2007 Australian federal electionThe 2007 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 24 November 2007. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 of the seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The election featured a 39-day campaign, with 13.6 million Australians enrolled to vote. The centre-left Australian Labor Party opposition, led by Kevin Rudd and deputy leader Julia Gillard, defeated the incumbent centre-right Coalition government, led by Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister, John Howard, and Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile, by a landslide.
Paul KeatingPaul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia, from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously served as the treasurer of Australia in the Hawke government from 1983 to 1991 and as the 7th deputy prime minister of Australia from 1990 to 1991. Keating was born in Sydney and left school at the age of 14. He joined the Labor Party at the same age, serving a term as State President of Young Labor and working as a research assistant for a trade union.
Republicanism in AustraliaRepublicanism in Australia is a movement to change Australia's system of government from a constitutional parliamentary monarchy to a republic, replacing the monarch of Australia (currently Charles III) with a president. Republicanism was first espoused in Australia before Federation in 1901. After a period of decline after Federation, the movement again became prominent at the end of the 20th century after successive legal and socio-cultural changes loosened Australia's ties with the United Kingdom.
Tony AbbottAnthony John Abbott (ˈæbət; born 4 November 1957) is an Australian former politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott was born in London, England, to an Australian mother and a British father, and moved to Sydney at the age of two. He studied economics and law at the University of Sydney, and then attended The Queen's College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
John HowardJohn Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia, from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the second-longest in Australian history, behind only Sir Robert Menzies. Howard previously served as the 29th treasurer of Australia from 1977 to 1983 under Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. He has also been the oldest living Australian prime minister since the death of Bob Hawke in May 2019.
Julia GillardJulia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She previously served as the 13th deputy prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010, under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. She is the first and only female to hold either office in Australian history. Born in Barry, Wales, Gillard migrated with her family to Adelaide in South Australia in 1966.
Bob HawkeRobert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia, from 1983 to 1991, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Previously he was the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1969 to 1980 and president of the Labor Party national executive from 1973 to 1978. Hawke was born in Border Town, South Australia. He attended the University of Western Australia and went on to study at University College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
Indigenous AustraliansIndigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in areas within the Australian continent before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples of the Australian mainland and Tasmania, and the Torres Strait Islander peoples from the seas between Queensland and Papua New Guinea.
Landslide victoryA landslide victory is an election result in which the victorious candidate or party wins by an overwhelming margin. The term became popular in the 1800s to describe a victory in which the opposition is "buried", similar to the way in which a geological landslide buries whatever is in its path. What constitutes a landslide varies by the type of electoral system. Even within an electoral system, there is no consensus on what sized margin makes for a landslide.
Rupert MurdochKeith Rupert Murdoch (ˈmɜːrdɒk ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate, media proprietor, and investor. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including in the UK (The Sun and The Times), in Australia (The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, and The Australian), in the US (The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post), book publisher HarperCollins, and the television broadcasting channels Sky News Australia and Fox News (through the Fox Corporation).
