Billy Hughes
Encyclopedia
William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR
(25 September 186228 October 1952), Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia
from 1915 to 1923.
Over the course of his 51-year federal parliamentary career (and an additional seven years prior to that in a colonial parliament), Hughes changed parties five times: from Labor
(1901–16) to National Labor
(1916–17) to Nationalist
(1917–30) to Australian
(1930–31) to United Australia
(1931–44) to Liberal
(1944–52). He was expelled from three parties, and represented four different electorates in two states.
Originally Prime Minister as leader of the Labor Party, his support of conscription lead him, along with 24 other pro-conscription members, to form National Labor. National Labor merged with the Commonwealth Liberal Party to form the Nationalist Party. His prime ministership came to an end when the Nationalist party was forced to form a coalition with the Country Party, who refused to serve under Hughes. He was the longest serving prime minister up to that point, and the fifth longest serving over all. He would later lead the United Australia Party to the 1943 election, though Arthur Fadden
served as Coalition leader.
He died in 1952 at age 90, while still serving in Parliament. He is the longest-serving member of the Australian Parliament
, and one of the most colourful and controversial figures in Australian political history.
William Morris Hughes was born in Pimlico
, London on 25 September 1862 of Welsh parents. His father William Hughes was Welsh speaking and, according to the 1881 census, born in Holyhead
, Anglesey
, North Wales in about 1825. He was a deacon of the Particular Baptist Church and by profession a joiner and a carpenter at the House of Lords
. His mother was a farmer's daughter from Llansantffraid, Montgomeryshire
and had been in service in London. Jane Morris was 37 when she married and William Morris Hughes was her only child. After his mother's death when he was seven William Hughes lived with his father's sister in Llandudno
, Wales, also spending time with his mother's relatives in rural Montgomeryshire, where he also spoke Welsh. A plaque on a guest house in Abbey Road Llandudno bears testament to his residency. When he was 14 he returned to London and worked as a pupil teacher. In 1881, when he was 19, William lived with his father and his father's elder sister Mary Hughes at 78 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London.
In October 1884, at the age of 22, he migrated to Australia, and worked as a labourer, bush worker and cook. He arrived in Sydney in 1886 and lived in a boarding house in Moore Park
and established a common law marriage with his landlady's daughter, Elizabeth Cutts. In 1890 they moved to Balmain
in Sydney, where he at first worked for Lewy Pattinson
's pharmacy before he opened a small mixed shop, where he sold political pamphlets, did odd jobs and mended umbrellas. He joined the Socialist League in 1892 and became a street-corner speaker for the Balmain Single Tax League
and an organiser with the Australian Workers' Union
and may have already joined the newly formed Labor Party.
seat of Sydney-Lang
by 105 votes. While in Parliament he became secretary of the Wharf Labourer's Union. In 1900 he founded and became first national president of the Waterside Workers' Union. During this period Hughes studied law, and was admitted as a barrister in 1903. Unlike most Labor men, he was a strong supporter of Federation
.
In 1901 Hughes was elected to the first federal Parliament as Labor MP for West Sydney
. He opposed the Barton government's
proposals for a small professional army and instead advocated compulsory universal training. In 1903, he was admitted to the bar
after several years part time study. His wife died in 1906, and his 17-year-old daughter raised his other five children in Sydney. In 1911, he married Mary Campbell
.
He was Minister for External Affairs in Chris Watson
's first Labor government. He was Attorney-General in Andrew Fisher
's three Labor governments in 1908–09, 1910–13 and 1914–15. He was the real political brain of these governments, and it was clear that he wanted to be leader of the Labor Party. But his abrasive manner (his chronic dyspepsia
was thought to contribute to his volatile temperament) made his colleagues reluctant to have him as Leader. His on-going feud with King O'Malley
, a fellow Labor minister, was a prominent example of his combative style.
Following the 1914 election
, the Labor Prime Minister of Australia, Andrew Fisher
, found the strain of leadership during World War I taxing and faced increasing pressure from the ambitious Hughes who wanted Australia to be firmly recognised on the world stage. By 1915 Fisher's health was suffering and, in October, he resigned and was succeeded by Hughes. Hughes was a strong supporter of Australia's participation in World War I and, after the loss of 28,000 men as casualties (killed, wounded and missing) in July and August 1916, Generals Birdwood and White of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) persuaded Hughes that conscription was necessary if Australia was to sustain its contribution to the war effort. However a two thirds majority of his party, which included Roman Catholics
and union
representatives as well as the Industrialists (Socialists) such as Frank Anstey
, were bitterly opposed to this, especially in the wake of what was regarded by many Irish Australians (most of whom were Roman Catholics) as Britain's excessive response to the Easter Rising
of 1916.
To add to this, many Labor supporters and ministers felt (wrongly) that Hughes was manipulated in Britain by the British Government and that he pushed for conscription because of the "flattery" of the Empire. However this myth was started by the factions within the Labor Caucus, most notably from the Industrialist movements of men such as Frank Anstey. This was a result not of Hughes's exploits overseas, but more his Parliamentary decision to cancel Labor's plan to "Nationalise wage unity". This in turn led to friction within the Labor party as Hughes demonstrated his ability to sacrifice "Labor's centrepiece in the interest of war and National Unity."
In October Hughes held a national plebiscite for conscription
, but it was narrowly defeated. Melbourne's Roman Catholic archbishop, Daniel Mannix
, was his main opponent on the conscription issue. (Although the enabling legislation, the Military Service Referendum Act 1916, referred to it as a referendum that is incorrect as, unlike a referendum, the outcome was advisory only, and was not legally binding). The narrow defeat (1,087,557 Yes and 1,160,033 No), however, did not deter Hughes, who continued to vigorously argue in favour of conscription. This revealed the deep and bitter split within the Australian community that had existed since before Federation, as well as within the members of his own party.
Conscription had been in place since the 1910 Defence Act, but only in the defence of the nation. Hughes was seeking via a referendum to change the wording in the act to include "overseas". A referendum was not necessary but Hughes felt that in light of the seriousness of the situation, a vote of "Yes" from the people would give him a mandate to by-pass the Senate. To add to that, while it is true that the Lloyd George Government of Britain did favour Hughes, they only came into power in 1916, several months after the first referendum. The predecessor Asquith government however greatly disliked Hughes considering him to be "a guest, rather than the representative of Australia".
On 15 September 1916 the NSW executive of the Political Labour League, Frank Tudor
(the Labor Party organisation at the time) expelled Hughes from the Labor Party, after Hughes and 24 others had already walked out to the sound of Hughes's finest political cry "Let those who think like me, follow me." Hughes took with him almost all of the Parliamentary talent, leaving behind the Industrialists and Unionists, thus marking the end of the first era in Labor's history. Years later, Hughes said, "I did not leave the Labor Party, The party left me."
The timing of Hughes' expulsion from the Labor Party meant that he became the first Labor leader who never led the party to an election.
Hughes and his followers, which included many of Labor's early leaders, called themselves the National Labor Party
and began laying the groundwork for forming a party that they felt would be both avowedly nationalist as well as socially radical. Hughes was forced to conclude a confidence and supply
agreement with the opposition Commonwealth Liberal Party
in order to stay in office.
A few months later, Hughes and Liberal Party leader Joseph Cook
(himself a former Labor man) decided to turn their wartime coalition into a new party, the Nationalist Party of Australia
. Although the Liberals were the larger partner in the merger, Hughes emerged as the new party's leader. At the 1917 federal election
Hughes and the Nationalists won a huge electoral victory. At this election Hughes gave up his working-class seat and was elected for Bendigo, Victoria
. Hughes had promised to resign if his Government did not win the power to conscript. A second plebiscite on conscription
was held in December 1917, but was again defeated, this time by a wider margin. Hughes, after receiving a vote of no confidence in his leadership by his party, resigned as Prime Minister but, as there were no alternative candidates, the Governor-General, Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, immediately re-commissioned him, thus allowing him to remain as Prime Minister while keeping his promise to resign.
electoral system applying to both houses of the Federal Parliament under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1903 with a preferential system
for the House of Representatives in 1918. That preferential system has essentially applied ever since. A multiple majority-preferential system was introduced at the 1919 federal election
for the Senate, and that remained in force until it was changed to a quota-preferential system of proportional representation in 1948. Those changes were considered to be a response to the emergence of the Country Party
, so that the non-Labor vote would not be split, as it would have been under the previous first-past-the-post system.
travelled to Paris to attend the Versailles peace conference. He remained away for 16 months, and signed the Treaty of Versailles
on behalf of Australia – the first time Australia had signed an international treaty. At Versailles, Hughes claimed; "I speak for 60 000 [Australian] dead". He went on to ask of Woodrow Wilson
; "How many do you speak for?" when the United States President failed to acknowledge his demands. Hughes, unlike Wilson or South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts
, demanded heavy reparations from Germany suggesting a staggering sum of ₤24,000,000,000 of which Australia would claim many millions, to off-set its own war debt. Hughes frequently clashed with President Wilson, who described him as a 'pestiferous varmint'.
Hughes demanded that Australia have independent representation within the newly formed League of Nations
. Despite the rejection of his conscription policy, Hughes retained his popularity, and in December 1919 his government was comfortably re-elected. At the Treaty negotiations, Hughes was the most prominent opponent of the inclusion of the Japanese racial equality proposal, which as a result of lobbying by him and others was not included in the final Treaty. His position on this issue reflected the modal thought of 'racial categories' during this time. Japan was notably offended by Hughes' position on the issue.
Like Jan Smuts
of South Africa, Hughes was concerned by the rise of Japan. Within months of the declaration of the European War in 1914; Japan, Australia and New Zealand seized all German possessions in the South West Pacific. Though Japan occupied German possessions with the blessings of the British, Hughes was alarmed by this policy. In 1919 at the Peace Conference the Dominion leaders, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia argued their case to keep their occupied German possessions of German Samoa, German South West Africa, and German New Guinea; these territories were given a "Class C Mandates" to the respective Dominions. In a same-same deal Japan obtained control over its occupied German possessions, north of the equator.
Of Hughes' actions at the Peace Conference, the historian Seth Tillman described him as "a noisesome demagogue", the "bete noir of Anglo-American relations." Unlike Smuts, Hughes was totally opposed to the concept of the League of Nations, as in it he saw the flawed idealism of 'collective security'.
After 1920 Hughes' political position declined. Many of the more conservative elements of his own party never trusted him because they thought he was still a socialist at heart, citing his interest in retaining government ownership of the Commonwealth Shipping Line and the Australian Wireless Company. However, they continued to support him for some time after the war, if only to keep Labor out of power.
A new party, the Country Party (now the National Party
), was formed, representing farmers who were discontented with the Nationalists' rural policies, in particular Hughes' acceptance of a much higher level of tariff protection for Australian industries (that had expanded during the war) and his support for price controls
on rural produce. In the New Year's Day Honours of 1922, his wife Mary was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
(GBE). At the 1922 federal election
, Hughes switched from the rural seat of Bendigo to North Sydney
, but the Nationalists lost their outright majority. The Country Party, despite its opposition to Hughes' farm policy, was the Nationalists' only realistic coalition partner. However, party leader Earle Page
let it be known that he and his party would not serve under Hughes. Under pressure from his party's right wing, Hughes resigned in February 1923 and was succeeded by his Treasurer, Stanley Bruce
. His term as Australian Prime Minister was a record until overtaken by Robert Menzies
. He remained Australia's second longest-serving Prime Minister until overtaken by Malcolm Fraser
in late February 1983.
Hughes was furious at this betrayal by his party and nursed his grievance on the back-benches until 1929, when he led a group of back-bench rebels who crossed the floor of the Parliament to bring down the Bruce government. Hughes was expelled from the Nationalist Party, and formed his own party, the Australian Party
. After the Nationalists were heavily defeated in the ensuing election
, Hughes initially supported the Labor government of James Scullin
. He had a falling-out with Scullin over financial matters, however. In 1931 he buried the hatchet with his former colleagues and joined the new United Australia Party (UAP), under the leadership of Joseph Lyons
. He voted with the rest of the UAP to bring the Scullin government down.
Joseph Lyons
newly formed United Australia Party
won office convincingly at the 1931 election. Lyons sent Hughes to represent Australia at the 1932 League of Nations Assembly in Geneva and in 1934 Hughes became Minister for Health and Repatriation in the Lyons government
. Later Lyons appointed him Minister for External Affairs, however Hughes was forced to resign in 1935 after his book Australia and the War Today exposed a lack of preparation in Australia for what Hughes correctly supposed to be a coming war. Soon after, the Lyons government tripled the defence budget.
Hughes was brought back by Lyons as Minister for External Affairs in 1937. By the time of Lyons' death in 1939, Hughes was also serving as Attorney General and Minister for Industry. He also served as Minister for the Navy, Minister for Industry
and Attorney-General at various times under Lyons' successor, Robert Menzies
, between 1939 and 1941 and served as Attorney General in the short lived adden Government.
Defence issues became increasingly dominant in public affairs with the rise of Fascism
in Europe and militant Japan
in Asia. From 1938, Prime Minister Joseph Lyons had Hughes head a recruitment drive for the Australian Defence Force. On 7 April 1939, Lyons died in office. The United Australia Party selected Robert Menzies
as his successor to lead a minority government on the eve of World War Two. Australia entered the Second World War on 3 September 1939 and a special War Cabinet was created after war was declared – initially composed of Prime Minister Menzies and five senior ministers including Billy Hughes. Labor opposition leader John Curtin declined to join and Menzies was unable to win a majority in his own right at the 1940 Election. With the Allies suffering a series of defeats and the threat of war growing in the Pacific, the Menzies Government (1939-1941) relied on two independents for its parliamentary majority. Unable to convince Curtin to join in a War Cabinet, Menzies resigned as Prime Minister and leader of the UAP on 29 August 1941. Hughes replaced Menzies as leader of the UAP and the UAP-Country Party Coalition held office for another month with Arthur Fadden
of the Country Party as Prime Minister, before the independents switched allegiance. On 3 October, the independents, Coles and Wilson, voted with Labor to defeat the government. John Curtin
was sworn in as Prime Minister o 7 October 1941. Eight weeks later, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor
.
Hughes led the UAP into the 1943 election
largely by refusing to hold any party meetings and by agreeing to let Arthur Fadden (Country Party leader) lead the Opposition as a whole, but was defeated, and resigned in favour of Menzies. In February 1944 the UAP withdrew its members from the Advisory War Council
in protest against the Labor government of John Curtin
. Hughes, however, rejoined the council, and was expelled from the UAP.
In 1944 Menzies formed a new party, the Liberal Party
, and Hughes became a member. His final change of seat was to the new division of Bradfield
in 1949. He remained a member of Parliament until his death in October 1952, sparking a Bradfield by-election
. He had been a member of the House of Representatives for 51 years and seven months, and including his service in the New South Wales colonial Parliament before that had spent a total of 58 years as a member of parliament. His period of service remains a record in Australia. He was the last member of the original Australian Parliament elected in 1901 still in the Parliament when he died. He was not however, the last member of that first Parliament to die—this was King O'Malley
, who outlived Hughes by fourteen months.
Aged 90, Hughes was the oldest person ever to have been a member of the Australian parliament.
, survived by the six children of his first marriage and by his second wife Mary. (Their daughter Helen died in childbirth in 1937 in London, aged 21 from septicaemia. Their grandson now lives in Sydney under another name.) His state funeral was held at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney
and was one of the largest Australia has seen: some 450,000 spectators lined the streets. He was later buried at Northern Suburbs Anglican Cemetery. His widow, Dame Mary Hughes, died in 1958.
interjected: "Not the Country Party!" "No," said Hughes, still able to hear when he wanted, "I had to draw the line somewhere.", potentially due to the fact it was the Country Party who was responsible for bringing his Prime Ministership down in 1923.
and the Canberra suburb of Hughes
are named after him.
After marrying his second wife Mary in 1911, the couple went on a long drive, because he did not have time for a honeymoon. Their car crashed where the Sydney-Melbourne road
crosses the Sydney-Melbourne railway
north of Albury
, leading to the level crossing there being named after him; it was later replaced by the Billy Hughes Bridge.
In 1972, he was honoured on a postage stamp
bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post
.
|-
|-
Members of the Australian House of Representatives
Following are lists of members of the Australian House of Representatives:*Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1901–1903*Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1903–1906...
(25 September 186228 October 1952), Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
from 1915 to 1923.
Over the course of his 51-year federal parliamentary career (and an additional seven years prior to that in a colonial parliament), Hughes changed parties five times: from Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
(1901–16) to National Labor
National Labor Party
The National Labor Party was the name used by the Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes for himself and his followers after he was expelled from the Australian Labor Party in November 1916 over his pro-conscription stance in relation to World War I...
(1916–17) to Nationalist
Nationalist Party of Australia
The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...
(1917–30) to Australian
Australian Party
The Australian Party can refer to a number of political parties in Australia's history, most recently to the party started by Queensland independent MP Bob Katter known as Katter's Australian Party...
(1930–31) to United Australia
United Australia Party
The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...
(1931–44) to Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
(1944–52). He was expelled from three parties, and represented four different electorates in two states.
Originally Prime Minister as leader of the Labor Party, his support of conscription lead him, along with 24 other pro-conscription members, to form National Labor. National Labor merged with the Commonwealth Liberal Party to form the Nationalist Party. His prime ministership came to an end when the Nationalist party was forced to form a coalition with the Country Party, who refused to serve under Hughes. He was the longest serving prime minister up to that point, and the fifth longest serving over all. He would later lead the United Australia Party to the 1943 election, though Arthur Fadden
Arthur Fadden
Sir Arthur William Fadden, GCMG was an Australian politician and, briefly, the 13th Prime Minister of Australia.-Introduction:...
served as Coalition leader.
He died in 1952 at age 90, while still serving in Parliament. He is the longest-serving member of the Australian Parliament
Members of the Parliament of Australia who have served for at least 30 years
This is a list of Members of the Parliament of Australia who have served for at least 30 years.Their service does not need to be continuous; broken terms are aggregated.All these periods of service were spent in one House exclusively...
, and one of the most colourful and controversial figures in Australian political history.
Early years
Pimlico
Pimlico is a small area of central London in the City of Westminster. Like Belgravia, to which it was built as a southern extension, Pimlico is known for its grand garden squares and impressive Regency architecture....
, London on 25 September 1862 of Welsh parents. His father William Hughes was Welsh speaking and, according to the 1881 census, born in Holyhead
Holyhead
Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....
, Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
, North Wales in about 1825. He was a deacon of the Particular Baptist Church and by profession a joiner and a carpenter at the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. His mother was a farmer's daughter from Llansantffraid, Montgomeryshire
Montgomeryshire
Montgomeryshire, also known as Maldwyn is one of thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. Montgomeryshire is still used as a vice-county for wildlife recording...
and had been in service in London. Jane Morris was 37 when she married and William Morris Hughes was her only child. After his mother's death when he was seven William Hughes lived with his father's sister in Llandudno
Llandudno
Llandudno is a seaside resort and town in Conwy County Borough, Wales. In the 2001 UK census it had a population of 20,090 including that of Penrhyn Bay and Penrhynside, which are within the Llandudno Community...
, Wales, also spending time with his mother's relatives in rural Montgomeryshire, where he also spoke Welsh. A plaque on a guest house in Abbey Road Llandudno bears testament to his residency. When he was 14 he returned to London and worked as a pupil teacher. In 1881, when he was 19, William lived with his father and his father's elder sister Mary Hughes at 78 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London.
In October 1884, at the age of 22, he migrated to Australia, and worked as a labourer, bush worker and cook. He arrived in Sydney in 1886 and lived in a boarding house in Moore Park
Moore Park, New South Wales
Moore Park is a large area of parkland in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of Centennial Parklands, a collective of three parks being Moore Park, Centennial Park and Queens Park. Centennial Parklands is administered by the Centennial Park &...
and established a common law marriage with his landlady's daughter, Elizabeth Cutts. In 1890 they moved to Balmain
Balmain, New South Wales
Balmain is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located slightly west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt....
in Sydney, where he at first worked for Lewy Pattinson
Lewy Pattinson
Lewy Miall Pattinson was founder of the firm Washington H. Soul Pattinson, chemists and donor to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.-Immigration from England:...
's pharmacy before he opened a small mixed shop, where he sold political pamphlets, did odd jobs and mended umbrellas. He joined the Socialist League in 1892 and became a street-corner speaker for the Balmain Single Tax League
Single Tax League
The Single Tax League was an Australian political party that flourished throughout the 1920s and 30s.Based upon the ideas of Henry George, who argued that all taxes should be abolished, save for a single tax on unimproved land values, the Single Tax League was founded shortly after World War I, and...
and an organiser with the Australian Workers' Union
Australian Workers' Union
The Australian Workers' Union is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s, and currently has approximately 135,000 members...
and may have already joined the newly formed Labor Party.
Early political career
In 1894, Hughes spent eight months in central New South Wales organising for the Amalgamated Shearers' Union and then won the Legislative AssemblyNew South Wales Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...
seat of Sydney-Lang
Electoral district of Sydney-Lang
Sydney-Lang was a former electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales, created in 1894 from part of the electoral district of West Sydney in inner Sydney and named after Presbyterian clergyman, writer, politician and activist John Dunmore Lang...
by 105 votes. While in Parliament he became secretary of the Wharf Labourer's Union. In 1900 he founded and became first national president of the Waterside Workers' Union. During this period Hughes studied law, and was admitted as a barrister in 1903. Unlike most Labor men, he was a strong supporter of Federation
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
.
In 1901 Hughes was elected to the first federal Parliament as Labor MP for West Sydney
Division of West Sydney
The Division of West Sydney was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It was located in the inner western suburbs of Sydney, and at various times included the suburbs of Pyrmont, Darling Harbour, Surry Hills, Balmain and Glebe....
. He opposed the Barton government's
Barton Ministry
The Barton Ministry was the first Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 1 January 1901 to 24 September 1903. The ministry was made up of Protectionist Party members....
proposals for a small professional army and instead advocated compulsory universal training. In 1903, he was admitted to the bar
Call to the bar
The Call to the Bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party, and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received a "call to the bar"...
after several years part time study. His wife died in 1906, and his 17-year-old daughter raised his other five children in Sydney. In 1911, he married Mary Campbell
Mary Hughes
Dame Mary Hughes GBE was the second wife of Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia 1915-1923.-Personal life:...
.
He was Minister for External Affairs in Chris Watson
Chris Watson
John Christian Watson , commonly known as Chris Watson, Australian politician, was the third Prime Minister of Australia...
's first Labor government. He was Attorney-General in Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher was an Australian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910-13 Labor ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation...
's three Labor governments in 1908–09, 1910–13 and 1914–15. He was the real political brain of these governments, and it was clear that he wanted to be leader of the Labor Party. But his abrasive manner (his chronic dyspepsia
Dyspepsia
Dyspepsia , also known as upset stomach or indigestion, refers to a condition of impaired digestion. It is a medical condition characterized by chronic or recurrent pain in the upper abdomen, upper abdominal fullness and feeling full earlier than expected when eating...
was thought to contribute to his volatile temperament) made his colleagues reluctant to have him as Leader. His on-going feud with King O'Malley
King O'Malley
King O'Malley was an Australian politician. He was a member in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1896 to 1899, and the Australian House of Representatives from 1901 to 1917. O'Malley was also Minister for Home Affairs in the second and third Fisher Labor ministry...
, a fellow Labor minister, was a prominent example of his combative style.
Labor Party Prime Minister, 1915–16
Following the 1914 election
Australian federal election, 1914
Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 September 1914. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 36 seats in the Senate were up for election in a double dissolution...
, the Labor Prime Minister of Australia, Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher was an Australian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910-13 Labor ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation...
, found the strain of leadership during World War I taxing and faced increasing pressure from the ambitious Hughes who wanted Australia to be firmly recognised on the world stage. By 1915 Fisher's health was suffering and, in October, he resigned and was succeeded by Hughes. Hughes was a strong supporter of Australia's participation in World War I and, after the loss of 28,000 men as casualties (killed, wounded and missing) in July and August 1916, Generals Birdwood and White of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) persuaded Hughes that conscription was necessary if Australia was to sustain its contribution to the war effort. However a two thirds majority of his party, which included Roman Catholics
Roman Catholic Church in Australia
The Catholic Church in Australia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the spiritual and administrative leadership of the Pope.Australia is a majority Christian but pluralistic society with no established religion. There are approximately 5.1 million Australian Catholics . Catholicism...
and union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
representatives as well as the Industrialists (Socialists) such as Frank Anstey
Frank Anstey
Frank Anstey , Australian politician, served 38 years as a Labor member of the Victorian and Commonwealth parliaments....
, were bitterly opposed to this, especially in the wake of what was regarded by many Irish Australians (most of whom were Roman Catholics) as Britain's excessive response to the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
of 1916.
To add to this, many Labor supporters and ministers felt (wrongly) that Hughes was manipulated in Britain by the British Government and that he pushed for conscription because of the "flattery" of the Empire. However this myth was started by the factions within the Labor Caucus, most notably from the Industrialist movements of men such as Frank Anstey. This was a result not of Hughes's exploits overseas, but more his Parliamentary decision to cancel Labor's plan to "Nationalise wage unity". This in turn led to friction within the Labor party as Hughes demonstrated his ability to sacrifice "Labor's centrepiece in the interest of war and National Unity."
In October Hughes held a national plebiscite for conscription
Australian plebiscite, 1916
The 1916 Australian plebiscite was held on 28 October 1916. It was the first non-binding Australian plebiscite, and contained one question concerning Military Service....
, but it was narrowly defeated. Melbourne's Roman Catholic archbishop, Daniel Mannix
Daniel Mannix
Daniel Mannix was an Irish-born Australian Catholic bishop. Mannix was the Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years and one of the most influential public figures in 20th century Australia....
, was his main opponent on the conscription issue. (Although the enabling legislation, the Military Service Referendum Act 1916, referred to it as a referendum that is incorrect as, unlike a referendum, the outcome was advisory only, and was not legally binding). The narrow defeat (1,087,557 Yes and 1,160,033 No), however, did not deter Hughes, who continued to vigorously argue in favour of conscription. This revealed the deep and bitter split within the Australian community that had existed since before Federation, as well as within the members of his own party.
Conscription had been in place since the 1910 Defence Act, but only in the defence of the nation. Hughes was seeking via a referendum to change the wording in the act to include "overseas". A referendum was not necessary but Hughes felt that in light of the seriousness of the situation, a vote of "Yes" from the people would give him a mandate to by-pass the Senate. To add to that, while it is true that the Lloyd George Government of Britain did favour Hughes, they only came into power in 1916, several months after the first referendum. The predecessor Asquith government however greatly disliked Hughes considering him to be "a guest, rather than the representative of Australia".
On 15 September 1916 the NSW executive of the Political Labour League, Frank Tudor
Frank Tudor
Francis Gwynne "Frank" Tudor was an Australian-born felt hatter and politician. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1916 till his death.-Early life:...
(the Labor Party organisation at the time) expelled Hughes from the Labor Party, after Hughes and 24 others had already walked out to the sound of Hughes's finest political cry "Let those who think like me, follow me." Hughes took with him almost all of the Parliamentary talent, leaving behind the Industrialists and Unionists, thus marking the end of the first era in Labor's history. Years later, Hughes said, "I did not leave the Labor Party, The party left me."
The timing of Hughes' expulsion from the Labor Party meant that he became the first Labor leader who never led the party to an election.
Nationalist Party Prime Minister 1916–23
National Labor Party
The National Labor Party was the name used by the Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes for himself and his followers after he was expelled from the Australian Labor Party in November 1916 over his pro-conscription stance in relation to World War I...
and began laying the groundwork for forming a party that they felt would be both avowedly nationalist as well as socially radical. Hughes was forced to conclude a confidence and supply
Confidence and supply
In a parliamentary democracy confidence and supply are required for a government to hold power. A confidence and supply agreement is an agreement that a minor party or independent member of parliament will support the government in motions of confidence and appropriation votes by voting in favour...
agreement with the opposition Commonwealth Liberal Party
Commonwealth Liberal Party
The Commonwealth Liberal Party was a political movement active in Australia from 1909 to 1916, shortly after federation....
in order to stay in office.
A few months later, Hughes and Liberal Party leader Joseph Cook
Joseph Cook
Sir Joseph Cook, GCMG was an Australian politician and the sixth Prime Minister of Australia. Born as Joseph Cooke and working in the coal mines of Silverdale, Staffordshire during his early life, he emigrated to Lithgow, New South Wales during the late 1880s, and became General-Secretary of the...
(himself a former Labor man) decided to turn their wartime coalition into a new party, the Nationalist Party of Australia
Nationalist Party of Australia
The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...
. Although the Liberals were the larger partner in the merger, Hughes emerged as the new party's leader. At the 1917 federal election
Australian federal election, 1917
Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 May 1917. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...
Hughes and the Nationalists won a huge electoral victory. At this election Hughes gave up his working-class seat and was elected for Bendigo, Victoria
Division of Bendigo
The Division of Bendigo is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for the city of Bendigo...
. Hughes had promised to resign if his Government did not win the power to conscript. A second plebiscite on conscription
Australian plebiscite, 1917
The 1917 Australian plebiscite was held on 20 December 1917. It contained one question.* Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Australian Imperial Force overseas?-The Plebiscite:...
was held in December 1917, but was again defeated, this time by a wider margin. Hughes, after receiving a vote of no confidence in his leadership by his party, resigned as Prime Minister but, as there were no alternative candidates, the Governor-General, Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, immediately re-commissioned him, thus allowing him to remain as Prime Minister while keeping his promise to resign.
Introduction of preferential voting for federal elections
The government replaced the first-past-the-postFirst-past-the-post
First-past-the-post voting refers to an election won by the candidate with the most votes. The winning potato candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast.-Overview:...
electoral system applying to both houses of the Federal Parliament under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1903 with a preferential system
Instant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting , also known as preferential voting, the alternative vote and ranked choice voting, is a voting system used to elect one winner. Voters rank candidates in order of preference, and their ballots are counted as one vote for their first choice candidate. If a candidate secures a...
for the House of Representatives in 1918. That preferential system has essentially applied ever since. A multiple majority-preferential system was introduced at the 1919 federal election
Australian federal election, 1919
Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1919. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes defeated the opposition Australian...
for the Senate, and that remained in force until it was changed to a quota-preferential system of proportional representation in 1948. Those changes were considered to be a response to the emergence of the Country Party
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
, so that the non-Labor vote would not be split, as it would have been under the previous first-past-the-post system.
Hughes attends Paris peace conference
In 1919, Hughes and former Prime Minister Joseph CookJoseph Cook
Sir Joseph Cook, GCMG was an Australian politician and the sixth Prime Minister of Australia. Born as Joseph Cooke and working in the coal mines of Silverdale, Staffordshire during his early life, he emigrated to Lithgow, New South Wales during the late 1880s, and became General-Secretary of the...
travelled to Paris to attend the Versailles peace conference. He remained away for 16 months, and signed the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
on behalf of Australia – the first time Australia had signed an international treaty. At Versailles, Hughes claimed; "I speak for 60 000 [Australian] dead". He went on to ask of Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
; "How many do you speak for?" when the United States President failed to acknowledge his demands. Hughes, unlike Wilson or South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts
Jan Smuts
Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948...
, demanded heavy reparations from Germany suggesting a staggering sum of ₤24,000,000,000 of which Australia would claim many millions, to off-set its own war debt. Hughes frequently clashed with President Wilson, who described him as a 'pestiferous varmint'.
Hughes demanded that Australia have independent representation within the newly formed League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
. Despite the rejection of his conscription policy, Hughes retained his popularity, and in December 1919 his government was comfortably re-elected. At the Treaty negotiations, Hughes was the most prominent opponent of the inclusion of the Japanese racial equality proposal, which as a result of lobbying by him and others was not included in the final Treaty. His position on this issue reflected the modal thought of 'racial categories' during this time. Japan was notably offended by Hughes' position on the issue.
Like Jan Smuts
Jan Smuts
Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948...
of South Africa, Hughes was concerned by the rise of Japan. Within months of the declaration of the European War in 1914; Japan, Australia and New Zealand seized all German possessions in the South West Pacific. Though Japan occupied German possessions with the blessings of the British, Hughes was alarmed by this policy. In 1919 at the Peace Conference the Dominion leaders, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia argued their case to keep their occupied German possessions of German Samoa, German South West Africa, and German New Guinea; these territories were given a "Class C Mandates" to the respective Dominions. In a same-same deal Japan obtained control over its occupied German possessions, north of the equator.
Of Hughes' actions at the Peace Conference, the historian Seth Tillman described him as "a noisesome demagogue", the "bete noir of Anglo-American relations." Unlike Smuts, Hughes was totally opposed to the concept of the League of Nations, as in it he saw the flawed idealism of 'collective security'.
Political eclipse
After 1920 Hughes' political position declined. Many of the more conservative elements of his own party never trusted him because they thought he was still a socialist at heart, citing his interest in retaining government ownership of the Commonwealth Shipping Line and the Australian Wireless Company. However, they continued to support him for some time after the war, if only to keep Labor out of power.
A new party, the Country Party (now the National Party
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
), was formed, representing farmers who were discontented with the Nationalists' rural policies, in particular Hughes' acceptance of a much higher level of tariff protection for Australian industries (that had expanded during the war) and his support for price controls
Price controls
Price controls are governmental impositions on the prices charged for goods and services in a market, usually intended to maintain the affordability of staple foods and goods, and to prevent price gouging during shortages, or, alternatively, to insure an income for providers of certain goods...
on rural produce. In the New Year's Day Honours of 1922, his wife Mary was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(GBE). At the 1922 federal election
Australian federal election, 1922
Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes lost its majority...
, Hughes switched from the rural seat of Bendigo to North Sydney
Division of North Sydney
The Division of North Sydney is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division is named after the North Sydney area where it is located. It was proclaimed in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election...
, but the Nationalists lost their outright majority. The Country Party, despite its opposition to Hughes' farm policy, was the Nationalists' only realistic coalition partner. However, party leader Earle Page
Earle Page
Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page, GCMG, CH was the 11th Prime Minister of Australia, and is to date the second-longest serving federal parliamentarian in Australian history, with 41 years, 361 days in Parliament.-Early life:...
let it be known that he and his party would not serve under Hughes. Under pressure from his party's right wing, Hughes resigned in February 1923 and was succeeded by his Treasurer, Stanley Bruce
Stanley Bruce
Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH, MC, FRS, PC , was an Australian politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created...
. His term as Australian Prime Minister was a record until overtaken by Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
. He remained Australia's second longest-serving Prime Minister until overtaken by Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
in late February 1983.
Hughes was furious at this betrayal by his party and nursed his grievance on the back-benches until 1929, when he led a group of back-bench rebels who crossed the floor of the Parliament to bring down the Bruce government. Hughes was expelled from the Nationalist Party, and formed his own party, the Australian Party
Australian Party
The Australian Party can refer to a number of political parties in Australia's history, most recently to the party started by Queensland independent MP Bob Katter known as Katter's Australian Party...
. After the Nationalists were heavily defeated in the ensuing election
Australian federal election, 1929
Federal elections were held in Australia on 12 October 1929. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election, with no Senate seats up for election, as a result of Billy Hughes and other rebel backbenchers crossing the floor over industrial relations legislation, depriving the...
, Hughes initially supported the Labor government of James Scullin
James Scullin
James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...
. He had a falling-out with Scullin over financial matters, however. In 1931 he buried the hatchet with his former colleagues and joined the new United Australia Party (UAP), under the leadership of Joseph Lyons
Joseph Lyons
Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
. He voted with the rest of the UAP to bring the Scullin government down.
Political re-emergence
Joseph Lyons
Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
newly formed United Australia Party
United Australia Party
The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...
won office convincingly at the 1931 election. Lyons sent Hughes to represent Australia at the 1932 League of Nations Assembly in Geneva and in 1934 Hughes became Minister for Health and Repatriation in the Lyons government
Lyons Government
The Lyons Government was the federal Executive Government of Australia led by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons. It was made up of members of a United Australia Party in the Australian Parliament from January 1932 until the death of Joseph Lyons in 1939. Lyons negotiated a coalition with the Country...
. Later Lyons appointed him Minister for External Affairs, however Hughes was forced to resign in 1935 after his book Australia and the War Today exposed a lack of preparation in Australia for what Hughes correctly supposed to be a coming war. Soon after, the Lyons government tripled the defence budget.
Hughes was brought back by Lyons as Minister for External Affairs in 1937. By the time of Lyons' death in 1939, Hughes was also serving as Attorney General and Minister for Industry. He also served as Minister for the Navy, Minister for Industry
Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (Australia)
The current Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research is Kim Carr, appointed on 3 December 2007. He administers his portfolio through the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.-List of Ministers for Industry :...
and Attorney-General at various times under Lyons' successor, Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
, between 1939 and 1941 and served as Attorney General in the short lived adden Government.
Defence issues became increasingly dominant in public affairs with the rise of Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
in Europe and militant Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
in Asia. From 1938, Prime Minister Joseph Lyons had Hughes head a recruitment drive for the Australian Defence Force. On 7 April 1939, Lyons died in office. The United Australia Party selected Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
as his successor to lead a minority government on the eve of World War Two. Australia entered the Second World War on 3 September 1939 and a special War Cabinet was created after war was declared – initially composed of Prime Minister Menzies and five senior ministers including Billy Hughes. Labor opposition leader John Curtin declined to join and Menzies was unable to win a majority in his own right at the 1940 Election. With the Allies suffering a series of defeats and the threat of war growing in the Pacific, the Menzies Government (1939-1941) relied on two independents for its parliamentary majority. Unable to convince Curtin to join in a War Cabinet, Menzies resigned as Prime Minister and leader of the UAP on 29 August 1941. Hughes replaced Menzies as leader of the UAP and the UAP-Country Party Coalition held office for another month with Arthur Fadden
Arthur Fadden
Sir Arthur William Fadden, GCMG was an Australian politician and, briefly, the 13th Prime Minister of Australia.-Introduction:...
of the Country Party as Prime Minister, before the independents switched allegiance. On 3 October, the independents, Coles and Wilson, voted with Labor to defeat the government. John Curtin
John Curtin
John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Australia. Labor under Curtin formed a minority government in 1941 after the crossbench consisting of two independent MPs crossed the floor in the House of Representatives, bringing down the Coalition minority...
was sworn in as Prime Minister o 7 October 1941. Eight weeks later, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
.
Hughes led the UAP into the 1943 election
Australian federal election, 1943
Federal elections were held in Australia on 21 August 1943. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia John Curtin easily defeated the opposition Country Party led...
largely by refusing to hold any party meetings and by agreeing to let Arthur Fadden (Country Party leader) lead the Opposition as a whole, but was defeated, and resigned in favour of Menzies. In February 1944 the UAP withdrew its members from the Advisory War Council
Advisory War Council (Australia)
The Advisory War Council was an Australian Government body during World War II. The AWC was established on 28 October 1940 to draw all the major political parties in the Parliament of Australia into the process of making decisions on Australia's war effort and was disbanded on 30 August...
in protest against the Labor government of John Curtin
John Curtin
John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Australia. Labor under Curtin formed a minority government in 1941 after the crossbench consisting of two independent MPs crossed the floor in the House of Representatives, bringing down the Coalition minority...
. Hughes, however, rejoined the council, and was expelled from the UAP.
In 1944 Menzies formed a new party, the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
, and Hughes became a member. His final change of seat was to the new division of Bradfield
Division of Bradfield
The Division of Bradfield is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1949 and is named for Dr John Bradfield, the designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is located in the upper North Shore, and includes the suburbs of Chatswood, Killara, St Ives and...
in 1949. He remained a member of Parliament until his death in October 1952, sparking a Bradfield by-election
Bradfield by-election, 1952
A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Bradfield on 20 December 1952. This was triggered by the death of Liberal Party MP and former Prime Minister Billy Hughes....
. He had been a member of the House of Representatives for 51 years and seven months, and including his service in the New South Wales colonial Parliament before that had spent a total of 58 years as a member of parliament. His period of service remains a record in Australia. He was the last member of the original Australian Parliament elected in 1901 still in the Parliament when he died. He was not however, the last member of that first Parliament to die—this was King O'Malley
King O'Malley
King O'Malley was an Australian politician. He was a member in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1896 to 1899, and the Australian House of Representatives from 1901 to 1917. O'Malley was also Minister for Home Affairs in the second and third Fisher Labor ministry...
, who outlived Hughes by fourteen months.
Aged 90, Hughes was the oldest person ever to have been a member of the Australian parliament.
Death
Hughes died on 28 October 1952 (aged 90), in his home in the Sydney suburb of LindfieldLindfield, New South Wales
Lindfield is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lindfield is 13 kilometres north-west of the Sydney Central Business District in the local government area of Ku-ring-gai Council.- Location and history :...
, survived by the six children of his first marriage and by his second wife Mary. (Their daughter Helen died in childbirth in 1937 in London, aged 21 from septicaemia. Their grandson now lives in Sydney under another name.) His state funeral was held at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney
St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney
St Andrew's Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia. The cathedral is the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of New South Wales, the Most Reverend Peter Jensen...
and was one of the largest Australia has seen: some 450,000 spectators lined the streets. He was later buried at Northern Suburbs Anglican Cemetery. His widow, Dame Mary Hughes, died in 1958.
Legacy
Hughes, a tiny, wiry man with a wizened face and a raspy voice, was an unlikely national leader, but during the First World War he acquired a reputation as a war leader—the troops called him the "Little Digger"—that sustained him for the rest of his life. He is remembered for his outstanding political and diplomatic skills, for his many witty sayings, and for his irrepressible optimism and patriotism. At the 50th jubilee dinner of the Commonwealth Parliament, a speaker paid tribute to him as a man "who sat in every Parliament since Federation – and every party too". Arthur FaddenArthur Fadden
Sir Arthur William Fadden, GCMG was an Australian politician and, briefly, the 13th Prime Minister of Australia.-Introduction:...
interjected: "Not the Country Party!" "No," said Hughes, still able to hear when he wanted, "I had to draw the line somewhere.", potentially due to the fact it was the Country Party who was responsible for bringing his Prime Ministership down in 1923.
Honours
The electoral division of HughesDivision of Hughes
The Division of Hughes is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1955 and is named for Billy Hughes, who was Prime Minister of Australia 1915-23...
and the Canberra suburb of Hughes
Hughes, Australian Capital Territory
Hughes is a suburb in the Canberra, Australia district of Woden. The postcode is 2605. The area of the suburb is 1.81 km².-History:Hughes is named after The Right Honourable William Morris "Billy" Hughes, seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915-1923. Streets in the suburb are named with...
are named after him.
After marrying his second wife Mary in 1911, the couple went on a long drive, because he did not have time for a honeymoon. Their car crashed where the Sydney-Melbourne road
Hume Highway
The Hume Highway/Hume Freeway is one of Australia's major inter-city highways, running for 880 km between Sydney and Melbourne. It is part of the Auslink National Network and is a vital link for road freight to transport goods to and from the two cities as well as serving Albury-Wodonga and...
crosses the Sydney-Melbourne railway
Main Southern railway line, New South Wales
The Main Southern Railway is a major railway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs through the Southern Highlands, Southern Tablelands, South West Slopes and the Riverina regions.- Description of route :...
north of Albury
Albury, New South Wales
Albury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...
, leading to the level crossing there being named after him; it was later replaced by the Billy Hughes Bridge.
In 1972, he was honoured on a postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post
Australia Post
Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
.
See also
- First Hughes MinistryFirst Hughes MinistryThe First Hughes Ministry was the twelfth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 27 October 1915 to 14 November 1916.Australian Labor Party*Rt Hon Billy Hughes, MP: Prime Minister, Attorney-General...
- Second Hughes MinistrySecond Hughes MinistryThe Second Hughes Ministry was the thirteenth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 14 November 1916 to 17 February 1917.National Labor Party*Rt Hon Billy Hughes, MP: Prime Minister, Attorney-General*Senator Hon George Pearce: Minister for Defence...
- Third Hughes MinistryThird Hughes MinistryThe Third Hughes Ministry was the fourteenth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 17 February 1917 to 5 May 1917.Nationalist Party of Australia*Rt Hon Billy Hughes, MP: Prime Minister, Attorney-General*Rt Hon Joseph Cook, MP: Minister for the Navy...
- Fourth Hughes MinistryFourth Hughes MinistryThe Fourth Hughes Ministry was the fifteenth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 5 May 1917 to 3 February 1920.Nationalist Party of Australia*Rt Hon Billy Hughes, MP: Prime Minister, Attorney-General*Rt Hon Joseph Cook, MP: Minister for the Navy...
- Fifth Hughes MinistryFifth Hughes MinistryThe Fifth Hughes Ministry was the sixteenth Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 4 February 1920 to 9 February 1923.Nationalist Party of Australia*Rt Hon Billy Hughes, MP: Prime Minister...
- Racial equality proposalRacial Equality Proposal, 1919The Racial Equality Proposal was a Japanese proposal for racial equality at the Paris Peace Conference.-The proposal:After the end of seclusion, Japan suffered unequal treaties and demanded equal status with the Powers. In this context, the Japanese delegation to the Paris peace conference proposed...
Further reading
- Hughes, Colin AColin HughesColin Anfield Hughes is an Australian academic specializing in electoral politics and government.He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Columbia University and his Ph.D from the London School of Economics. In 1966, along with John S...
(1976), Mr Prime Minister. Australian Prime Ministers 1901–1972, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, Ch.8. ISBN 0-19-550471-2
External links
|-
|-