The Three Mark Lathams
Mark Latham (Labor majority) 2004-2007
2004: def. John Howard (Liberal/National coalition)
Latham has done it. By riding a wave of discontent with Iraq, he has won the election. First order on the list, Australian troops home by Christmas! This would be surprisingly done easily despite complaints from the Coalition. His policies apart from that would be quite divisive, including a national youth mentoring service [that would over the years change into something horrific, along with the man who created it]. In the end, the economy stagnated and the people decided that Latham was indeed inexperienced and not fit to lead
Malcolm Turnbull (Liberal/National coalition) 2007-2013
2007: def. Mark Latham (Labor)
2010: def. Julia Gillard (Labor) and David Leyonhjelm (Liberal Democratic)
Turnbull would be rather divisive, including alienating many financial conservatives. Nevertheless, he held a firm hand and led Australia to recovery which ensured his re-election over a divided opposition. With Labor under Julia Gillard and seeking to move on from the Latham years, the bitter former leader declared that he was now a libertarian and would back the Lib Dems under their controversial leader David Leyonhjelm. The unlikely coalition of energised "Latham Legion" youth voters, disaffected fiscal conservatives and many on the Labor Right, led them to win three seats and surge in the vote. The Lib Dems were here to stay as a major force in Australian politics, it seemed?
Mark Latham (Liberal Democratic/National coalition) 2013-2015
2013: def. Julia Gillard (Labor) and Malcolm Turnbull (Liberal)
Latham's "dirty deal" with the Nationals ended Turnbull's hopes of a third term, and a terrible campaign by Gillard and her party led to the new Coalition surging to win a surprise majority. Mark Latham was back, but according to him, this was "a new Mark Latham". Libertarian economic polcies were here [apart from agrarian subsidies for the National boys, of course] and social issues were left alone apart from the further expansion [and political radicalisation] of the service he originally constructed to mentor young people. He was now the Leader of many thousands of youth, which led many to decry this. In the end, Leyonhjelm spilled him because of his refusal to repeal agricultural subsidies, and the Nationals walked
David Leyonhjelm (Liberal Democratic minority) 2015-2016
Leyonhjelm would find out that his kicking Latham out of power would have dire consequences. As a result of coalitioning with the Nationals and buddying up with people like Bob Katter, Latham has increasingly went even more right-wing, and when he was announced to be the new leader of One Nation [kicking out Pauline Hanson], ON surged to a close third. People panicked
Bill Shorten (Labor/Liberal/National coalition) 2016-2019
2016: def. Mark Latham (One Nation) and David Leyonhjelm (Liberal Democratic)
In the end, the deal with the devil had to be made, and Latham was stopped from returning to power, at least for three years. Bill Shorten was an unpopular man, and an unpopular PM, but the support of all of the Big Three was enough to prop him up. Right? Entering the 2019 election with a comfortable lead, the economy blew out on the second day after months of looking shaky. In the end, it couldn't be stopped
Mark Latham (One Nation majority) 2019-
2019: def. Bill Shorten (Labor/Liberal/National/Green coalition)
The third and most terrifying Mark Latham was now in power. Deeply bitter, fully far-right and with a mob of radical reactionary youth ready to do what their Dear Leader ordered them to do, Australia was now in the grips of its equivalent to President Santorum. Latham was now determined to never let power go out of his grip ever again. By any means necessary. As Australian society regressed and borders closed, the downgrades in the Democracy Rank kept coming. By 2022, Australia wasn't even considered a democracy at all
