On 9 August 2019, Stella Kaufman welcomed the Centrist Democratic Party to the New Conservative Coalition, toppling Margaret Harrison's government and becoming the new Chancellor of the Valkyrian Republic on 12 August. Harrison, who had been the de facto Leader of the Labor Party since late 2015, announced that she would retire from politics, necessitating a leadership election within the party. While this is an opportunity for new and old faces to have their time in the spotlight, all of the candidates who have launched their leadership campaigns thus far have been staunch supporters of Harrison. In fact, all of the candidates have been in close proximity to the former chancellor in governments past and going as far back during her time as mayor of Darwin in 2005. One of the candidates is Harrison's younger sister, Melissa Ambrose.

While Harrison made it clear that she will not endorse any candidate to succeed her, she did name Avianna Aldridge as the acting party leader due to the fact that she had led the MPs of the party when the chancellery was independent from the legislature between 2017 and 2019. Before the unification of Qvait and Winston Island, when Harrison was serving as President of Qvait, Julia Burns and Avianna Aldridge respectively served as Vice President and Secretary of State and they were called the "Big Three" due to the fact that the three women were the most powerful figures in the country at the time. Recent in-house polling on members of the Labor Party has shown that Aldridge and Burns are the two most likely candidates to become the Leader of the Labor Party and consequently become the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. However, Melissa Ambrose follows the two closely behind.

It is apparent that social democracy will continue to be the prevailing ideology of the Labor Party. In 2005, social liberals wrested control of the Labor Party from the social democrats and was the prevalent ideological force of the party for ten years until Harrison won the party's nomination for President of Qvait in 2015. Many of the social liberals who were in powerful positions within the Labor Party have since defected to the Liberal Party, whose leader Nathan Martinez is in a precarious position over his support for Harrison in the previous government. Due to the influx of former Labor Party members who had not supported Harrison, Martinez decided not to renew the Liberal Party's membership in the Alliance of Social Democrats after the 2019 general election and played a role in Harrison's ultimate defeat to Kaufman in the race to become Chancellor.

There are several issues that are important to the members of the Labor Party and are key for who will become the new Leader of the Labor Party. The party membership is critical of Kaufman's chancellery, viewing her negatively due to allowing Nicole Chancellor and The New Right to be a part of the new government. According to the in-house poll, 89 per cent of Labor Party members view the Coalition as authoritarian and 77 per cent want a party leader who will strongly challenge their policies. When it comes to ideology, 83 per cent of Labor Party respondents identify as social democrats and a total of 71 per cent said that it is important or very important for the next party leader to be a social democrat. As for experience, 58 per cent of Labor Party members want the party leader to have at least ten years of government experience.

The Labor MPs will hold several votes on 30 August to determine the final two candidates and the party membership will vote on 14 September to determine the next Leader of the Labor Party who will consequently become the Leader of the Opposition. Seven debates are planned to be held: three will be hosted by KTN, two will be jointly hosted by One Seven and The Sydney Times, and another two will be hosted by Central News.