First Among Equals

FIRST AMONG EQUALS

AUSTRALIA'S PRIME MINISTERS
FROM BARTON TO TURNBULL

Kim Wildman with Derry Hogue

T
he role of prime minister has been traditionally referred to as
primus inter pares,
a Latin phrase meaning ‘first among equals'. As such, the prime minister is considered to be the ‘first' and most senior minister of the group of ministers holding office. While the office of prime minister is not mentioned in the Australian Constitution, the prime ministership is unquestionably the most important and powerful position in politics.

Since Federation, Australia has had 29 prime
ministers. From Barton to Turnbull, each of Australia's top political leaders has contributed to the shaping of the country's national identity. Some, like Chifley and Gorton, have had the position thrust upon them, while others, like McMahon and Keating and Turnbull, have plotted and schemed their way into The Lodge.

Three prime ministers – Lyons, Curtin and Holt — have died while in office. Lyons was the first. Worn down by the pressures of war and the Great Depression, he suffered a heart attack and died on 7 April 1939. Curtin, too, was a casualty of his times, dying on 5 July 1945, only two months after the German surrender to the Allied forces ended the war in Europe. Holt met his end in the most mysterious and controversial manner, disappearing while taking a swim off Cheviot Beach in Victoria on 17 December 1967.

Of the remainder, excluding the country's caretaker prime ministers and bearing in mind that four prime ministers served more than once, only three — Barton, Fisher and Menzies — retired at a time of their own choosing. Five — Deakin, Watson, Reid, Fisher and Fadden — were forced to resign after being voted out by parliament. And seven — Hughes, Menzies, Gorton, Hawke, Rudd, Gillard and Abbott — were unceremoniously deposed by their own parties, while the rest were defeated at the elections.

Four prime ministers — Deakin, Fisher, Menzies
and Rudd — led the nation more than once. Deakin first came to power in 1903 when the incumbent prime minister, Edmund Barton, the nation's first leader, resigned to become a judge of the High Court. Deakin then returned not once, but twice, in 1905 and 1909. Fisher, too, had three stabs at the top job, taking office in 1908, 1910 and 1914. Menzies first served, briefly, from 1939 to 1941, but is most remembered for his record stint that took in three decades beginning in 1949 and ending in 1966. Kevin Rudd came to office on 3 December 2007, but in one of Australia's most dramatic political purges was dumped in favour of Julia Gillard on 24 June 2010. Gillard, Australia's only woman prime minister, served for three years and two days, fighting an election and leading a minority government, only to be deposed herself by Kevin Rudd, who served a second time as prime minster until his defeat in September 2013 to the Coalition led by Tony Abbott. Abbott's term of barely two years put him among those who served shortest. But the prime minister who served longest, Menzies, remained in office for a total of eighteen years, five months and ten days as prime minister. He also served the longest continuous term, which was sixteen years, one month and seven days.

The shortest prime-ministerial terms were held by Australia's three caretaker leaders: Forde served eight
days, Page twenty days and McEwen 23 days. A grand total of less than two months between them!

Who, then, has been Australia's most effective prime minister? There have been various attempts at such polls, some run by newspapers. In January 2001 for example, a year after the centenary of Federation,
The Australian Financial Review
asked this very question. The result was their top five list of Australia's greatest prime ministers. Sitting at the top was Deakin, followed in order by Menzies, Curtin, Chifley and Whitlam. Yet others feel Bob Hawke and Paul Keating should be in that list for overseeing the opening up and modernising of the Australian economy.

Assessing greatness is a very subjective business. Comparing prime ministers from different time periods, too, is a perilous endeavour. For example, how can you make a comparison between Australia's Fathers of Federation, like Barton and Deakin, and much later prime ministers such as Keating and Howard? Having served in completely different time periods, each of them faced their own set of challenges and problems.

Yet, it is only by examining the prime ministers and their place within history that we can come to an understanding of political leadership in Australia. Therefore, this book will study Australia's prime ministers in the context of the times in which they served. Broadly speaking, the first century of prime ministerships
since Federation can be categorised into five chronological periods: the early years of Federation (1901-13), World War I and the Great Depression (1913-39), World War II and its after-effects (1939-49), immigration and the post-war boom (1949-72), the move to multiculturalism and the shift to meet new global alignments (1972-2015).

For the first thirteen years following Federation, Barton, Deakin, Watson, Reid and Fisher set the foundations for the new nation state. Then, from 1913 to 1939, Cook, Hughes, Bruce, Scullin and Lyons faced the fledgling country's first war and tackled the setbacks of the Great Depression. From 1939 to 1949, Page, Fadden, Curtin, Forde and Chifley dealt with a country in crisis as more young men died fighting a new war, this time on two fronts, in Europe and in the Pacific. From 1949 to 1972, Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton and McMahon, all from the Liberal Party of Australia, led the country through 23 years of conservative reign during a post-war economic boom and large-scale immigration, leaving the main political competition, the Australian Labor Party, out in the political cold, and virtually creating a one-party state in the process. In 1972, the Australian Labor Party finally broke the Liberal Party's political stronghold, with the election of Whitlam. He was followed by Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Rudd
again, Abbott and Turnbull, each of whom has dealt with issues of multiculturalism and national identity and a newly emerging world order, often in very conflicting ways.

With the ‘lucky country' entering the new millennium stronger in self-identity, the mood in the country shifted. No longer holding on to its conservative roots, Australia and its citizens became more concerned with global issues such as the ‘war on terror' and global warming, ultimately leading to the defeat of the Coalition and the election of Australia's 26
^th
prime minister, the Labor Party's Kevin Rudd, in late 2007. He became the first prime minister to be dumped by his own party during a first term in office. Gillard took over and held together a minority government and was then dumped by her party in favour of Kevin Rudd again, before Tony Abbott led the Coalition to victory in September 2013. Then, in what became known as the revolving-door period, Abbott became the second prime minister to be dumped by his own party in his first term, in September 2015, when he was toppled by Malcolm Turnbull — giving Australia five prime ministers in five years.

While Australia's prime ministers have come from diverse backgrounds, each in his or her position as first among equals has sought to guide the country along what they believed to be the correct path of
nationhood. In presenting a brief history of Australia's prime ministers since Federation, this book examines how the decisions and actions they made during each of their tenures have influenced and shaped Australia's national identity.

O
n 1 January 1901 after many years of debating and campaigning, six self-governing British colonies — New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland — united as a nation when the Commonwealth of Australia was formally inaugurated. Amid an air of overwhelming optimism, an immense crowd gathered at Sydney's Centennial Park to see the Earl of Hopetoun sworn in as Australia's first governor-general.

During the first thirteen years of Federation, Australia's first five prime ministers — Barton, Deakin, Watson, Reid and Fisher — engaged themselves with the onerous task of nation-building. They worked
to create the framework for Australia's government, putting in place a number of important institutions such as the High Court of Australia. They also sanctioned the high tariff policy that was customary for much of the twentieth century, and agreed on the White Australia policy, a discriminatory plan that sought to exclude all non-white people from the Australian continent, which was to endure until the late 1960s.

It was also a period of international achievements. The Labor Party (originally spelt ‘Labour', the American spelling ‘Labor' was adopted in 1912), which formed in 1891, emerged as a political force with Watson's government becoming the first Labor government in the world and Fisher becoming the first Labor prime minister to serve two terms. What is more, in 1902, Australia became the first sovereign nation to give women the right to vote and to stand for parliament. (New Zealand, still a self-governing colony, gave women the right to vote in 1893 but not to stand for parliament).

While the early years of Federation were dedicated to creating a stable nation, they were also a period of unrest, with five prime ministers and seven changes in office. With the country's seat of power contested by three main political parties, each with roughly the same number of representatives in parliament, the continual shifting of allegiances thus resulted in a
number of changes of government.

By the end of this period, though, a broad two-party system developed. The rise of Labor and working-class consciousness forced a historic merger between two enemies — Reid's Free Traders and Deakin's Protectionists, which had long disagreed over the country's tariff policies. In 1909 they combined to form the Fusion Party, paving the way for the conservatives and leading to the Labor versus non-Labor model, which has endured since.

EDMUND BARTON

AUSTRALIA'S
FIRST PRIME MINISTER

TERM

1 January 1901-24 September 1903

I
n the weeks and months leading up to the celebration of Australia's Centenary of Federation in 2001, a national television advertising campaign teased:
What kind of country doesn't know the name of their first prime minister?
Research commissioned by the National Council for the Centenary of Federation had shown that Australians had a greater knowledge of America's Founding Fathers than they did of their own. Yet without Edmund Barton and his colleagues Australia would not have federated.