Australian federal election, 2010

2007 ←

21 August 2010

→ 2013

All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives 76 seats were needed for a majority in the House 40 (of the 76) seats in the Australian Senate

Registered	13,131,667
Turnout	93.2%
	First party	Second party

Leader	Julia Gillard	Tony Abbott
Party	Labor	Liberal/National coalition
Leader since	24 June 2010 (2010-06-24)	1 December 2009 (2009-12-01)
Leader's seat	Lalor	Warringah
Last election	83 seats, 43.38%	65 seats, 41.95%
Seats won	72 seats	72 seats
Seat change	11	7
Popular vote	4,711,363	5,365,529
Percentage	37.99%	43.32%
Swing	5.40	1.16
TPP	50.12%	49.88%
TPP swing	2.58	2.58

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	Bob Brown
Party	Greens	Nationals WA
Leader since	28 November 2005 (2005-11-28)
Leader's seat	Senator for Tasmania
Last election	0 seats, 7.79%	0 seats, 0.14%
Seats won	1 seat	1 seat
Seat change	1	1
Popular vote	1,458,998	43,101
Percentage	11.76%	0.34%
Swing	3.97	0.20

Prime Minister before election

Julia Gillard
Labor

Resulting Prime Minister

Julia Gillard
Labor

A federal election was held on Saturday, 21 August 2010 for members of the 43rd Parliament of Australia. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard won a second term against the opposition centre-right Liberal Party of Australia led by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Coalition partner the National Party of Australia, led by Warren Truss, after Labor formed a minority government with the support of three independent MPs and one Australian Greens MP.

Labor and the Coalition each won 72 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, four short of the requirement for majority government, resulting in the first hung parliament since the 1940 election. Six crossbenchers held the balance of power. Greens MP Adam Bandt and independent MPs Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor declared their support for Labor on confidence and supply. Independent MP Bob Katter and National Party of Western Australia MP Tony Crook declared their support for the Coalition on confidence and supply. The resulting 76–74 margin entitled Labor to form a minority government. The Prime Minister, government ministers and parliamentary secretaries were sworn in on 14 September 2010 by the Governor-General Quentin Bryce. In November 2011, Coalition MP and Deputy Speaker Peter Slipper replaced Labor MP Harry Jenkins as Speaker of the House of Representatives, increasing Labor's parliamentary majority from 76–74 to 77–73.