Australian Federation is now 110 not out, and there have been plenty of memorable sagas and incidents. This week is the 70th anniversary of when the Federal Government changed without the botheration of a Federal election. Given the precarious situation of the Government in the current Federal Parliament, we might see history repeated.
For convenience, we’ll start the story in February 1923 when Earle Page (whose name is commemorated in a UNE college) led the Country Party into a coalition led by SM Bruce (who announced he was not to be called by his first name, Stanley), the new leader of the Nationalist Party. During the Bruce-Page Government, the Federal Parliament moved from Melbourne (where it had sat from 1901) to Canberra. Under the leadership of James Scullin, the Labor Party reduced the Coalition’s majority to just 13 seats in the House of Representatives at the election in November 1928. John Curtin and Ben Chifley were among the new members.
A coup led by Billy Hughes in September 1921 led to the fall of the Bruce-Page Government. At the elections in October, Scullin led Labor to victory when Bruce lost the Government and his own seat (setting a precedent for John Howard), but the Coalition retained its majority in the Senate. The new Labor Government was severely challenged by the Great Depression. In May 1931 a discontented Labor member, Joe Lyons from Tasmania, formed the United Australia Party (UAP). Scullin continued to lose the support of his own party, the Government was defeated in November by a no confidence motion, and Parliament was dissolved.
Lyons led the UAP to a victory with an absolute majority without needing a coalition with the Country Party. During 1933 Western Australia unsuccessfully tried to secede from Federation. Simultaneously, New England was again trying to be a new State in the Federation.
By 1934 the UAP again needed the Country Party’s support and a new Coalition was formed in November, with Page as the Deputy Prime Minister. The Coalition won the elections in October 1937, defeating the Labor Party led by John Curtin. The other rising star was Robert Menzies, the Deputy Leader of the UAP. When Lyons died in April 1939 Page served as Prime Minister for 19 days. Menzies was elected leader of the UAP, and was subjected to a foolish personal attack by Page, who disgraced himself, and later resigned the leadership of the Country Party in September after World War II commenced.
Menzies formed a War Cabinet. Difficult negotiations with the Country Party finally resulted in another Coalition in March 1940. Three Ministers (Street, Fairbairn and Gullett) were killed in an air crash in August. The elections in September resulted in Coalition losses and Labor gains, with two Independents holding the balance of power. Curtin rejected Menzies’ offer of an all-party coalition. The Country Party’s ongoing leadership crisis was temporarily resolved when Arthur Fadden became ‘Acting Leader’.
Fadden became the Acting Prime Minister in January 1941 when Menzies went to London for four months. While the cat was away the rats played. When Menzies returned he faced increased disharmony within the Coalition. On August 28, Menzies resigned the Prime Ministership in favour of Fadden, and the 79-year-old Billy Hughes became the leader of the UAP.
Opposition leader, John Curtin, took full advantage of the dissention in the Government’s ranks. On October 3, 1941 Curtin moved a budget amendment as a censure motion, which was carried when two Independents, Arthur Coles and Alexander Wilson, voted with the Opposition. Lord Gowrie, the Governor-General, commissioned Curtin to form a new Government, which was sworn in on October 7. So, without the expense or inconvenience of an election, Labor became the Government.
The skulduggery in the Country Party was also expressed locally. Victor Thompson, who had won the seat of New England in December 1919, held it continuously for the Country Party until 1940. But at the elections in 1934 he had been challenged by a UAP candidate, Patrick Louis Cantwell, who made good use of the boundary adjustments which brought much of his native Upper Hunter into New England. Cantwell’s preferences sensibly went to Thompson, who retained the seat.
Thompson, who was always strongly supported in Armidale, easily won at the elections in 1937.
Factions within the Country Party launched an attack against Thompson in 1940. Perhaps it was a case of “It’s Time”, or some Country Party supporters were fed up with Thomson’s constant push for the New State. Thompson was just one of three endorsed Country Party candidates in September 1940. The other two were Don Shand from Armidale and Joseph Palmer Abbott from Wingen in the Upper Hunter. After the distribution of preferences Abbott won the seat. Abbott was in the Coalition Government when it lost office on October 3, 1941.
Country Party domination of the New England seat could have ended in August 1943 when Abbott was almost defeated by a strong Labor candidate, Herbert Oxford, who was a lecturer at the Armidale Teachers’ College. Oxford was strongly supported in Armidale and Tamworth, and led Abbott by 686 primary votes. Abbott’s losses can also be attributed to the confusion caused by a candidate with the same surname contesting the election as an Independent. He won more than 2500 first preferences. “Careless and something akin to idiocy alone can explain this result,” claimed the local newspaper. After the distribution of preferences, Abbott defeated Oxford by a mere 1041 votes.
Abbott did not contest the 1949 elections. David Drummond, who had been our member in the State Parliament from 1920, stood as a Country Party candidate for New England and won, while Menzies led his Coalition in defeating Ben Chifley’s Labor Government.
