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Posts tagged as “Earle Page”

A Day Without A Prime Minister

Fifty-five years ago today, December 18, 1967, Australia experienced a singular event. For the only time since Federation in 1901, a whole day passed without a prime minister in office.

The day before, December 17, prime minister Harold Holt disappeared in the sea off Cheviot Beach, in Portsea, Victoria. On December 18, a search for his body was continuing, but little hope was held for its recovery. It was not until December 19 that Holt’s successor, John McEwen, was sworn in as prime minister.

John McEwen
Dec 18, 1967: Country Party leader John McEwen, ahead of his appointment as prime minister the next day.

Constitutional convention requires that there must always be a prime minister to advise the Governor-General. Two previous prime ministerial deaths in office were followed by same day or next day appointments of a new prime minister.

Prime ministerial resignations following retirement, party leadership challenges or electoral defeat always take place at the precise moment the new prime minister is sworn in. In this way, continuity prevails.

In 1967, Christmas was only a week away. Parliament had adjourned for the year. Politicians had left Canberra. Holt disappeared on a Sunday. Speedy appointment of a new PM was difficult.

An important complication arose because there was no such office as Deputy Prime Minister at that time. Who was the deputy to the prime minister? The deputy leader of the Liberal Party? The leader of the junior coalition party?

Ultimately, the decision about who to appoint had to be made by the Governor-General. Lord Casey, formerly Richard Casey, was a former long-time Liberal Party politician. He served as Treasurer for three and a half years under Lyons in the 1930s. In 1940, he was Minister to the United States, effectively ambassador. In 1944, he was appointed Governor of Bengal. In 1949, he returned to the Commonwealth Parliament as the Liberal member for La Trobe, a new seat in Melbourne’s outer east. Until 1960, he held portfolios in the Menzies government, including ten years as Minister for External Affairs, now called Foreign Affairs. In 1965, Menzies appointed him Governor-General.

Casey’s decision on Holt’s successor was informed by his understanding of politics, the Liberal Party and the coalition relationship. He had served alongside all the key players in the Liberal-Country Party coalition government since 1949.

Two days after Holt’s disappearance, on December 19, the Country Party leader, John McEwen, was sworn in as Australia’s 18th prime minister.

McEwen
Dec 19, 1967: John McEwen is sworn in as PM by G-G Lord Casey.

McEwen’s appointment by Casey was in accordance with the precedent established in 1939, following the death of PM Joseph Lyons on April 7. The Country Party leader, Earle Page, was appointed prime minister the same day. As the leader of the junior coalition partner, he was deemed appropriate as a temporary stand-in.

Page held office over 20 days, from April 7 until April 26, 1939. He relinquished office to the newly-elected leader of the United Australia Party, Robert Menzies.

When Labor prime minister John Curtin died in office in 1945, the choice of replacement was much easier. The deputy leader of the ALP, Frank Forde, was sworn in the next day. He served as PM over 8 days from July 6 until July 13, when he relinquished the prime ministership to the new ALP leader, Ben Chifley.

McEwen held office over 23 days as prime minister from December 19, 1967 until January 10, 1968, when he relinquished the post to the new Liberal Party leader, Senator John Gorton. Gorton subsequently won the by-election for Holt’s Melbourne electorate of Higgins and moved to the lower house. He is the only senator to have ever served as prime minister.

In 1968, the position of Deputy Prime Minister was officially created. John McEwen was the first person to hold the title, even though it had been used unofficially for many years.

Upon taking office in 1967, McEwen paid tribute to Holt. The official statement is shown below:

McEwen statement on Holt

Alexander Downer Speech To Earle Page College Annual Politics Dinner

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, has delivered a speech at the University of New England to the Annual Politics Dinner of the Earle Page College.

Alexander Downer
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer.

In his speech, Downer, the Foreign Minister since 1996, discussed attitudes to the appeasement policies of the 1930s and later wars.

He attacked his political opponents, claiming they abandoned “both realism and idealism” and “too often plumped for immediate political advantage and to hell with the consequences.”

The Annual Politics Dinner is named in honour of Sir Earle Page, the second leader of the Country Party, who held that office from 1921 until 1939.

Following the 1922 federal election, Page negotiated a coalition arrangement with the leader of the Nationalist Party, Stanley Melbourne Bruce. The agreement led to the overthrow of the Nationalist prime minister, William Morris Hughes. The Bruce-Page government was in office from 1923 until 1929.

Page served as the Country Party member for Cowper (NSW) from 1919 until his death in 1961.

Speech by Alexander Downer, Foreign Minister, to the Earle Page College Annual Politics Dinner at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW.

In 1915, at the age of 35, Earle Page was already a mover and a shaker. He was a successful surgeon.

As well, he and a group of likeminded friends were starting or reviving a string of lively newspapers in rural N.S.W., including The Tweed Daily, The Grafton Daily Examiner and The Northern Daily Star.

Earle Page’s Speech Attacking Robert Menzies

Sir Earle Page was Prime Minister for three weeks in April 1939, following the death of Joseph Lyons and pending the United Australia Party’s election of Robert Menzies as its new leader.

PageLyons died on Good Friday, April 7, 1939. Page, the leader of the Country Party, was prime minister for 20 days from April 7 until April 26.

On April 18, the United Australia Party elected Menzies as its new leader. He defeated Billy Hughes by 23 votes to 19. Hughes, 76, had previously been prime minister from 1915 until 1923.

Menzies had resigned from the Lyons ministry on March 14, citing a failure to implement National Insurance Act provisions for pensions and other welfare benefits.

On April 19, the House of Representatives met to express condolences for Lyons. On April 20, the House met again. At the end of proceedings, Page rose to move the adjournment motion. He then made a speech excoriating Menzies, who had just been elected leader of the United Australia Party. Page questioned his judgment and loyalty and his lack of war service.

Page said he had offered to resign his seat in favour of the former prime minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce, who was then serving as High Commissioner in London. Page had served as Treasurer in the Bruce-Page Nationalist-Country Party coalition government from 1923 until 1929. He now suggested Bruce could return to head up a national government in what appeared to be the certainty of impending war. Bruce, who wanted the freedom to choose ministers from both sides of the house, appears to have declined the offer.

AustralianPolitics.com
Malcolm Farnsworth
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