Prime Ministers of Australia: From Edmund Barton to Scott Morrison - Behind the News

Scott Morrison is Australia’s fifth Prime Minister in five years. A lot of young Aussies wouldn't remember a PM who served their full term. So, is this just the new normal for our country politically? Or is it just a phase?
Let’s take a look at the longest running Prime Ministers:
Robert Menzies. He was Australia's PM not once but twice. First from 1939 to 1941 and then again from 1949 all to the way to 1966. He led for more than 18 years altogether and was probably best known for founding the Liberal Party we know today. He wasn't voted out by the people or his party, he just retired. That makes him the last of our PM’s to leave office on their own terms.
The second longest serving PM is this guy John Howard. He was in office for 11 years and 267 days. During that time, he's credited with some big changes like bringing in stricter gun laws in Australia and for introducing the GST.
The third longest running PM in our history is Bob Hawke. He's also the longest serving PM from the Labor Party. During his first term in office in 1983, he got the highest public opinion poll rating of any PM ever and served for 8 years and 284 days all up. He went out after one of those now very familiar things happened, a leadership spill. He was challenged by his deputy Paul Keating and Keating won.
But the Hawke Keating saga isn't the only PM leadership spill from our more distant political past. PM John Gorton was booted in 1971 and in 1982 Malcolm Fraser managed to keep his position when his former foreign minister tried to challenge him.
But of course, there are other ways our country has ended up with new PM’s. For instance, when a current PM dies. Sadly, that's happened three times since Federation. The most famous being Harold Holt in 1968. He had served as PM for two years before he disappeared while swimming at a beach in Victoria and was never seen again.
Finally, besides retiring, not being re-elected, being voted out as leader of your party or dying, there's one other way an Australian PM’s made a dramatic exit from the top job and the PM involved was Gough Whitlam. He led in 1972 and was known for starting Australia's healthcare system that's now known as Medicare and for being the first PM to return traditional ownership of land to Indigenous people. But in 1975 things took a turn and Whitlam was removed by the Governor General.
It was a controversial thing to do and it hasn't happened since. So, there are clearly ups and downs for our PM’s throughout the years but it's worth remembering that no matter what happens, in politics it's pretty much all been seen before.
1. Sir Edmund Barton (1849–1920)
2. Alfred Deakin (1856–1919)
3. Chris Watson (1867–1941)
4. George Reid (1845–1918)
Alfred Deakin (1856–1919)
5. Andrew Fisher (1862–1928)
Alfred Deakin (1856–1919)
Andrew Fisher (1862–1928)
6. Joseph Cook (1860–1947)
Andrew Fisher (1862–1928)
7. Billy Hughes (1862–1952)
8. Stanley Bruce (1883–1967)
9. James Scullin (1876–1953)
10. Joseph Lyons (1879–1939)
11. Sir Earle Page (1880–1961)
12. Robert Menzies (1894–1978)
13. Arthur Fadden (1894–1973)
14. John Curtin (1885–1945)
15. Frank Forde (1890–1983)
16. Ben Chifley (1885–1951)
Sir Robert Menzies (1894–1978)
17. Harold Holt (1908–1967)
18. John McEwen (1900–1980)
19. John Gorton (1911–2002)
20. William McMahon (1908–1988)
21. Gough Whitlam (1916–2014)
22. Malcolm Fraser (1930–2015)
23. Bob Hawke (1929–)
24. Paul Keating (1944–)
25. John Howard (1939–)
26. Kevin Rudd (1957–)
27. Julia Gillard (1961–)
Kevin Rudd (1957–)
28. Tony Abbott (1957–)
29. Malcolm Turnbull (1954–)
30. Scott Morrison (1968–)


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