Albanese was sworn in as Prime Minister on 23 May 2022, becoming the fourth Labor leader to win government from opposition since World War II, after Gough Whitlam in 1972, Bob Hawke in 1983, and Kevin Rudd in 2007.

The Coalition suffered severe losses, winning 58 seats, its lowest share in the House of Representatives since 1946, the first federal election contested by the Liberal Party.

[4] While the Coalition was soundly defeated, Labor did not achieve a landslide victory, as a result of electoral successes by independent candidates and the Australian Greens, with the crossbench swelling to 16 seats.

[12] They retained this figure until Northern Territory senator Sam McMahon resigned from the Country Liberal Party in January 2022, four months before the election.

[13] In the House of Representatives, two Coalition MPs (Llew O'Brien and Darren Chester) departed their respective party-room caucuses, though retained their membership of the Morrison government.

[14] The government's share of seats in the House dropped when Craig Kelly, the member for Hughes, left the Liberal Party in August 2021 to become an independent and sit on the crossbench.

[21] Deputy Prime Minister and National Party leader Michael McCormack was challenged twice by his predecessor Barnaby Joyce, unsuccessfully in February 2020 and successfully in June 2021.

[23][24] Morrison won praise for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, including launching the National Cabinet and JobKeeper programs, but he struggled to manage the vaccination roll out and testing regime as new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerged.

[25] He faced further criticism for holidaying in Hawaii during the Black Summer bush fires, being accused of lying by French President Emmanuel Macron in the aftermath of the AUKUS agreement, and lacking ambition on climate change during COP26.

[30] Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale resigned in February 2020, replaced by the party's only lower house MP Adam Bandt, who was elected unopposed.

This resulted in the intervention by the parties' national executives or nominated committees to select the candidates and bypassing local voting by rank-and-file members.

The committee was made up of Morrison, New South Wales Premier and Liberal leader Dominic Perrottet and former party president Chris McDiven.

[45][46][47] While the Liberal state executive was dissolved, the committee was allowed to "hand-pick" party candidates for the election and bypass local pre-selection ballots.

On the same day as the replacements for Kitching and Carr were finalised, the National Executive "parachuted" Andrew Charlton into the Division of Parramatta in New South Wales, bypassing a local preselection with three candidates from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

McGowan's victory inspired the campaign of independent Zali Steggall in 2019, who defeated the Liberal former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in the seat of Warringah.

[59][60] The Australian Electoral Commission is required, one year after the first sitting day for a new House of Representatives, to determine the number of members to which each State and Territory is entitled.

[64] In October 2020, deputy prime minister Michael McCormack gave an assurance that the government and opposition would combine to overrule the AEC and maintain the Northern Territory's level of representation.

[71] Ultimately, the Joint Standing Committee recommended "enacting a harmonic mean for allocating seats between states and territories, with appropriate public explanation to build understanding for the reform".

[75][76] When the AEC published its final determinations in June 2021, the abolition of Stirling[77] and creation of Hawke were confirmed,[78] but Corangamite would not be renamed to Tucker over concerns that it would be vandalised as "Fucker".

[107] The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) pushed for a debate on their free-to-air channel, radio, and websites in the lead-up to polling day, which Morrison refused, as well as Liberal Party federal director Andrew Hirst, who gave no explanation.

[142] Pauline Hanson's One Nation said it would recommend that voters direct their preferences to Labor in five seats—North Sydney, Goldstein, Sturt, Longman, and Bass—all held by moderate Liberals.

[146] In February 2022, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation revealed a failed attempt by the Chinese government to use a proxy to finance federal Labor candidates in New South Wales.

A second Senate seat in Western Australia was initially vacant at the close of nominations following the resignation on 15 April 2022 of Ben Small (Liberal), who had discovered that he was ineligible on the grounds of dual citizenship.

Outside of the major media companies, editorials published by The Canberra Times, The Saturday Paper, and the Guardian Australia website opposed the Coalition; all three endorsed Labor,[176][177] with the latter also supporting the Greens and teal independents.

While chiding his propensity to "bulldoze his way through situations, clumsily handling issues that required a deft touch, a soft word or a steadier hand", The Australian credited Morrison's having "steered a government and his country through the most extraordinary, almost indescribably difficult period of our lifetimes", referring to low numbers of COVID-19 deaths and a strong economic recovery.

[182] Editors endorsing Labor focused on the issues of climate change and the establishment of a federal anti-corruption commission, judging the Coalition's efforts on both insufficient.

[203] Two days after the election, Governor-General David Hurley swore in Albanese, deputy leader Richard Marles, Jim Chalmers, and Senators Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher as an interim five-person government.

According to ABC News, Hurley would not have sworn in Albanese without assurances that Labor could provide stable government, as well as legal advice that this was the proper course of action.

[204] At his first press conference after being sworn in, Albanese announced that he received assurances that crossbenchers Rebekha Sharkie, Bob Katter, Andrew Wilkie, Helen Haines, and Zali Steggall would provide supply and would not support a no-confidence motion against the government.

Albanese also received messages of congratulations from the leaders of Bangladesh,[226] Israel,[227] Italy,[228] the Netherlands,[229] Pakistan,[230] Samoa,[231] Saudi Arabia,[232] the Solomon Islands,[233] Sri Lanka,[234] and Vietnam.