If you’ve been watching the news recently, you might have heard talk about the 'Coalition’ and the ‘leadership spill’.
But what do these terms mean? What is a leadership spill? Who was the Coalition, and does it impact international students?
Insider Guides is here to explain what's going on in Australian politics right now!
Important terms
Before we get into the details, there are a few important terms you should know:
Political party: A political party is an organised group that gets together to gain political power. Australia has two major parties: Liberal and Labor, and several minor parties.
Government: The political party that holds power through the majority of seats in parliament. Currently, Australia has a Labor government.
Opposition: The opposing major political party that does not currently hold power.
Coalition: When two or more political parties agree to support each other to form a government.
Leadership spill: In Australian politics, a leadership spill, or just ‘spill’, is when the party votes whether to keep the current leader or elect a new one.
Frontbenchers: Ministers and opposition ministers of Australia’s political parties.
What is Australia’s current political system?
Australia operates mainly as a two-party system with a series of minor parties. The two major parties are:
Australian Labor Party (ALP): Often referred to as ‘Labor’, this is Australia’s centre-left party, which currently holds power and is led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Liberal Party of Australia (LP): Australia’s centre-right party. The Liberal Party is currently the opposition party, led by Sussan Ley.
While in power from 2013 to 2022, the Liberal Party had a coalition with the National Party of Australia, where they were known as the Liberal-National Party (LNP):
National Party of Australia: A right-wing party focused on supporting rural and regional Australia, currently led by David Littleproud.
For a more in-depth look at how Australia’s political system works, check out Australian politics 101.
So, what’s all this news about a leadership spill?
Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley could be facing a spill in the coming days.
This all comes after disagreement between the Liberals and the Nationals over hate speech laws, which caused the coalition to split.
On 19 January 2026, the Senate voted to pass the Labor government’s new hate speech laws in response to the recent Bondi Beach attack.
While the Liberals and Nationals had both voted against recent similar laws aimed at increasing gun control, the Liberals decided to vote with Labor to pass these hate speech laws, while the Nationals voted against them.
This action led to three National frontbenchers offering their resignations to Ley.
Littleproud warned Ley that if she accepted these resignations, the rest of the Nationals would also resign.
Despite this warning, Ley accepted the resignations. In turn, the remaining Nationals ministers, including Littleproud, resigned. This led to the end of the Coalition.
As a result, Ley’s leadership has been called into question, raising the possibility of a leadership spill.
Many, including the ABC, speculate that LP minister Angus Taylor is the most likely to challenge Sussan Ley for leadership of the party if he can find enough support.
What does this mean for international students?
As the Liberals are not currently in power, this most likely will not have an immediate impact on international students.
However, a change in leadership could affect the party’s positions on immigration and other issues that impact international students. This could be relevant if they regain power at the next federal election, which is due to be held in 2028
It is important to keep up-to-date and informed on political changes that might affect international students, so we recommend subscribing to the Insider Guides newsletter for all the latest news.
