Frank Nicklin
Encyclopedia
Sir George Francis Reuben Nicklin, KCMG, MM
(6 August 1895 – 29 January 1978) was Premier of the Australia
n state of Queensland
from 1957 to 1968, and the first Country Party
Premier since 1932.
on 6 August 1895, the son of a newspaper proprietor. In 1910 the family moved to Beerwah in Queensland, where Nicklin's father took up banana farming. Nicklin enrolled in the army in 1916 served with distinction during World War I
, where he was promoted to corporal
and was awarded the Military Medal
. On his return to Queensland he bought a small pineapple farm at Palmwoods, 100 kilometres north of Brisbane, through a soldier-settler scheme. Nicklin saved wisely and put his farming experience to good use, and his farm succeeded where many others failed. He led many fruit-growers' organisations, and then became involved in Country Party
politics.
When the Member for the solid Country Party seat of Murrumba retired in 1932, Nicklin became the new candidate. He won the seat, although the National Progressive Country Party Government of A. E. Moore
was heavily defeated. Nicklin, therefore, entered Parliament as a humble opposition backbencher.
Nicklin was a popular and hardworking local member, and he managed to hold his seat throughout very difficult times for the Country Party in Queensland. The opposition was fractured and weak, and the Government of William Forgan Smith
very secure. Nicklin's preferred area was agriculture, and he made many speeches on the subject.
In 1941 the opposition suffered another severe defeat, with Labor
winning 41 seats to the Country Party's 14 and the United Australia Party's
four. After the election, the two non-Labor parties decided to merge. Opposition leader E. B. Maher stood down, and Nicklin was elected as a new leader for the new party. The merger failed after only a few months, but Nicklin remained as head of a Country Party-UAP coalition.
Nicklin was leader of the opposition for sixteen years, losing five elections in a row. In 1942 Labor abolished full preferential voting, meaning that the Country Party and UAP could no longer rely on each other's preferences in seats that they both contested. Even more damaging to the coalition's chances was the introduction of a zonal electoral system in 1949, in which seats in the traditional Labor north and west of the state required fewer members than the Country-Party dominated south-east or the Queensland People's Party
(formerly UAP, soon to be the Liberals
) dominated metropolitan areas.
Despite these setbacks, Nicklin was never challenged for the leadership. Many coalition members appeared to have given up on the idea of forming Government and were content to simply represent their constituencies. Accordingly Nicklin was left to handle most of the business of opposition. He acknowledged to a 1955 conference of leading Country Party figures that their chances of ever being seated to the right of the speaker were slim, but he continued as opposition leader anyway. After the 1956 election, in which he was severely defeated by Labor's Vince Gair
, Nicklin considered retiring both from the Country Party leadership and from parliament. However, his fortunes would soon change.
The late 1950s saw increasing fear of communism
in Australia, and increasing tensions between the Parliamentary Labor Party and the Central Executive (QCE) in Queensland. Many people were suspicious of the left-wing non-elected union leaders who operated behind the scenes of the Government, and Premier Gair built a reputation as a hardline anti-communist. These tensions boiled over in 1957, when the QCE pushed the Government to introduce three weeks' paid leave for public servants. Gair refused, and Nicklin backed him, arguing that a non-elected and possibly communist-sympathizing body should not dictate to the people's representatives.
On 24 April Vince Gair was expelled from the ALP, and he and his supporters formed the Queensland Labor Party (QLP). This body would later join the anti-communist Democratic Labor Party
(DLP) which had arisen out of a split in the ALP in Victoria. Nicklin and Gair held some talks over possible deals, but these came to nothing, and Administrator Chief Justice Mansfield ordered Parliament to reassemble.
Shortly after 10:30 pm on 12 July 1957 Treasurer Ted Walsh moved that supply be granted to the Gair QLP Government. The remnants of the ALP, now led by Jack Duggan
, crossed the floor and voted against the Government. Sensing his long-denied chance had come, Nicklin instructed the Coalition to block supply as well, bringing the Gair government down. It had been the shortest session of Parliament in Queensland's history.
Nicklin's first priority was to reverse the zonal electoral system in favour of his Government. Nicklin's redistribution was fairer than Hanlon's, but it still favoured the Country Party. The far-western region went down from five seats to three, and the provincial cities (which had traditionally voted ALP) were separated from their hinterlands, in which new Country Party seats were created. As a result, Liberals gained new seats in Brisbane, and in return they agreed not to contest the zonal electoral system, despite the fact that it allowed the Country Party to be the senior coalition partner even if it won fewer votes than the Liberal Party (which it did after 1966). Another electoral reform in the form of compulsory preferential voting was introduced in 1960, when it became clear that the QLP no longer posed a threat and that QLP voters were likely to favour a Country-Liberal coalition over the ALP anyway.
The coalition enjoyed a harmonious relationship, with Nicklin and Liberal leader Kenneth Morris being personal friends as well as colleagues. The parties had some disputes over seat allocation in the mid-1960s, and Morris was not always an easy man to work with, but on the whole the Nicklin Government saw a period of very good relations between the Nationals and Liberals, especially compared with the strife of later years. Morris retired in 1965 and was succeeded by Sir Gordon Chalk
, who was a very staunch coalitionist.
By comparison with the political turbulence in Queensland during the 1950s and the 1970s, the 1960s were singularly subdued. Primarily the Nicklin Government concentrated on employment relations and on developing the state's infrastructure. In general, Nicklin saw little reason to lose electoral capital by passing tough industrial relations laws during times of prosperity. However, the most serious crises of the Nicklin Premiership were based in poor handling of unions.
In 1961, at Morris' insistence, the old Industrial Court was replaced by the Industrial Relations and Arbitration Commission, which had less power. It could not raise award payments, although it could decrease them. At the time, the miners of Mount Isa Mines (MIM) were lodging a claim for a wage rise, which could not go through the new commission. This resulted in a strike which only ended with an uneasy truce. The dispute broke out again in 1964, and again the mine needed to be closed down. Here, Nicklin acted erratically. First he did nothing for months, then passed a harsh order-in-council expanding police powers to deal with the strike. This came just as the issues behind the strike were being resolved, and caused the negotiations to break down again. While the mines could eventually reopen, Nicklin was condemned for poor handling of the crisis.
As he was leading a Government that lacked experience, Nicklin knew that he would be relying heavily on Queensland's leading bureaucrats. So he treated the public service union with care, restoring the privilege of a half-day's leave to visit the annual exhibition.
Nicklin viewed his own achievements as Premier in terms of state development. Like most Queensland Premiers, he believed in building and capital works. Under Nicklin, road mileage doubled, irrigated land doubled, and a number of projects such as the Moogerah Dam were undertaken. Mining boomed – total mining output almost trebled, and Weipa became the largest bauxite mine in the world. The Nicklin Government, especially through effective Treasurers such as Tom Hiley, was good at attracting foreign customers for Queensland's minerals and other produce.
Probably Nicklin is best remembered for his probity, which earned him the nickname 'Honest Frank'. It is not recorded who first coined the term, but it spread quickly and was widely accepted, even by Nicklin's opponents, as being accurate. Nicklin was not widely known when he became Premier, and while he was too modest a man to indulge in self-aggrandising publicity he was skilled enough as a politician to benefit from the way in which his reputation for honesty stuck with him.
Nicklin held his Cabinet to high standards. He was only forced to dismiss ministers on two occasions, once for tax evasion and once for a sexual harassment scandal, and in both cases he lied to cover the real reasons for the ministers' departure. These stories seem to be the only deliberate untruths he ever told to the public while in office. Nicklin's hold over his cabinet was firm, and there was no question that ministers who could not live up to Nicklin's standards were summarily dismissed.
After 1966 Nicklin's health declined markedly, and at the end of 1967 he retired from the Premiership and Parliament. He had served thirty-five years as Member for Murrumba, and his ten years and five months as Premier was then a Queensland record. In 1968 he was knighted, and in a rare concession to formality chose to be dubbed 'Sir Francis'. He died peacefully on 29 January 1978, aged 82. At his own choice, he was not given the pomp and ceremony of a state funeral.
Still, there is some debate over whether Nicklin's geniality was entirely genuine or whether it concealed an iron fist. There were rumours that he inspired fear in his cabinet, although this is common among successful Premiers and Prime Ministers. He remains something of a paradox – cunning and powerful yet open, honest and outwardly benevolent. Not the wisest or most talented of Queensland Premiers, he nonetheless achieved a good deal in the harsh political environment of Queensland without open and outward displays of power and authoritarianism. He was lucky to have been in office during a time of stability and prosperity, but even so his Premiership is generally considered by commentators to have been a success.
The state electorate of Nicklin and the Nicklin Way
arterial road, both based on the Sunshine Coast
, is named in his honour.
Military Medal
The Military Medal was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other services, and formerly also to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land....
(6 August 1895 – 29 January 1978) was Premier of the Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n state of Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
from 1957 to 1968, and the first 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...
Premier since 1932.
Early life and career
Nicklin was born in Murwillumbah, New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
on 6 August 1895, the son of a newspaper proprietor. In 1910 the family moved to Beerwah in Queensland, where Nicklin's father took up banana farming. Nicklin enrolled in the army in 1916 served with distinction during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, where he was promoted to corporal
Corporal
Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....
and was awarded the Military Medal
Military Medal
The Military Medal was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other services, and formerly also to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land....
. On his return to Queensland he bought a small pineapple farm at Palmwoods, 100 kilometres north of Brisbane, through a soldier-settler scheme. Nicklin saved wisely and put his farming experience to good use, and his farm succeeded where many others failed. He led many fruit-growers' organisations, and then became involved in 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...
politics.
When the Member for the solid Country Party seat of Murrumba retired in 1932, Nicklin became the new candidate. He won the seat, although the National Progressive Country Party Government of A. E. Moore
Arthur Edward Moore
Arthur Edward Moore, CMG was an Australian politician. He was the Country and Progressive National Party Premier of Queensland, from 1929 to 1932. He was the only Queensland Premier not to come from the ranks of the Labor Party between 1915 and 1957...
was heavily defeated. Nicklin, therefore, entered Parliament as a humble opposition backbencher.
Nicklin was a popular and hardworking local member, and he managed to hold his seat throughout very difficult times for the Country Party in Queensland. The opposition was fractured and weak, and the Government of William Forgan Smith
William Forgan Smith
William Forgan Smith , generally known as Forgan Smith, was Premier of the Australian state of Queensland from 1932 to 1942. He came to dominate politics in the state during the 1930s, and his populism, firm leadership, defence of states' rights and interest in state development make him something...
very secure. Nicklin's preferred area was agriculture, and he made many speeches on the subject.
In 1941 the opposition suffered another severe defeat, with 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...
winning 41 seats to the Country Party's 14 and the United Australia Party's
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...
four. After the election, the two non-Labor parties decided to merge. Opposition leader E. B. Maher stood down, and Nicklin was elected as a new leader for the new party. The merger failed after only a few months, but Nicklin remained as head of a Country Party-UAP coalition.
Nicklin was leader of the opposition for sixteen years, losing five elections in a row. In 1942 Labor abolished full preferential voting, meaning that the Country Party and UAP could no longer rely on each other's preferences in seats that they both contested. Even more damaging to the coalition's chances was the introduction of a zonal electoral system in 1949, in which seats in the traditional Labor north and west of the state required fewer members than the Country-Party dominated south-east or the Queensland People's Party
Queensland People's Party
The Queensland People's Party was a conservative political party in Queensland, Australia.Created in 1943 by Brisbane Lord Mayor John Beals Chandler, the Queensland People's Party contested elections in South East Queensland. In 1948, they became the Queensland branch of the Liberal Party of...
(formerly UAP, soon to be the Liberals
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...
) dominated metropolitan areas.
Despite these setbacks, Nicklin was never challenged for the leadership. Many coalition members appeared to have given up on the idea of forming Government and were content to simply represent their constituencies. Accordingly Nicklin was left to handle most of the business of opposition. He acknowledged to a 1955 conference of leading Country Party figures that their chances of ever being seated to the right of the speaker were slim, but he continued as opposition leader anyway. After the 1956 election, in which he was severely defeated by Labor's Vince Gair
Vince Gair
Vincent Clare "Vince" Gair was an Australian politician. He served as Premier of Queensland from 1952 until 1957, when his stormy relations with the trade union movement saw him expelled from the Australian Labor Party. He was elected to the Australian Senate and led the Democratic Labor Party...
, Nicklin considered retiring both from the Country Party leadership and from parliament. However, his fortunes would soon change.
The late 1950s saw increasing fear of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
in Australia, and increasing tensions between the Parliamentary Labor Party and the Central Executive (QCE) in Queensland. Many people were suspicious of the left-wing non-elected union leaders who operated behind the scenes of the Government, and Premier Gair built a reputation as a hardline anti-communist. These tensions boiled over in 1957, when the QCE pushed the Government to introduce three weeks' paid leave for public servants. Gair refused, and Nicklin backed him, arguing that a non-elected and possibly communist-sympathizing body should not dictate to the people's representatives.
On 24 April Vince Gair was expelled from the ALP, and he and his supporters formed the Queensland Labor Party (QLP). This body would later join the anti-communist Democratic Labor Party
Democratic Labor Party
The Democratic Labor Party is a political party in Australia that espouses social conservatism and opposes neo-liberalism. The first "DLP" Senator in decades, party vice-president John Madigan was elected to the Australian Senate with 2.3 percent of the primary vote in Victoria at the 2010 federal...
(DLP) which had arisen out of a split in the ALP in Victoria. Nicklin and Gair held some talks over possible deals, but these came to nothing, and Administrator Chief Justice Mansfield ordered Parliament to reassemble.
Shortly after 10:30 pm on 12 July 1957 Treasurer Ted Walsh moved that supply be granted to the Gair QLP Government. The remnants of the ALP, now led by Jack Duggan
Jack Duggan
John Herbert "Jack" Duggan was a retired professional ice hockey player who played 27 games in the National Hockey League. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, he would play with the Ottawa Senators.- External links :...
, crossed the floor and voted against the Government. Sensing his long-denied chance had come, Nicklin instructed the Coalition to block supply as well, bringing the Gair government down. It had been the shortest session of Parliament in Queensland's history.
Premiership
In the ensuing 3 August elections the divided Labor forces were defeated, winning only 31 seats between them. Nicklin's Country-Liberal coalition came to power with 42 seats - the first non-Labor Government since 1932.Nicklin's first priority was to reverse the zonal electoral system in favour of his Government. Nicklin's redistribution was fairer than Hanlon's, but it still favoured the Country Party. The far-western region went down from five seats to three, and the provincial cities (which had traditionally voted ALP) were separated from their hinterlands, in which new Country Party seats were created. As a result, Liberals gained new seats in Brisbane, and in return they agreed not to contest the zonal electoral system, despite the fact that it allowed the Country Party to be the senior coalition partner even if it won fewer votes than the Liberal Party (which it did after 1966). Another electoral reform in the form of compulsory preferential voting was introduced in 1960, when it became clear that the QLP no longer posed a threat and that QLP voters were likely to favour a Country-Liberal coalition over the ALP anyway.
The coalition enjoyed a harmonious relationship, with Nicklin and Liberal leader Kenneth Morris being personal friends as well as colleagues. The parties had some disputes over seat allocation in the mid-1960s, and Morris was not always an easy man to work with, but on the whole the Nicklin Government saw a period of very good relations between the Nationals and Liberals, especially compared with the strife of later years. Morris retired in 1965 and was succeeded by Sir Gordon Chalk
Gordon Chalk
Sir Gordon William Wesley Chalk, KBE was Premier of Queensland for a week, from 1 to 8 August 1968. He was the first, and only, Queensland Premier from the modern Liberal Party of Australia....
, who was a very staunch coalitionist.
By comparison with the political turbulence in Queensland during the 1950s and the 1970s, the 1960s were singularly subdued. Primarily the Nicklin Government concentrated on employment relations and on developing the state's infrastructure. In general, Nicklin saw little reason to lose electoral capital by passing tough industrial relations laws during times of prosperity. However, the most serious crises of the Nicklin Premiership were based in poor handling of unions.
In 1961, at Morris' insistence, the old Industrial Court was replaced by the Industrial Relations and Arbitration Commission, which had less power. It could not raise award payments, although it could decrease them. At the time, the miners of Mount Isa Mines (MIM) were lodging a claim for a wage rise, which could not go through the new commission. This resulted in a strike which only ended with an uneasy truce. The dispute broke out again in 1964, and again the mine needed to be closed down. Here, Nicklin acted erratically. First he did nothing for months, then passed a harsh order-in-council expanding police powers to deal with the strike. This came just as the issues behind the strike were being resolved, and caused the negotiations to break down again. While the mines could eventually reopen, Nicklin was condemned for poor handling of the crisis.
As he was leading a Government that lacked experience, Nicklin knew that he would be relying heavily on Queensland's leading bureaucrats. So he treated the public service union with care, restoring the privilege of a half-day's leave to visit the annual exhibition.
Nicklin viewed his own achievements as Premier in terms of state development. Like most Queensland Premiers, he believed in building and capital works. Under Nicklin, road mileage doubled, irrigated land doubled, and a number of projects such as the Moogerah Dam were undertaken. Mining boomed – total mining output almost trebled, and Weipa became the largest bauxite mine in the world. The Nicklin Government, especially through effective Treasurers such as Tom Hiley, was good at attracting foreign customers for Queensland's minerals and other produce.
Probably Nicklin is best remembered for his probity, which earned him the nickname 'Honest Frank'. It is not recorded who first coined the term, but it spread quickly and was widely accepted, even by Nicklin's opponents, as being accurate. Nicklin was not widely known when he became Premier, and while he was too modest a man to indulge in self-aggrandising publicity he was skilled enough as a politician to benefit from the way in which his reputation for honesty stuck with him.
Nicklin held his Cabinet to high standards. He was only forced to dismiss ministers on two occasions, once for tax evasion and once for a sexual harassment scandal, and in both cases he lied to cover the real reasons for the ministers' departure. These stories seem to be the only deliberate untruths he ever told to the public while in office. Nicklin's hold over his cabinet was firm, and there was no question that ministers who could not live up to Nicklin's standards were summarily dismissed.
After 1966 Nicklin's health declined markedly, and at the end of 1967 he retired from the Premiership and Parliament. He had served thirty-five years as Member for Murrumba, and his ten years and five months as Premier was then a Queensland record. In 1968 he was knighted, and in a rare concession to formality chose to be dubbed 'Sir Francis'. He died peacefully on 29 January 1978, aged 82. At his own choice, he was not given the pomp and ceremony of a state funeral.
Assessment
In many ways, Nicklin broke the mould of Queensland Premiers. He stands out for not being an authoritarian, a populist or an autocrat. He was willing to share the power for which he had been forced to wait many years, and he was prepared to defer to those whom he knew had greater knowledge or talent than he. Both of these traits made his Government successful. His greatest achievement was probably the mere fact that his Premiership was such a quiet and uneventful time. He was friendly and well liked by the people of Queensland, and was known as 'the gentleman Premier'.Still, there is some debate over whether Nicklin's geniality was entirely genuine or whether it concealed an iron fist. There were rumours that he inspired fear in his cabinet, although this is common among successful Premiers and Prime Ministers. He remains something of a paradox – cunning and powerful yet open, honest and outwardly benevolent. Not the wisest or most talented of Queensland Premiers, he nonetheless achieved a good deal in the harsh political environment of Queensland without open and outward displays of power and authoritarianism. He was lucky to have been in office during a time of stability and prosperity, but even so his Premiership is generally considered by commentators to have been a success.
The state electorate of Nicklin and the Nicklin Way
Nicklin Way, Sunshine Coast
Nicklin Way is a major road in Sunshine Coast, Queensland. It runs from the southern end of the Sunshine Motorway at Mooloolaba to Caloundra, with the route signed as state route 6...
arterial road, both based on the Sunshine Coast
Sunshine Coast, Queensland
The Sunshine Coast is an urban area in South East Queensland, north of the state capital of Brisbane on the Pacific Ocean coastline. Although it does not have a central business district, by population it ranks as the 10th largest metropolis in Australia and the third largest in...
, is named in his honour.