Premiers and chief ministers of the Australian states and territories

In Australia, a Premier is the head of government of a state, while a Chief Minister is the head of government of a territory.

History and background

In colonial times, the five British colonies on mainland Australia, along with the Van Diemen's Land colony of Tasmania and the colony of New Zealand, had their own Governor, a title that eventually was changed to "Premier". Back then, the two territories did not exist, so the colonies represented what we today know as the six states and New Zealand, which is not part of Australia and now has a Prime Minister. Today, the Governor serves as the head of state of a state. The King is the head of state of Australia and is represented by the Governor-General when he is absent.

Until the creation of the Australian Labor Party (a centre-left, social democratic party), there were no political parties in Australia, so the Premiers were all independents.

On a federal level, Australia's head of government is called the Prime Minister. Because Australia formed as a federation of six British colonies, each state and territory has their own level of government, which is the second-highest level in Australia, the lowest being local government, which is made up of different councils.

Like the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers are the state/territory leader of the party that forms government. Currently, the Labor Party forms a majority government in four states (Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia) and in the Northern Territory, as well as federally. In Tasmania, the Liberal Party (a centre-right, liberal conservative party) currently governs with a majority. In New South Wales, the Labor Party governs in a minority government, with the support of three independents on confidence and supply, meaning they can vote differently to the Government but still allow them to govern. In the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), the Labor Party forms a coalition government (meaning more than one party is in the Cabinet) with the Greens, a left-wing, progressive green party, meaning they mostly focus on issues like climate change.

When a party is unable to win a majority of seats in the Lower House, the party with the most seats must seek support from the crossbench. A crossbencher is someone who is not from either the Government or the Opposition. Then they can form either a coalition government with the crossbenchers or they crossbenchers can give them confidence and supply. For example, it is very common federally and in New South Wales and Victoria for the Liberal Party and the National Party to form a coalition, regardless of if they are in Government or Opposition. This is commonly called the Coalition.

In Queensland and the Northern Territory, these two parties merged to become the Liberal National Party (LNP) and the Country Liberal Party (CLP), respectively. In Western Australia, it is common for the Liberals and the Nationals to form the Coalition, but the agreement is different there in that the parties are still independent of each other. In South Australia and Tasmania, the Coalition has existed before but currently does not exist, as the Nationals have not very much activity there and they have no seats in those states. In the ACT the Coalition does not exist, because the Nationals do not have a branch there, only the Liberals do. This is because the Nationals represent regional, rural and remote interests, called agrarianism, but almost all of the ACT is the city of Canberra.

Current premiers of the states and current chief ministers of the territories

Premiers by party in each state and territory (red = Labor; blue = Liberal).

State	Portrait	Name	Term start	Current duration	Party		Title	State government
Aust. Cap. Territory		Andrew Barr	11 December 2014 (2014-12-11)	9 years, 360 days		Labor	Chief Minister	Aust. Cap. Territory
New South Wales		Chris Minns	28 March 2023 (2023-03-28)	1 year, 252 days		Labor	Premier	New South Wales
Northern Territory		Lia Finocchiaro	28 August 2024 (2024-08-28)	99 days		Country Liberal	Chief Minister	Northern Territory
Queensland		David Crisafulli	28 October 2024 (2024-10-28)	38 days		Liberal National	Premier	Queensland
South Australia		Peter Malinauskas	21 March 2022 (2022-03-21)	2 years, 259 days		Labor	Premier	South Australia
Tasmania		Jeremy Rockliff	8 April 2022 (2022-04-08)	2 years, 241 days		Liberal	Premier	Tasmania
Victoria		Jacinta Allan	27 September 2023	1 year, 69 days		Labor	Premier	Victoria
Western Australia		Roger Cook	8 June 2023 (2023-06-08)	1 year, 180 days		Labor	Premier	Western Australia