William Wentworth IV
Encyclopedia
William Charles Wentworth AO
(8 September 1907 – 15 June 2003), Australian politician, was a Liberal
and later Independent member of the Australian House of Representatives
from 1949 to 1977, with a reputation as a fierce anti-Communist.
, a leading political and literary figure in colonial New South Wales
. He is sometimes referred to as "William Charles Wentworth IV" but he never used this name himself. His family and friends called him Bill or Billy. The prominent journalist Mungo MacCallum
is his nephew.
Wentworth was educated at The Armidale School
in Armidale
in northern New South Wales, and at Oxford, where he gained an MA
.
Returning to Australia aged 23, he briefly worked as a factory hand at Lever Brothers
in Balmain
, Sydney, before becoming Secretary to the Attorney-General of New South Wales, Sir Henry Manning. Then he joined the New South Wales public service as an economic advisor to the Premier's Department and the Treasury, a position from which he resigned in 1937 in protest against what he saw as the state conservative government's timid economic policies. He was an early exponent of Keynesianism
and favoured an expansion of state credit.
From 1941 to 1943 Wentworth served in the Australian army in administrative positions. At the 1943 federal election
, he stood as an independent for the House of Representatives
seat of Wentworth
(named after his great-grandfather), arguing for an all-party "national government". He polled 20 per cent of the vote against the Deputy Leader of the United Australia Party
, Eric Harrison
. In 1945 he joined Robert Menzies
' new party, the Liberal Party of Australia
. At the 1949 election
, Wentworth was elected to the House of Representatives for Mackellar
in the northern suburbs of Sydney.
By the late 1940s Wentworth had become a fierce anti-Communist, to an extent that even some in his own party regarded an excessive: he was frequently accused of McCarthyism
in making allegations under parliamentary privilege
, usually unsubstantiated, of Communist influence in various quarters of Australian public life. He was a leading member of the "Taiwan lobby" in the Liberal Party, which also included Wilfrid Kent Hughes
and the young John Gorton
. He frequently sought to imply that the leader of the opposition Australian Labor Party
, Dr H. V. Evatt
, was a communist sypathiser, or at best a dupe of the communists. The communists, he said, wanted to "ride into power on the back of the Australian Labor Party". Menzies's biographer referred to him as "the notorious Liberal Party backbench red-baiter".
Wentworth, however, was more than a one-issue politician, and had great energy and ability. As Gorton's biographer writes: "For all his erratic and sometimes bizarre behaviour, his flaws were at least those of an inventive mind". Although Menzies was happy to benefit politically from Wentworth's red-baiting, he refused him promotion to the ministry, mainly because he was a party-room rebel on other matters, such as pensions. During these years he busied himself with parliamentary committee work. He was an active member of the Foreign Affairs Committee from 1952 to 1961. From 1956 he was chair of the Government Members Committee on Rail Gauge Standardisation, and made important recommendations on solving one of Australia's longest-standing infrastructure problems, the incompatible rail gauges in the different states, a legacy of colonial times. Gough Whitlam
, no admirer of Wentworth in other respects, credits him with being one of the architects of the rail standardisation agreement that led to the opening of the single-gauge rail line from Melbourne to Sydney in 1961.
Wentworth's other long-term interest was in Aboriginal
affairs. He was one of the Liberal backbenchers who supported a constitutional referendum
to give the Commonwealth the power to legislate specifically for the benefit of indigenous Australians, something which was finally achieved under Menzies' successor Harold Holt
in 1967 (see Australian referendum, 1967 (Aboriginals)
). When Wentworth's friend John Gorton succeeded Holt, he made Wentworth Minister for Social Services
and Minister in Charge of Aboriginal Affairs, the first minister to hold this office.
As Minister, Wentworth was disappointed that the Cabinet was reluctant to take any steps to pass the kind of far-reaching legislation he wanted, mainly due to the resistance of pastoral interests represented by the Country Party
. Nevertheless, Wentworth took the first practical step towards the granting of indigenous land rights
when he proposed giving the Gurindji people
control of their land at Wave Hill station in the Northern Territory
(which was at that time under Commonwealth control): this scheme, in a fine irony given Wentworth's history, was denounced as "communist inspired" by the Cattle Producers Council (a reference to the fact that the Communist
writer Frank Hardy
was an adviser to the Gurindji).
Wentworth was already 60 when he became a minister, but he proved to be energetic and innovative. When William McMahon
succeeded Gorton as Prime Minister in March 1971, he retained Wentworth in the ministry despite dropping Gorton's other proteges. Wentworth contested the Liberal deputy leadership at this time, but was eliminated on the first ballot, with the position going to Billy Snedden
, whom Wentworth regarded as a light-weight. When the McMahon government was defeated by Labor under Whitlam in December 1972, Wentworth returned to the backbench.
Snedden succeeded McMahon as leader, but Wentworth was among his most persistent party-room critics. In March 1975 it was Wentworth who moved the motion in the Liberal Party room to depose Snedden from the leadership in favour of Malcolm Fraser
. But under Fraser's government he soon found himself back in his old role of the backbench rebel. His lifelong commitment to Keynesianism led him to criticise Fraser's cuts to government spending as deflationary. Having already announced his intention of retiring from Parliament at the next election, he resigned from the Liberal Party in October 1977. He stood for the Senate
in New South Wales at the December 1977 election
, polling 2.1 per cent of the vote. Later he was active in the Grey Power
movement, and stood again for the Senate as a Grey Power candidate at the 1984 election; again, he did badly.
During his time in the House of Representatives, Wentworth voted against his party more often than any other Representative in Australian history.
In 1993 he was appointed an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia
in the Queen's Birthday
Honours for "service to the Australian Parliament, particularly in relation to Aboriginal rights and to the standardisation of inter-state rail gauges".
Wentworth's last appearance in Australian politics was in April 1995, when he contested the by-election in the seat of Wentworth
(which was named after his great grandfather) caused by the resignation of Dr John Hewson
. In the absence of a Labor candidate, he polled 18 per cent of the vote, 52 years after he first contested the seat in 1943. He retired to north Queensland, from where he continued to write pamphlets and newspaper articles until his death in Sydney in 2003 at the age of 95. He was survived by his wife Barbara, and four children.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(8 September 1907 – 15 June 2003), Australian politician, was a 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...
and later Independent member of the Australian House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
from 1949 to 1977, with a reputation as a fierce anti-Communist.
Biography
Wentworth was born in Sydney, the son of a prominent Sydney barrister of the same name, and the great-grandson of William Charles WentworthWilliam Wentworth
William Charles Wentworth was an Australian poet, explorer, journalist and politician, and one of the leading figures of early colonial New South Wales...
, a leading political and literary figure in colonial New South Wales
New 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...
. He is sometimes referred to as "William Charles Wentworth IV" but he never used this name himself. His family and friends called him Bill or Billy. The prominent journalist Mungo MacCallum
Mungo Wentworth MacCallum
Mungo Wentworth MacCallum is an Australian political journalist and commentator.He is the son of Mungo Ballardie MacCallum , and Diana Wentworth a great granddaughter of the Australian explorer and politician William Charles Wentworth...
is his nephew.
Wentworth was educated at The Armidale School
The Armidale School
The Armidale School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, located in Armidale, on the New England Tablelands of northern New South Wales, Australia...
in Armidale
Armidale, New South Wales
Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale Dumaresq Shire had a population of 19,485 people according to the 2006 census. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region...
in northern New South Wales, and at Oxford, where he gained an MA
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
.
Returning to Australia aged 23, he briefly worked as a factory hand at Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers Factory, Balmain
The Lever Brothers Factory in the Sydney, Australia suburb of Balmain was a soap factory which operated from 1895 until 1988. It employed many people from the local area and its large industrial buildings were a prominent feature of the landscape...
in 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....
, Sydney, before becoming Secretary to the Attorney-General of New South Wales, Sir Henry Manning. Then he joined the New South Wales public service as an economic advisor to the Premier's Department and the Treasury, a position from which he resigned in 1937 in protest against what he saw as the state conservative government's timid economic policies. He was an early exponent of Keynesianism
Keynesian economics
Keynesian economics is a school of macroeconomic thought based on the ideas of 20th-century English economist John Maynard Keynes.Keynesian economics argues that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes and, therefore, advocates active policy responses by the...
and favoured an expansion of state credit.
From 1941 to 1943 Wentworth served in the Australian army in administrative positions. At the 1943 federal 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...
, he stood as an independent for the House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
seat of Wentworth
Division of Wentworth
The Division of Wentworth is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It was proclaimed in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. The Division is named after William Charles Wentworth , a noted Australian explorer and statesman...
(named after his great-grandfather), arguing for an all-party "national government". He polled 20 per cent of the vote against the Deputy Leader of the 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...
, Eric Harrison
Eric Harrison
Sir Eric John Harrison KCMG KCVO was an Australian politician who became the first Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia....
. In 1945 he joined Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
' new party, the Liberal Party of Australia
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...
. At the 1949 election
Australian federal election, 1949
Federal elections were held in Australia on 10 December 1949. All 121 seats in the House of Representatives, and 42 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, where the single transferable vote was introduced...
, Wentworth was elected to the House of Representatives for Mackellar
Division of Mackellar
The Division of Mackellar is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in the Northern Beaches region of Sydney, on the Pacific coast, south of Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury River. It includes the suburbs of Narrabeen, Beacon Hill, Newport, Palm Beach and...
in the northern suburbs of Sydney.
By the late 1940s Wentworth had become a fierce anti-Communist, to an extent that even some in his own party regarded an excessive: he was frequently accused of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
in making allegations under parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...
, usually unsubstantiated, of Communist influence in various quarters of Australian public life. He was a leading member of the "Taiwan lobby" in the Liberal Party, which also included Wilfrid Kent Hughes
Wilfrid Kent Hughes
Sir Wilfrid Selwyn Kent Hughes KBE, MVO, MC was an Australian soldier, Olympian and Olympic Games organiser, author and federal and state government minister.Kent Hughes was born in Melbourne to an upper middle-class family...
and the young John Gorton
John Gorton
Sir John Grey Gorton, GCMG, AC, CH , Australian politician, was the 19th Prime Minister of Australia.-Early life:...
. He frequently sought to imply that the leader of the opposition Australian Labor Party
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...
, Dr H. V. Evatt
H. V. Evatt
Herbert Vere Evatt, QC KStJ , was an Australian jurist, politician and writer. He was President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1948–49 and helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
, was a communist sypathiser, or at best a dupe of the communists. The communists, he said, wanted to "ride into power on the back of the Australian Labor Party". Menzies's biographer referred to him as "the notorious Liberal Party backbench red-baiter".
Wentworth, however, was more than a one-issue politician, and had great energy and ability. As Gorton's biographer writes: "For all his erratic and sometimes bizarre behaviour, his flaws were at least those of an inventive mind". Although Menzies was happy to benefit politically from Wentworth's red-baiting, he refused him promotion to the ministry, mainly because he was a party-room rebel on other matters, such as pensions. During these years he busied himself with parliamentary committee work. He was an active member of the Foreign Affairs Committee from 1952 to 1961. From 1956 he was chair of the Government Members Committee on Rail Gauge Standardisation, and made important recommendations on solving one of Australia's longest-standing infrastructure problems, the incompatible rail gauges in the different states, a legacy of colonial times. Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
, no admirer of Wentworth in other respects, credits him with being one of the architects of the rail standardisation agreement that led to the opening of the single-gauge rail line from Melbourne to Sydney in 1961.
Wentworth's other long-term interest was in Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
affairs. He was one of the Liberal backbenchers who supported a constitutional referendum
Referendums in Australia
In Australia, referendums are binding polls usually used to alter the Constitution of the Commonwealth or a state or territory. Non-binding polls are usually referred to as plebiscites.-Federal referendums:...
to give the Commonwealth the power to legislate specifically for the benefit of indigenous Australians, something which was finally achieved under Menzies' successor Harold Holt
Harold Holt
Harold Edward Holt, CH was an Australian politician and the 17th Prime Minister of Australia.His term as Prime Minister was brought to an early and dramatic end in December 1967 when he disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria, and was presumed drowned.Holt spent 32 years...
in 1967 (see Australian referendum, 1967 (Aboriginals)
Australian referendum, 1967 (Aboriginals)
The referendum of 27 May 1967 approved two amendments to the Australian constitution relating to Indigenous Australians. Technically it was a vote on the Constitution Alteration 1967, which became law on 10 August 1967 following the results of the referendum...
). When Wentworth's friend John Gorton succeeded Holt, he made Wentworth Minister for Social Services
Minister for Human Services (Australia)
The position of Minister for Human Services within Australian politics is currently held by the Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP. The Minister is responsible for a number of welfare agencies and administers her portfolio through the Department of Human Services and its component bodies:* Child Support...
and Minister in Charge of Aboriginal Affairs, the first minister to hold this office.
As Minister, Wentworth was disappointed that the Cabinet was reluctant to take any steps to pass the kind of far-reaching legislation he wanted, mainly due to the resistance of pastoral interests represented by 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...
. Nevertheless, Wentworth took the first practical step towards the granting of indigenous land rights
Native title
Native title is the Australian version of the common law doctrine of aboriginal title.Native title is "the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs"...
when he proposed giving the Gurindji people
Gurindji people
Gurindji are a group of Indigenous Australians living in northern Australia, 460 km southwest of Katherine in the Northern Territory's Victoria River region....
control of their land at Wave Hill station in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
(which was at that time under Commonwealth control): this scheme, in a fine irony given Wentworth's history, was denounced as "communist inspired" by the Cattle Producers Council (a reference to the fact that the Communist
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
writer Frank Hardy
Frank Hardy
Francis Joseph Hardy, or Frank, was an Australian left-wing novelist and writer best known for his controversial novel Power Without Glory. He also was a political activist bringing the plight of Aboriginal Australians to international attention with the publication of his book, The Unlucky...
was an adviser to the Gurindji).
Wentworth was already 60 when he became a minister, but he proved to be energetic and innovative. When William McMahon
William McMahon
Sir William "Billy" McMahon, GCMG, CH , was an Australian Liberal politician and the 20th Prime Minister of Australia...
succeeded Gorton as Prime Minister in March 1971, he retained Wentworth in the ministry despite dropping Gorton's other proteges. Wentworth contested the Liberal deputy leadership at this time, but was eliminated on the first ballot, with the position going to Billy Snedden
Billy Snedden
Sir Billy Mackie Snedden, KCMG, QC was an Australian politician representing the Liberal Party. He was Leader of the Opposition at the 1974 federal election, failing to defeat the Labor incumbent Gough Whitlam.-Early life:...
, whom Wentworth regarded as a light-weight. When the McMahon government was defeated by Labor under Whitlam in December 1972, Wentworth returned to the backbench.
Snedden succeeded McMahon as leader, but Wentworth was among his most persistent party-room critics. In March 1975 it was Wentworth who moved the motion in the Liberal Party room to depose Snedden from the leadership in favour of 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...
. But under Fraser's government he soon found himself back in his old role of the backbench rebel. His lifelong commitment to Keynesianism led him to criticise Fraser's cuts to government spending as deflationary. Having already announced his intention of retiring from Parliament at the next election, he resigned from the Liberal Party in October 1977. He stood for the Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
in New South Wales at the December 1977 election
Australian federal election, 1977
Federal elections were held in Australia on 10 December 1977. All 124 seats in the House of Representatives, and 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate, were up for election....
, polling 2.1 per cent of the vote. Later he was active in the Grey Power
Grey Power
Grey Power, an Australian political party lobby group, first registered in 1983. At the federal elections of 1984 and 1987 it ran candidates, but on both occasions these candidates did poorly...
movement, and stood again for the Senate as a Grey Power candidate at the 1984 election; again, he did badly.
During his time in the House of Representatives, Wentworth voted against his party more often than any other Representative in Australian history.
In 1993 he was appointed an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
in the Queen's Birthday
Queen's Official Birthday
The Queen's Official Birthday is the selected day on which the birthday of the monarch of Commonwealth realms is officially celebrated in Commonwealth countries and in Fiji, which is now a republic. It is an invention of the early 20th century...
Honours for "service to the Australian Parliament, particularly in relation to Aboriginal rights and to the standardisation of inter-state rail gauges".
Wentworth's last appearance in Australian politics was in April 1995, when he contested the by-election in the seat of Wentworth
Wentworth by-election, 1995
The 1995 Wentworth by-election was held in the Australian electorate of Wentworth in New South Wales on 8 April 1995. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of the sitting member, the Liberal Party of Australia's Dr. John Hewson on 28 February 1995...
(which was named after his great grandfather) caused by the resignation of Dr John Hewson
John Hewson
John Robert Hewson AM is an Australian economist, company director and a former politician. He was federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 1990 to 1994 and led the party to defeat at the 1993 federal election.-Early life:...
. In the absence of a Labor candidate, he polled 18 per cent of the vote, 52 years after he first contested the seat in 1943. He retired to north Queensland, from where he continued to write pamphlets and newspaper articles until his death in Sydney in 2003 at the age of 95. He was survived by his wife Barbara, and four children.