Coalition Governments in Australia

There have been 39 Australian governments since 1946, 26 coalition governments and 13 single-party (Labor) governments. Almost all governments have a majority in the lower house but not in the Senate since the late 1970s. There have been 17 prime ministers in this period of time, with great stability of prime ministers until recent years when there has been a high turnover. Coalition governments in Australia do not conform to coalition governments seen in most other places, with the two parties in the coalition forming a voting block and rarely contesting seats at the Federal level. The coalitions agreements have generally been conducted at personal level with only informal understandings of how the coalition will formulate policy. More recently more formal agreements have been set. All parties of course, can be seen as coalitions, and Labor ministries are often formed through an understanding of the major factions. This paper discusses the Australian case as an outlier or rather different form of coalition government to general trend around the world.