The Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party was widely predicted to win the 2019 federal election, and against these expectations it fell short. This chapter offers an outline of some of the decisive factors in Labor’s campaign that shaped its unexpected loss. Immediately following the election defeat, there was a plethora of commentary that sought to offer explanations for Labor’s poor electoral performance. Post election, Labor’s own review confirmed many of the common explanations for the defeat (ALP 2019). This chapter seeks to distil this wider commentary and make some evaluative judgements about the range of factors posited for the poor result. As the editors argue in the opening chapter of this volume, the result can be seen as ‘overdetermined’, with a plethora of possible factors to account for the result.The chapter is organised in the following way. First, the analytical approach of the chapter is briefly outlined—a comparative ‘hybrid’ approach. Second, Labor’s result is located in the wider debates about the crisis of European social democracy. Third, the chapter gives a brief description of the key features of Labor’s campaign. Fourth—and the core of the chapter—the key factors that shaped Labor’s campaign performance are outlined.