Election 2019: Profile of the Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is Australia's oldest party in one of the world's oldest continuous democracies. One of the first labour parties created in the world, Labor grew out of the trade union movement before Federation.

Labor party volunteers listen to Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Sydney Source: AAP

Faced with economic depression in the 1890s workers in Queensland decided they needed a political party to represent them.

 By 1899, the A-L-P had formed its first government, in Queensland, and won seats in the first national parliament after Federation in 1901.

 in the 1904, Chris Watson became Labor's first prime minister, leading a minority government, before, in the 1910 election, the party became the first to win a majority in either of the federal houses of parliament.