Graeme Campbell

The Australia First Party was founded in July 1996 by Graeme Campbell, who was then the federal Member of Parliament for Kalgoorlie (Western Australia), a seat which he held from 1980 to 1998. Graeme Campbell had originally been a parliamentarian for the Australian Labor Party, but was sacked in 1995 by the ALP (then under the leadership of Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating) for speaking out against the policies of high immigration and multiculturalism.

Campbell was the Australia First Party's founding National President, however, he went on to join the One Nation Party in 2001 in an attempt to solidify mainstream nationalist forces in Australia. Diane Teasdale of the Murray Branch, centred in Shepparton, then became National President.