Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party (also ALP and Labor, was Labour before 1912) is a social democratic political party in Australia. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia. In the state and territory parliaments, Labor governs in South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. The party competes against the Liberal/National Coalition for political office at the federal and state (and sometimes local) level.

The ALP was founded as a federal party prior to the first sitting of the Australian Parliament in 1901, but is descended from Labour parties founded in the various Australian colonies by the emerging labour movement in Australia, formally beginning in 1891. Labor is thus the country's oldest political party. Colonial Labour parties contested seats from 1891, and federal seats following the Federation at the 1901 federal election. Labor was the first party in Australia to win a majority in either house of the Australian Parliament, at the 1910 federal election. The ALP predates both the British Labour Party and New Zealand Labour Party in party formation, government, and policy implementation.