelson, Brendan	LP	elected 29.11.2007	-

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