ON THIS DAY

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April 27, 1904

Australia: World’s first Labor government.

The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known simply as the Labor Party, or just Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia and one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia.

The party has been in government since the 2022 federal election, and with political branches active in all the Australian states and territories, they currently hold government in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory. As of 2025, Queensland, Tasmania and Northern Territory are the only states or territories where Labor currently forms the opposition. It is the oldest continuously operating political party in Australian history, having been established on 8 May 1901.

Chris Watson was Australia's first Labor Prime Minister and while his 1904 government only survived for four months between April and August in 1904 it has the distinction of being the first Labor government anywhere in the world at a national level, from this day in 1904.

The Australian Labor Party, a democratic socialist party, has its origins in a strike by pastoral workers in the 1890s in the state of Queensland. It would go on to win the 1910 Federal election under Andrew Fisher and become the first Labor government to win a majority. 

Group photograph of Federal Labour Party MPs elected to the House of Representatives and Senate at the inaugural 1901 election

(Pick the odd man out. . .  extreme left, second row from the top, the only man clean shaven.)

BTW:

The ALP adopted the formal name "Australian Labour Party" in 1908, but changed the spelling to "Labor" in 1912. While it is standard practice in Australian English both today and at the time to spell the word "labour" with a "u", the party was influenced by the United States labor movement, and a prominent figure in the early history of the party, the American-born King O'Malley, was successful in having the spelling "modernised".

The change also made it easier to distinguish references to the party from the labour movement in general.

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