The office of Leader of the House in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Australia exists in order for the management of government business, involving such matters as the following:

As the Parliament is bicameral, the Leader of the House must also be aware of developments in the Senate, for example, in order to anticipate whether a bill may be returned to the House with amendments.

Although the work of the Leader is always in a parliamentary context, the office is not in the control of the House of Representatives in the way that the Speaker is, for example. The Leader of the House is appointed by the Prime Minister and it is always an additional office held by a Minister, never by a backbencher.

The office was instituted in 1951 by Robert Menzies. The inaugural Leader was Eric Harrison. The current Leader is Anthony Albanese.

Due to the greater demands placed on the office, the Leader of the House is paid more than a regular Member of Parliament.

There is an equivalent office in the upper house: the Manager of Government Business in the Senate.

Australia ( /əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.

For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.

There are several offices titled Leader of the House:

Adam Paul Bandt (born 11 March 1972) is an Australian politician, former industrial lawyer and the Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens Party. Bandt was elected to the Division of Melbourne in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia, at the 2010 federal election. He is the second member of the Australian Greens to be elected to the House of Representatives, after Michael Organ, but the first to be elected at a general election. Bandt had previously contested the seat in 2007 and narrowly lost to Lindsay Tanner.

Adam Bandt was born in Adelaide, South Australia—a descendant of German immigrants who emigrated to the Hahndorf and Barossa Valley regions in the 1800s. As a child, his family moved to Perth, Western Australia where he attended high school and university before moving to Melbourne. Prior to his election to parliament, Bandt was an industrial, labor relations and public interest lawyer living in Parkville. He was a partner at Slater and Gordon and is currently completing his PhD in law and politics from Monash University. His PhD thesis was "Work to Rule: Rethinking Marx, Pashukanis and Law". At Murdoch University, Bandt was a student activist and member of the Left Alliance. At that time he has been quoted as calling the Greens a "bourgeois" party. He was president of the student union and an active campaigner for higher living allowances for students and free education. From 1987 to 1989, he was a member of the Labor Party.

Anthony John "Tony" Abbott (born 4 November 1957) is the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott has represented the seat of Warringah since the 1994 by-election.

Prior to entering the Australian Parliament, Abbott studied for a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws at Sydney University and for a Master of Arts as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He later trained as a seminarian and worked as a journalist, business manager, political advisor and Executive Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. Abbott has also been an author, ultramarathon runner and member of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

Abbott served in the Howard Government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs from 1996-1998 and Minister for Employment Services from 1998-2001. He joined the Howard Cabinet in 2001 as Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. Following the 2001 Election, he took on the additional roles of Leader of the House of Representatives and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service. In 2003 he became Minister for Health and Ageing , retaining this position and his role as Leader of the House until the defeat of the Howard government at the 2007 federal election.