2030 Australian Federal Election (Usernamebackwards)

The 2030 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 27 June 2030 to elect members of the 50th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Labor Government led by Prime Minister Tanya Plibersek secured a foruth term in office in a coalition with The Greens and Moderate Party, despite large swings away from Labor and Moderate Party. Up for election were all 178 seats in the lower house, the House of Representatives, and 47 of the 89 seats in the upper house, the Senate.

This election marked the first time the Moderate Party participated in government, despite it being their worst election result in their history at this point. The new leadership team (Monique Ryan and Simon Burmingham) were popular, however a number of scandals and poor candidates dragged down their campaign.

The Liberal National Party regained some ground at this election after the national merger the previous year, but failed to get the numbers to form government. Philip Tompson hailed the result on election night as "a turning point for the Liberal National Party".

Leadership changes
On 23 March 2029 Anthony Albanese announced his retirement from politics, exactly 7 years after he was sworn in as Prime Minister and 33 years after he was elected as the Member for Grayndler. He noted that he had now past the retirement age, although he "won't be relying on the pension," and said he looked forward to spending more time with his family in his retirement. A Leadership Election was then held in the Labor Party, with Richard Marles, Tanya Plibersek, Penny Wong, and Jim Chalmers nominating. While Richard Marles was the most popular with the parliamentary party, Tanya Plibersek was significntly more popular with the wider membership and so became the 32nd Prime Minister of Australia (and second female Prime Minister), and leader of the Labor Party. Penny Wong became the deputy leader, which angered the Right Faction leading to internal division for the rest of the term. Days after the election the Liberal Party held a leadership spill in their first meeting, with Philip Tompson defeating incumbent leader Josh Frydenburg. Josh Frydenburg claimed that despite the bad result the party had now "stabilized", and that "some losses were inevitable" with the change in electoral system. The Moderate Party experienced its first leadership change after the 2027 election, with both Zalia Steggal and Bridget Archer anouncing their intention to step down as co-leaders. The following leadership contest revealed intense divisions inside the party between the 'Teal' and 'Blue' factions in the party. Monique Ryan, Simon Burmingham, David Pocock, Nicolette Boel, Sophie Scamps, Angie Bell, and Mark Daniels. The top two candidates, Simon Burmingham and Monique Ryan became the new Co-Leaders of the party. Adam Bandt retired from politics on 18 August 2029, leading to an election for the new leader of the party. Max Chandler-Mather and Cate Faehrmann nominated, with Chandler-Mather deafeating Faehrmann 32-17. Chandler-Mather's large margin reflects the party's trend towards the left, with a large majority of the membership and parliamentary party belonging to the far-left faction of the party.

Liberal and National Party Merger
After the 2027 Federal Election calls grew for the Liberal and National Parties to merge, as they did in Queensland in 2009. New leader of the Liberal Party, Philip Tompson was partial to the idea, and announced that the Coalition's internal inquiry into the 2027 Election would consider a merger. The inquiry recommended on 1 April 2028 that the parties merge. After the parliamentary party voted in favor (50-15), a membership ballot was held. Roughly 65% of the membership voted in favor of merging, and after extensive negotiations the four parties officially became one on 1 January 2029. The new party was named 'The Liberal National Party of Australia' (LNP).