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Hard Quiz: Scomo and Big Mac

Sep 09, 2020

One of the questions on tonight’s edition of “Hard Quiz” evoked memories of a different time and the original “Big Mac”.

Hard Quiz

A question on the theme of branding asked what Scott Morrison wanted to call Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, in the light of the success of his own branding as ScoMo.

The answer was “Big Mac”. It clearly didn’t take off. Last week, there was media speculation that McCormack’s leadership of The Nationals may not survive the year. David Littleproud could be deputy prime minister by Christmas. We shall see.

"But the Big Mac some of us remember is Frank McManus, the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) senator from Victoria from 1956 until 1962, and again from 1965 until 1974.

Born in 1905, McManus had a career as a teacher and Education Department official, before becoming Secretary of the Victorian branch of the ALP in 1950. An anti-communist “grouper”, McManus split with the ALP and joined the group that would become the DLP. In the aftermath of the 1955 split, he won election to the Senate at the December election, taking office in July 1956.

McManus was Deputy Leader of the DLP from 1956 until 1973, finally succeeding Vince Gair, a former Labor premier of Queensland, as leader in October 1973. The double dissolution election of May 1974 saw all five DLP senators lose their seats. With the exception of the late John Madigan, who won a Senate seat at the 2010 election, before quitting and setting up his own party, the DLP has never been represented in the Commonwealth parliament since 1974.

This is one of the DLP ads from the 1974 election touting Frank McManus as “Big Mac”.

Filed Under: Audio, D.L.P., Election Advertisements, Political History Tagged With: ,

DLP Advertisement: They Call Him Big Mac

May 15, 1974

Senator Frank McManus was leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) during the 1974 Federal Election campaign.

McManusThe Victorian senator had taken over the leadership of the DLP in 1973, after Vince Gair was forced out.

The double dissolution election was forced upon the Whitlam government after it offered Gair the position of Ambassador to Ireland.

McManus was elected to the Senate in 1955, in the aftermath of the ALP Split that year. He lost his seat in the 1963 election but regained it in the separate half-Senate election in 1964.

At the 1974 election, all five DLP senators lost their seats. The party folded a few years later.

The DLP was reformed several decades later. It briefly gained representation in the Victorian Legislative Council and Senator John Madigan was elected in 2010. Madigan left the DLP during his term and formed his own party. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 1974 Federal Election, Audio, D.L.P., Election Advertisements Tagged With: ,

DLP 1974 Policy Speech – Senator Frank McManus

May 01, 1974

This is a partial audio of the Democratic Labor Party’s policy speech for the 1974 federal election.

The broadcast is delivered by the party’s leader, Victorian Senator Frank McManus.

Unfortunately, the recording is incomplete. I have only just under 5 minutes of what I think was a 10-minute broadcast.

McManus lost his seat at the election, as did all the DLP’s sitting members. The DLP’s Senate representation fell from five to zero.

The DLP disappeared as a political force for the next 32 years. It won a seat in the Victorian Legislative Council in 2006, losing it in 2010. At the 2010 federal election, John Madigan won a Senate seat in Victoria.

Two days after his policy speech, a letter from McManus was published in The Australian:

DLP

 

Filed Under: 1974 Federal Election, Audio, D.L.P. Tagged With: , ,