Jonathan Gillam (Mercbl)

Jonathan Gillam (born 20th June 2004) was an Australian Labor Party politician who served as the 35th Prime Minister of Australia from April 2039 to July 2060 and as the 7th President of Australia from November 2070 to November 2082. Gillam graduated from the University of Western Australia with a double degree in physics and economics before being elected to the House of Representatives in the 2025 federal election for the division of Hasluck at the age of 21. Gillam served multiple roles in the cabinet of Mark Butler, serving as the Minister for Youth, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction and Minister for Industry, Science and Technology. In the Butler shadow cabinet Gillam served as the Shadow Minister for Industry, Science and Technology and Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations following Richard Marles’ unsuccessful attempt to wrestle the position of Leader of the Australian Labor Party from Mark Butler in 2033. Following Butler’s resignation after his second defeat, this time in the 2037 election Gillam also successfully challenged Marles for the leadership position becoming the Leader of the Opposition at the age of just 32. He lead the ALP to victory in the 2039 election, defeating the Hawke Government and forming a coalition with the Centre Alliance. This would make Gillam the youngest Prime Minister in Australian history, being 34 at the time. Gillam would remain Prime Minister until 2060, a full 21 years, the longest of any Prime Minister in Australian history. During his term as Prime Minister, Gillam lead Australia through numerous major global and internal events including the Indonesian Civil War, the renegotiation of the Antarctic Treaty, Australia's first colonies in space and the unification of Australia and New Zealand. As well as this he enacted numerous landmark policies such as introducing fixed terms for the Australian Parliament, introducing nationwide proportional representation for the Australian senate and nationalising Australian mineral resources and much of Australia's renewable energy resources.

Early Career in Federal Politics (2025-2036)
Jonathan Gillam won the Labor Party's preselection for the federal Division of Hasluck in the outer suburbs of Perth, Western Australia before the 2025 Australian Federal Election. The incumbent Member for Hasluck, Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt announced that, at the age of 73, he would not be running in the 2025 election. As such, Gillam faced off against Liberal Party nominee Frank Alban in a close election that Gillam ultimately won with just 50.22% of the two-party-preferred vote and 35.59% of the first-preference vote in a swing of 0.45% towards Labor compared to the 2022 Election. Gillam would then go on to win re-election in every election until he retired in 2060 and would, in that time, turn the seat from a swing seat to a safe Labor seat, as well as contributing, at least in part, to the pro-Labor swing seen in Western Australia seen in the early-21st century.

Gillam served as the Minister of Youth (2028-2034), Minister of Energy & Emissions Reduction (2028-2032) and Minister of Science, Technology & Innovation (2032-2034). Gillam would also serve as Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives from late 2036 until his election as the leader of the Australian Labor Party in 2037.

Gillam spent his first 3 years in parliament as a member of the opposition under the leadership of Opposition Leader Mark Butler following Anthony Albanese's resignation and the subsequent 2025 leadership election. In the 2026 Republic Referendum Gillam campaigned for the successful "yes" vote, like most of the ALP.

Cabinet Minister As a member of the Labor Left faction of the Australian Labor Party, Gillam made close relationships with leader members of the ALP, including Labor leader Mark Butler and as such, when Labor won in the 2028 Federal Election, Gillam was selected as the Minister for Energy & Emissions Reduction, this position being of particular importance to Butler due to his longtime battle to combat climate change and his own time as Minister for Climate Change in 2013.

As Minister for Energy & Emissions Reduction, Gillam pushed for an increase to Australia's carbon pricing scheme, and began working to increase federal involvement in Australia's energy sector.

Leader of the Opposition (2037-2039)
Following Labor's defeat in the 2037 Federal Election Mark Butler announced his intention to step down from Leader of the Labor Party. Richard Marles immediately announced that he would run for the leadership position, followed closely by. However, Gillam's announcement that he too would be seeking the position came as a shock to seemingly everyone in the party, with many surprised that someone of just 32 years of age would be seeking the leadership position. However, Gillam worked tirelessly in an effort to defeat Marles at the leadership election. Firstly, he convinced Butler to delay his resignation by a week, allowing Gillam more time to campaign. During the roughly 7 weeks that Gillam had to campaign in, he made numerous appearances on television programs and, exploiting his youth, on several social media platforms including one interview with Metalk political commentator Chase Anderson which had garnered nearly 2 million views by the time the ballot process had finished. As a very charismatic speaker and a young politician, these appearances greatly boosted Gillam's popularity. Gillam had a strong showing in the grassroots vote, particularly with younger Labor members, but despite his best efforts in the preceding weeks to gain credibility with the parliamentary caucus as a viable leader, he lagged behind in that ballot.

In the end, Gillam received 64.61% of the grassroots vote, and 38.1% of the parliamentary vote. When weighted equally, this gave him 51.36% of the vote, and the leadership position.

Right from the beginning, polls showed that Gillam and the Labor party were lagging behind the Liberals, lead by Alex Hawke. Despite a general sense that Gillam was well liked personally by the public and his landslide victory with the rank and file members of the Labor party, Gillam was usually only polling at around 35% in preferred Prime Minister polls, which is usually attributed to his young age. The Labor party as a whole did better, averaging at 43.64% in two-party preferred polls.

Gillam was a member of the Labor Left faction of the Australian Labor Party and advocated for a very progressive fiscal and economic agenda.