A federal election was held on 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal–National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth consecutive term in office but was defeated by the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Up for election were all 151 seats in the lower house, the House of Representatives, as well as 40 of the 76 seats in the upper house, the Senate. The voter turnout of 89.82% in this election was the lowest in modern history, falling below 90% for the first time since 1922, prior to the introduction of compulsory voting in Australia.

The Labor Party achieved a majority government for the first time since 2007, winning 77 seats in the House of Representatives. Albanese was sworn in as Prime Minister on 23 May 2022, becoming the fourth Labor leader to win government from opposition since World War II, after Gough Whitlam in 1972, Bob Hawke in 1983, and Kevin Rudd in 2007. Every state and territory except Tasmania swung to Labor on a two-party-preferred basis. The largest two-party preferred swing was in Western Australia (10.6%), where Labor won a majority of seats for the first time since 1990. The Coalition suffered severe losses, winning 58 seats, its lowest share in the House of Representatives since 1946, the first federal election contested by the Liberal Party. On election night, Morrison conceded defeat and announced he would resign as Liberal leader, and was subsequently replaced by Peter Dutton.

While the Coalition was soundly defeated, Labor did not achieve a landslide victory, as a result of electoral successes by independent candidates and the Greens, with the crossbench swelling to 16 seats. Six formerly safe Liberal seats in urban and suburban areas, most held by the party and its predecessors for decades, were won by teal independents, unseating Liberal incumbents including Treasurer and Deputy Liberal Leader Josh Frydenberg. The Liberals also suffered large swings in a number of suburban seats that had long been reckoned as Liberal heartland. The Greens increased their vote share and won four seats, gaining three seats in inner-city Brisbane, the first time in the party's history it won more than one seat in the lower house. The combined major party vote for Labor and the Coalition was the lowest on record at 68.3%, while the minor party and independent vote was at its highest at 31.7%. Compared to 2019, Labor's primary vote dropped much less than the Coalition's, although Labor nevertheless recorded its lowest primary vote since either 1903 or 1934, depending on whether the Lang Labor vote is included.

In the Senate, Labor won 15 seats and retained its 26 seats overall in the chamber, while the Coalition fell to 32 seats, a four-seat drop from the previous parliament. The Greens won a seat in every state, an increase of 3 for a total of 12 seats overall, the party's largest ever representation in the Senate. One Nation returned its leader Pauline Hanson in Queensland to retain 2 seats overall, while the Jacqui Lambie Network won an additional seat in Tasmania to have 2 seats. In the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), independent candidate David Pocock won the second of two seats, the first time an ACT senator was not a Labor or Liberal party member. Lastly, Ralph Babet of the United Australia Party won the sixth seat in Victoria. Labor required 13 votes from a crossbench of 18 (including 12 Greens) to ensure passage of legislation not supported by the Coalition.

At the previous election in May 2019, the Liberal–National Coalition, led by Scott Morrison, formed a government after winning 77 seats in the House of Representatives, enough for a three-seat majority, whilst Labor claimed 68 seats and remained in opposition. A further six seats were won by other parties and independents, one each to the Greens, Centre Alliance, and Katter's Australian Party, and the remaining three by independents forming the crossbench. In the Senate, the Coalition made modest gains in most states and increased their share of seats to 35 overall, whilst Labor remained steady on 26, the Greens likewise on 9, One Nation and Centre Alliance down to 2 each, and Jacqui Lambie and Cory Bernardi's minor parties with 1 seat each. This meant the Coalition required four additional votes to pass legislation.

The 46th Parliament was inaugurated on 2 July 2019. By this time, the Labor Party had elected a new leader, replacing the outgoing Bill Shorten with Anthony Albanese. In the Senate, Cory Bernardi's resignation in January 2020 allowed the Coalition to replace him with a Liberal member, increasing their share of seats in the Senate to 36. They retained this figure until Northern Territory senator Sam McMahon resigned from the Country Liberal Party in January 2022, four months before the election. She joined the Liberal Democratic Party on 8 April 2022.

In the House of Representatives, two Coalition MPs (Llew O'Brien and Darren Chester) departed their respective party-room caucuses, though retained their membership of the Morrison government. The government's share of seats in the House dropped when Craig Kelly, the member for Hughes, left the Liberal Party in August 2021 to become an independent and sit on the crossbench. This left the government with a one-seat majority (76 out of 151), though considering the position of the Speaker, who is obliged not to vote to create a majority where none is present, the government functioned from this point to the election in technical-minority status. On 7 April 2022, three days prior to the election being called, Liberal National Party MP George Christensen announced his resignation from the party and became an independent, dropping the government to 75 seats at the end of the parliamentary term.

There were two by-elections in the 46th parliament, both in 2020 in the seats of Eden-Monaro and Groom; in both instances, the by-elections were won by the incumbent party. Nick Champion resigned from the House of Representatives in February 2022 to contest the South Australian state election. A by-election was not held for his seat of Spence as it would be too close to the federal election.