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Prime Ministers
Australia has had 25 Prime Ministers since Federation in 1901, including the current Prime Minister John Howard. Three of those Prime Ministers have been Prime Minister more than once.
One Prime Minister served for more than 16 years in one stretch, while another mysteriously disappeared while swimming in the ocean.
Listed below are a few of the more famous and infamous of Australia's leaders.
Sir Edmund Barton
The first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, practiced as a lawyer before entering the Legislative Assembly in 1879. The economic depression of the early 1890s confirmed his thoughts of a national government which could apply Australia-wide solutions to such problems as defence and trade policy. He was a leading figure at the federal conventions held during the 1890s. He was also a key figure in drafting the federal bill.
After the first federal election in 1901 Barton was able to form a government; he was sworn in as Australia’s first prime minister and minister for external affairs. During his term much of the new federal machinery of government was put in place. He retired in September 1903 and was appointed a Justice of the High Court. He remained on the bench until his death, ruling on the constitutional validity of much of the early federal legislation and generally judging so as to promote a balance between federal and state power.
Alfred Deakin
Prime Minister three times, Deakin was born in Melbourne after his family had migrated from England during the gold rushes. He graduated in law from the University of Melbourne in 1877 but moved into journalism. He stood for Victorian Parliament and was elected in. He was the key figure in promoting Federation in Victoria during the 1890s, playing a similar role to Edmund Barton in New South Wales.
In the first House of Representatives Deakin became attorney-general in Barton’s Protectionist ministry and replaced Barton as prime minister. His second time as prime minister, which began in 1905 with the support of the Labor Party, brought about the establishment of the industrial arbitration system, tariff protection, the beginning of social welfare with the introduction of old age pensions, and with the outlining of defence policies. This ministry ended when Labor withdrew its support.
In 1909 Deakin became prime minister again. With the defeat of this government by Labor at the 1910 election, Deakin ended his parliamentary career as leader of the opposition. He retired in 1913.
Andrew Fisher
Like Deakin, Andrew Fisher was Prime Minister of Australia three times. Born in Scotland, he began work in a coalmine at the age of nine. He migrated to Queensland in 1885, worked as a coalminer in Gympie and became president of the local Miners’ Association. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1893 and in 1901 was elected to the new federal parliament.
He became Labor leader in 1907 and prime minister for the first time in 1908 after the Deakin Government, deprived of Labor support, fell. His ministry was replaced by a Conservative coalition in 1909 but in 1910 Labor won a resounding victory at the polls.
Fisher’s second government established the Commonwealth Bank, and Australia paper currency and the Australian Navy, began to work on the national capital and expanded social welfare with maternity allowances and invalid pensions.
Narrowly defeated in 1913, Fisher returned to power in 1914 when an early election was called. But this ministry was distracted by the crisis in Europe leading to World War II and by divisions in the party of conscription. Fisher resigned in 1915 and was High Commissioner in London from 1916-1921.
John Curtin
Curtin was born and educated in Melbourne. After a period as secretary of the Timberworkers’ Union, he first came to public notice in 1916 as Victorian secretary of the Anti-Conscription League. He then went to Perth in 1928 entered the House of Representatives, winning the seat of Fremantle.
He lost his seat in the 1932 election when Labor was defeated. Returning to parliament in 1934, he replaced Scullin as Labor Party and opposition leader in 1935.
When World War II started in late 1939, the coalition government of Robert Menzies was divided by personal rivalries. These developed to the point where the independents who held the balance of power believed Australia’s war effort was being adversely affected. In October 1941 they agreed to transfer their support to Labor and so Curtin became prime minister.
Curtin proved a capable war leader, appealing to the United States for help in the face of his realisation that Australia was deemed dispensable by Britain. He summed this up in his now famous 1942 New Year speech; ‘…I make it clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom’. In the following disputes with British prime minister, Winston Churchill, Curtin was able to turn the results in his favour, as in his decision to recall Australian troops from the Middle East to defend Australia.
With Japanese planes bombing northern Australian ports, he mobilised the entire nation, instituting military conscription which he had so strongly opposed in World War I. He died in office in July 1945, a few months before the Allied victory.
Sir Robert Menzies
The longest serving of all Prime Ministers. Born in Jeparit, Victoria, the son of a country shopkeeper, Menzies studied law at Melbourne University. He had become known as a brilliant advocate by the time he entered the Victorian parliament in 1928. He held various portfolios and became the deputy premier. In 1934 he won the federal seat of Kooyong for the United Australia Party and become attorney-general under Joseph Lyons.
When Lyons died in 1939, Menzies became leader of the United Australia Party and Prime Minister. His first term was overshadowed by personal rivalries in his own party and the war crisis. In 1941 dissatisfaction within his party forced him to resign; soon afterwards his party lost government when two independents transferred their support to Labor under John Curtin.
In opposition Menzies set about constructing a new conservative party, the Liberal Party, and as its head, won power from Labor in the 1949 election. Thus began his record 16 years as Prime Minister. He was knighted in 1963. Among his many achievements was the provision of extensive federal assistance for education. He retired in 1966.
Harold Holt
Holt was born in Sydney and educated in Melbourne where he practiced as a solicitor. A member of the Young Nationalists’ Association and a protégé of Robert Menzies, he entered the federal parliament in 1935.
In 1949 he became minister for labour and national service in Menzies’ first postwar government and by 1958 was treasurer and deputy leader of the Liberal Party. Groomed by Menzies for the leadership, Holt succeeded him unopposed on his retirement in 1966.
On 17 December 1967 he disappeared, presumed drowned, while swimming in rough surf at Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. There is a swimming pool named after him in Melbourne.
Gough Whitlam
Born in Melbourne, Whitlam was a lawyer who entered the House of Representatives in 1952. He became deputy leader of the party in 1960. In 1966 he replaced Arthur Calwell as leader.
He was elected Prime Minister in 1972 ending 23 years of opposition. Whitlam’s policies were based on an expanded role for the federal government as the means of improving education and welfare.
A crisis occurred over loan negotiations made in a failed attempt to put the Australian government back into a position of financial independence. Aware of the government’s problems, the Coalition opposition led by Malcolm Fraser used its majority in the Senate to block the budget and so force the government to an election. Whitlam decided not to go to the polls but to ride the crisis out. The confrontation was ended when the governor-general , Sir John Kerr, used his reserve powers to dismiss the government and call an election.
Labor was defeated at the ensuing 1975 election and again in 1977, after which Whitlam stood down as leader. He resigned from parliament in 1978. From 1983 to 1986 he was Australian ambassador to UNESCO in Paris.
Bob Hawke
Born in South Australia, Bob Hawke studued law and economics at the University of Western Australia and was that state’s Rhodes scholar in 1952. In 1955 he graduated from Oxford University in England.
Back in Australia he joined the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) in 1958, working first as a researcher, then as an advocate before the Arbitration Commission. In 1970 he became president of the ACTU and for the next ten years was the most prominent figure in the trade union movement, with a reputation as a hard negotiator and an effective settler of disputes. He was also president of the Australian Labor Party from 1973 to 1978.
Hawke entered federal parliament in 1980 as the Labor member for Wills in Victoria, having resigned from the ACTU. He finally made a successful bid for the Labor leadership in February 1983, replacing Bill Hayden. The same day Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser called an early election. The electors voted Labor in and Hawke became prime minister. His government was returned at election in 1984, 1987, 1990. He thus became the first Australian Labor prime minister to be elected for a third (and a fourth) term and the longest-serving Labor prime minister.
In mid 1991 he was challenged for the Labor leadership by Paul Keating, who claimed that Hawke had reneged on a agreement made with him about the transfer of the leadership before the 1990 election. Hawke won the ballot but in December 1991, he was forced to call a leadership vote and was narrowly defeated by Paul Keating. He resigned from parliament in early 1992.
Related weblinks -
• Find out much more about all of Australia's Prime Ministers here -
http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/