State and territory leaders

• Premier of New South Wales – Kristina Keneally
  • Opposition Leader – Barry O'Farrell
• Premier of Queensland – Anna Bligh
  • Opposition Leader – John-Paul Langbroek
• Premier of South Australia – Mike Rann
  • Opposition Leader – Isobel Redmond
• Premier of Tasmania – David Bartlett
  • Opposition Leader – Will Hodgman
• Premier of Victoria – John Brumby (until 2 December), then Ted Baillieu
  • Opposition Leader – Ted Baillieu (until 2 December), then Daniel Andrews
• Premier of Western Australia – Colin Barnett
  • Opposition Leader – Eric Ripper
• Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory – Jon Stanhope
  • Opposition Leader – Zed Seselja
• Chief Minister of the Northern Territory – Paul Henderson
  • Opposition Leader – Terry Mills
• Chief Minister of Norfolk Island – Andre Nobbs (until 24 March), then David Buffett

Governors and administrators

• Governor of New South Wales – Marie Bashir
• Governor of Queensland – Penelope Wensley
• Governor of South Australia – Kevin Scarce
• Governor of Tasmania – Peter Underwood
• Governor of Victoria – David de Kretser
• Governor of Western Australia – Ken Michael
• Administrator of the Australian Indian Ocean Territories – Brian Lacy
• Administrator of Norfolk Island – Owen Walsh
• Administrator of the Northern Territory – Tom Pauling

Whole year

2010 was the year of 'Women in Local Government'^[1] and the year of the 'Girl Guide'^[2] to coincide with the 100th year of the Girl Guides.

January

• 2 January – The fatal stabbing of a young Indian man, Nitin Garg, in the Melbourne suburb of Yarraville generates deep anger in India, following other incidents of violence against Indian students in Australia.^[3]
• 7 January – The Queensland Government activates disaster relief funding for communities in central and southwest Queensland isolated by floods.^[4]
• 26 January – 82-year-old Iris Temperley is raped and murdered in the backyard of her home in Rockhampton, Queensland.^[5][6][7]

February

• 3 February – Following extensive public criticism, the South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson announces that controversial new electoral legislation will be repealed after the South Australian state election to be held on 20 March 2010. The new legislation requires anyone responding online to a political report during an election period to provide their full name and postcode, with the information to be retained by the publisher for six months.^[8]
• 13 February – A by-election is held for the Victorian state electorate of Altona. Despite a double digit swing to the Liberal Party, the safe seat is retained by the Australian Labor Party candidate, Jill Hennessy.^[9]
• 19 February – Mary MacKillop is declared by Pope Benedict XVI to be a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, the first Australian so declared. A formal canonisation will take place in October 2010.^[10]
• 22–23 February – Police are called to Rose Bay in Sydney's eastern suburbs in the early morning hours of 23 February to remove an illuminated street sign which had been tampered with earlier in the evening so it would display to passing motorists that “Kevin Rudd Sucks".^[11]

March

• 1–2 March – A record rainfall for a single day, since 22 December 1956, with over 100mm of rain fall across 1.7 per cent of Australian territory on 1 March, and over 1.9 per cent of the country the following day.^[12]
• 1–20 March – Major floods hit southern Queensland and north western New South Wales, with Charleville, Roma and St George severely affected,^[13] resulting with significant damage to properties, roads and rail lines.
• 6 March – Severe thunderstorms and hail hit Melbourne and central Victoria, causing flash flooding and widespread property damage.
• 9–11 March – Official visit to Australia of President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. During the visit he is appointed an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) and addresses the Australian Parliament, the first Indonesian head of state to do so.^[14]
• 17 March – The remains of Special Air Service members Lieutenant Kenneth Hudson and Private Robert Moncrieff are found in West Kalimantan. The Australian soldiers disappeared on 21 March 1966 whilst on patrol during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.^[15]
• 17 March – The population of Heron and Lady Elliot Islands is evacuated to the mainland, in expectation of the approaching tropical Cyclone Ului.^[16]
• 20 March – State elections are held in South Australia and Tasmania.^[17][18]
• 21 March – The category 3 severe tropical Cyclone Ului crosses the Queensland coast near Airlie Beach, causing moderate damage.^[19]
• 22 March – A storm featuring torrential rain and large hailstones caused flash flooding, structural damage and loss of power to 150,000 houses in Perth.^[20]
• 24 March – South Australian Liberal leader Isobel Redmond concedes defeat following the 2010 state election.^[21]
• 25 March – The Australian Bureau of Statistics announces that the population of Australia now exceeds 22 million.^[22]
• 29 March – 100 boats have arrived since November 2007 bringing 4,386 asylum-seekers and at least 225 crew members to Australia. The 100th boat, with 41 passengers and 3 crew on board, was intercepted in the vicinity of Christmas Island.^[23][24]
• 31 March – The Queensland Government, the City of Gold Coast council and Australian Commonwealth Games Association officially launch the Gold Coast's bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games.^[25]

April

• 3 April – MV Shen Neng 1, a Chinese bulk carrier, runs aground off Great Keppel Island spilling fuel oil in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.^[26]
• 8 April – The Governor of Tasmania commissions David Bartlett to form a minority Labor government with the conditional support of the Tasmanian Greens, following the hung parliament result of the 2010 state election.^[27]
• 12 April – The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, announces a taskforce has been established to investigate allegations of rorting in the Government's $16b Building the Education Revolution program aimed at upgrading facilities at Australian schools.^[28]
• 14 April – Peter Wellington MP introduces the Daylight Saving for South East Queensland Referendum Bill 2010 into Queensland Parliament which calls for a referendum to be held at the next State election on introduction of daylight saving time for South East Queensland.
• 20 April – The 5.2 M_w Kalgoorlie-Boulder earthquake shook Western Australia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of V (Moderate), damaging buildings and injuring two.
• 27 April – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announces the deferral of the introduction of the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme until after the end of the current commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (which ends in 2012), citing a lack of bipartisan support for the proposal and slower progress than expected in terms of global action on climate change.^[29]

May

• 2 May – The Rudd Government announces it will tax the above-normal profits—known as super profits—of the mining industry to fund a superannuation rise and a company tax cut.^[30]
• 11 May – The 2010 Australian federal budget was released by the Treasurer of Australia, Wayne Swan.
• 15 May – 16-year-old sailor Jessica Watson completes a solo voyage around the world.^[31]

June

• 3 June – The township of Lennox Head on the North Coast of New South Wales is affected by a tornado, which destroys at least 40 properties.
• 19 June – A by-election is held for the New South Wales state electorate of Penrith. The by-election was won by the Liberal Party candidate Stuart Ayres with a record swing of 25.7% in two party preferred terms. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Karyn Paluzzano after an admission that she lied to the Independent Commission Against Corruption and her subsequent expulsion from the Australian Labor Party.^[32][33]
• 24 June – Following a leadership spill, Julia Gillard replaces Kevin Rudd as leader of the Federal Australian Labor Party and hence Prime Minister of Australia. Gillard is the 27th Prime Minister and the first female appointed to that role.^[34]
• 26 June – The bodies of eleven people, including six board members of the Australian mining company Sundance Resources who were killed in a plane that crashed in West Africa, are recovered.
• 29 June – Jayant Patel is found guilty on three counts of manslaughter and one count of grievous bodily harm for his actions as Director of Surgery at Bundaberg Base Hospital between 2003 and 2005.^[35]
• 29 June – The Victorian government officially proclaims the creation of four new National Parks, based around the River Red Gum forests in the state's north—Barmah National Park, Gunbower National Park, Lower Goulburn River National Park and Warby-Ovens National Park.^[36]

July

• 2 July – Prime Minister Julia Gillard announces major changes to the Federal Government's proposed Resource Super Profits Tax, now known as the Mineral Resource Rent Tax, including a reduction in the headline rate to 30%.^[37]
• 19 July – 250 Australian and British WWI soldiers are laid to rest in a new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery in Fromelles, France. This is the first full cemetery that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has constructed in more than 50 years.^[38]
• 31 July – A tornado hits the town of Penola, South Australia.^[39]

August

• 6 August – The High Court of Australia rules in the case Rowe & Anor v Electoral Commissioner & Anor that certain provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 are invalid, specifically those introduced in the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006, which close the electoral roll on the day the writ for a federal election is issued. An estimated 100,000 enrolments were being reconsidered by the Australian Electoral Commission, and would be contacted to inform them they would be eligible to vote in the 2010 election.^[40]
• 21 August – The 2010 federal election is held.^[41] The result is a hung parliament, with Labor and the Coalition winning 72 seats each. The balance of power is held by four independent MPs (Bob Katter, Rob Oakeshott, Andrew Wilkie and Tony Windsor), one Green (Adam Bandt) and a member of the WA Nationals (Tony Crook).^[42]

September

• 4 September – Widespread flooding across Victoria leads to the evacuation of hundreds of people and millions of dollars of property damage.
• 7 September – Seventeen days after the 2010 federal election, the three independent MPs holding the balance of power announce their decisions. Bob Katter announces he supports the Coalition. Several hours later, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott announce they will support Julia Gillard's Labor government, allowing Gillard to inform the Governor-General that she is able to form a minority government.^[43]

October

• 8 October – The Murray-Darling Basin Authority releases the Guide to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. The plan proposes to cut water entitlements in the basin by up to 40% and return 4000 GL of water to the river system.^[44]
• 17 October – Mary MacKillop is canonised by the Pope Benedict XVI, making her Australia's first Roman Catholic saint (Saint Mary of the Cross).^[45]
• 25 October – Environmental activist Peter Gray throws his shoes at former Prime Minister John Howard on the ABC's Q&A programme, in protest to the Howard Government's involvement in the Iraq War.^[46]
• Atlas of Living Australia website launched.^[47]

November

• 4 November – Qantas Flight 32 suffers an uncontained engine failure and makes an emergency landing at Singapore Changi Airport. The failure was the first of its kind for the Airbus A380.
• 27 November – A state election is held in Victoria. The Liberal/National coalition led by Ted Baillieu wins a two-seat majority.

December

• 15 December – A boat carrying up to 80 asylum seekers crashes into a cliff face on Christmas Island, killing at least 30.^[48]
• 16–20 December – The Gascoyne River in Western Australia was affected by major flooding, inundating houses in Carnarvon.^[49]
• December 2010 – January 2011 – Around 200,000 people in 22 cities and towns across Queensland are affected by floods, most widespread flooding disaster in Queensland history.^[50]

Full date unknown

• Alex Watts & the Foreign Tongue, rock band from Melbourne is formed.^[51]