Is Australian Labor Party left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Australian Labor Party scores −02 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores −05. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Australian Labor Party authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Australian Labor Party scores −02. Federal parliamentary democracy with compulsory voting.

Atlas / Organisations / Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

ALP · 1891– · Australia · Social Democratic · Electoral party · coding confidence high

−02ECcollective

−05CUpluralist

−02AUpluralist

+04SCcentral

−05IDuniversal

−07CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Wage protection, universal health care, compulsory retirement savings, climate transition.

Economic model

Medicare, superannuation, industrial relations regulation, open trade, industry policy.

Organisation of powers

Federal parliamentary democracy with compulsory voting.

Reading note

Delivered some of the earliest labour legislation in the world and, in the 1980s, one of the deepest market liberalisations by a left party anywhere.

Check a claim about Australian Labor Party. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored −02

Coded −2: Medicare and compulsory superannuation within an open market economy.

Documented act or statuteMedicare 1984 and compulsory superannuation 1992 are the party's principal structural legacies.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −05

Coded −5: liberal on social questions with a socially conservative union base.

Documented act or statuteSame-sex marriage passed by postal survey and legislation in 2017; the Voice referendum failed in 2023.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −02

Coded −2: parliamentary democracy with compulsory voting.

Documented act or statuteCompulsory voting has applied federally since 1924 and produces turnout above 90%.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +04

Coded +4: national standards within a federation.

Documented act or statuteThe National Disability Insurance Scheme is federally administered across states.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −05

Coded −5: a large migration programme alongside offshore processing of asylum arrivals.

Documented act or statuteOffshore processing was introduced by a Labor government in 2001 and retained since.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −07

Coded −7: electoral throughout, including the 1980s market liberalisation.

Documented act or statuteThe Hawke and Keating governments floated the dollar and cut tariffs from the left.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Australia

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Australian Labor Party. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/auslab/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.