In the late 1960s, the CPA, under the leadership of National Secretary Laurie Aarons, became a strong supporter of "Eurocommunism", of abandoning Marxism–Leninism and democratic centralism, and trying to form a "united front" of the various left-wing forces thrown up by the movement of opposition to the Vietnam War.

[9] On 13–14 April 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Australia elected a new leadership led by General Secretary Andrew Irving and National President Vinnie Molina.

[10] The current CPA is a traditional Marxist–Leninist communist party whose ultimate objective is the revolutionary transformation of Australian society and the establishment of socialism in Australia.

It describes its objective as being to "change the direction of politics in Australia and eventually, to replace the capitalist system with a socialist one.

The party's main policies are: Michael Perth contested the seat of Port Adelaide in the 1998 and in the 2001 federal elections, but polled less than 1% of the vote in both cases.

At the 2010 federal election the party endorsed a candidate for the House of Representatives seat of Sydney as part of the Communist Alliance.

[16] The Communist Party of Australia planned to run candidates in the 2016 federal election,[17] but their registration was rejected by the Australian Electoral Commission.