Entry to Parliament

In 2012, Sukkar was endorsed as the Liberal Party candidate for the marginal seat of Deakin. He won the seat at the 2013 election with a swing to the Liberal Party of 3.8 points, succeeding Labor MP Mike Symon^[11] he joined the government benches of the Abbott government. Sukkar served on a number of parliamentary committees in this Parliament, such as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.^[5] In 2014 Sukkar launched the Deakin 200 Club with other conservative Liberal MPs to fundraise for marginal seats held by conservatives within the party.^[12]

Turnbull government and first ministry

At the 2016 federal election, Sukkar increased his margin by 2.5 points, the Liberal Party's largest swing in Victoria.^[13] On 24 January 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, appointed Sukkar to the ministry as Assistant Minister to the Treasurer.^[14] Turnbull gave Sukkar responsibility for addressing housing affordability.^[15] When asked about housing affordability on 20 February 2017, Sukkar told Sky News that "we're also enabling young people to get highly paid jobs which is the first step to buying a house".^[16] Labor MP Tim Watts said in response that the remarks showed the Coalition was "back to where Joe Hockey started on housing affordability".^[17]

In June 2017 Sukkar, Greg Hunt, and Alan Tudge faced the possibility of prosecution for contempt of court after criticising a court's sentencing of terrorists.^[18][19] They avoided prosecution by making an unconditional apology to the Victorian Court of Appeal.^[20][21][22]

Morrison government and return to ministry

Sukkar supported Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton during the Liberal leadership spill in August 2018, and had a pivotal role in removing then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.^[23] However, Scott Morrison defeated both figures, becoming Prime Minister leaving Sukkar on the back benches.^[24][25] Opinion polls indicated that only 47% of the two-party-preferred vote would go Sukkar's way.^[26] Despite this, in the May 2019 federal election he was re-elected for a third term, albeit with a reduced margin of 4.8%.^[27] Sukkar was not given a ministry by Scott Morrison until after the May election, when he was given the role of Assistant Treasurer.^[28]

Sukkar was accused of branch stacking, of which he was cleared of "serious misuse" of Commonwealth funds when it moved to formal investigation.^[29][30] However the inquiry did not interview any witnesses or staff from the electoral offices.^[31] In 2021, further allegations of branch stacking were aired by 60 Minutes and the Nine newspapers against Sukkar and Marcus Bastiaan, which Sukkar denied.^{[32][33][34][35]} In January 2021, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was investigating a donor with ties to Sukkar over foreign interference risks.^[36]

In December 2020, Sukkar was given further responsibilities, being sworn in to the roles of Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness, Social and Community Housing.^[37]

Shadow Cabinet

At the 2022 Australian federal election, Sukkar held his seat by fewer than 500 votes, making it the most marginal Liberal seat in the nation.^[38] Upon the defeat of the Coalition, he was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Social Services by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in June of that year.^[39]