Ben Chifley
Oxford Companion to Australian Politics:
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Ben Chifley
Joseph Benedict Chifley (1885–1951), prime minister from 1945to1949, is perhaps best remembered for popularising the term, ‘the light on the hill’, to encapsulate the Labor Party's idealistic aspiration to create a better world for all. However, as revealed by his coining of another phrase, ‘the hip-pocket nerve’, Chifley was also a pragmatic politician who pursued the politics of ‘commonsense’.
Chifley was born in Bathurst in 1885. After being largely raised on his grandfather's farm at nearby Limekilns, he started work in 1903 at the railway workshops in Bathurst, and became a train driver ten years later. Chifley had supplemented his rudimentary education with years of night school and self-education. Although a Roman Catholic, and remaining a church-goer all his life, Chifley defied his church when he married his Presbyterian wife, Elizabeth, in 1914. They moved into a simple, four-roomed cottage that they continued to occupy even after Chifley became prime minister.
Chifley's father was on the board of the local Labor newspaper, the National Advocate, which came out strongly against conscription in 1916, with Chifley publicly organising for the anti-conscriptionists. The bitter debate intensified Chifley's political involvement and raised his profile in the town. A six-week strike of railway workers the following year raised it still further.
Chifley was a staunch but moderate leader of the local train drivers' union, but he was victimised along with thousands of his colleagues when they were forced back to work. It left him with intense feelings of resentment when he was reduced to the rank of fireman, although he soon recovered his ranking. He became a representative on the union's state council and to its national conferences. It was during a union conference in Perth in 1926 that Chifley first encountered John Curtin, then editor of the Westralian Worker. The two men forged a close political association when they both were elected to the Commonwealth Parliament in 1928.
Chifley's tall frame gave him a commanding presence but he was not a great orator. He relied instead on ‘plain, unvarnished home truths’ delivered in a flat style with a voice that became increasingly raspy. He was helped by the unqualified support of the National Advocate, which he effectively controlled. Even so, to win the seat of Macquarie Chifley had been forced to resort to a scare campaign about southern European migrants.
Labor finally won government under the leadership of James Scullin in 1929, only to be confronted with the Great Depression and a legacy of massive debts. Chifley reluctantly supported the financial stringency that was forced on Scullin by the banks. After becoming Defence minister in March 1931, Chifley defended a plan to restore government finances by cutting wages and pensions. With New South Wales premier Jack Lang campaigning against the plan, Chifley faced fierce opposition from his own supporters. He was expelled from the train drivers' union and opposed by a Lang candidate when the government was forced to an election in December 1931. As a result, the United Australia candidate won narrowly.
Undaunted, Chifley led federal Labor's fight against the dominant Lang Labor forces, becoming president of the minority New South Wales branch in 1934. He agreed with Lang that there needed to be ‘a great change’, but he wanted it done in ‘an orderly, honest, commonsense way’. It was the language of the rural folk with whom he associated in his long-time role as a councillor and sometime president of the Abercrombie Shire Council.
In 1935 Chifley was appointed to a Royal Commission into the banking system and submitted a minority report calling for bank nationalisation. His role on the Royal Commission would have helped qualify him for his appointment with the Capital Issues Advisory Board after war broke out in September 1939. The following year he was made director of Labour Supply and Regulation in the Department of Munitions, but was forced to resign when he was re-elected to parliament in the 1940 election. He returned to his familiar haunt at Canberra's Hotel Kurrajong accompanied by his long-time secretary, Phyllis Donnelly.
When Labor, under Curtin, took office in October 1941, observers were surprised to see Chifley chosen as Treasurer. In fact, Chifley was much more than that, becoming Curtin's close friend and confidant. It was said that no important decision was ever made by Curtin without first being cleared with Chifley. And the first big decision was the budget that had to be brought down to provide for the vastly increased war effort.
While raising income and company taxes, Chifley also raised the pay of service personnel and promised not to reduce the living standards of ordinary Australians. It was all done, he said, so that the ‘lights of liberty’ could continue shining. The taxes had to be raised again almost immediately when the Japanese entered the war in December 1941. And there was further privation to come as the government took greater control of the economy.
The most dramatic change came in 1942 when Chifley forced the states to cede their income-taxing powers to the Commonwealth. ‘National rights must take precedence over all state rights’, argued the staunchly nationalist Chifley. The High Court agreed, rejecting the states' legal challenge. Poorer Australians were exempted from the tax increases, yet tax revenue almost doubled by 1943. Meanwhile, all Australians were expected to mimic Chifley's supposedly austere lifestyle, with war loans soaking up the money that would otherwise have gone on scarce consumer goods.
From 1943 Chifley, still Treasurer, became minister for post-war reconstruction, recruiting a coterie of university-educated technocrats to develop imaginative solutions for Australia's likely post-war problems of unemployment and inflation. Massive public works, housing, and industrial development programs were devised, orderly demobilisation plans drawn up, and a mass immigration scheme announced. The young Keynesian economist, H. C. Coombs, was head of the department, arguing that full employment be made the primary objective of government.
To ensure that the government's ambitious objectives would not be impeded by the banks, Chifley introduced legislation in March 1945 that would see them remain under the control of the Commonwealth Bank, whose role then embraced central banking responsibilities. With Labor enjoying a massive parliamentary majority after the 1943 election, the laws were easily passed despite opposition from the Liberal Party leader, Robert Menzies, who wanted businessmen to be in charge. Chifley followed with a White Paper that set out full employment as ‘a fundamental aim’ of the government.
The achievement of that aim devolved onto Chifley's shoulders when Curtin died in July 1945 and Chifley was elected prime minister in his place. It was Chifley who announced to the nation the end of the Pacific War and who promised at the 1946 election that Labor would usher in a new ‘Golden Age’. It meant increases in social services, fiscal policies to maintain full employment, and great nation building projects like the Snowy Mountains Scheme and the Australian National University.
Remaining also as Treasurer, the hard-working Chifley managed to achieve these aims. But his overriding concern with inflation meant that he kept close control over wages, prices and imports, with the continuing scarcity of everyday goods causing increasing frustration to consumers. Chifley, however, remained at the Kurrajong, rather than moving into the Lodge, and kept Curtin's press secretary, Don Rodgers, who fed the press with stories of Chifley's humble existence—omitting to mention the powerful Buick cars that he liked to own and the tailored clothes he preferred to wear. Despite this, he never possessed a dinner jacket and would refuse to attend functions that demanded one.
Central to the political image that was constructed around the pipe-smoking Chifley was the simple life he led in Bathurst, apparently unaffected by the trappings of power. But all was not as it seemed. His wife had suffered for years from scoliosis, was often in pain and had to wear a back brace. While their relationship remained close, it was no longer a marriage. There is evidence that his affections had shifted by the 1920s to Nell Donnelly, the elder sister of his secretary. But none of this came to light during his lifetime.
Chifley's creation of a ‘golden age’ was hampered by the limited constitutional powers of the Commonwealth government. To his frustration, the people had rejected successive referendums that would have expanded the government's economic powers. And he faced continuing opposition from the banks, with part of his banking legislation being declared invalid by the High Court in August 1947. Chifley immediately announced he would nationalise them.
The decision provoked a bitter reaction, with the Pastoral Times calling it ‘a Victory Day for communism’. Chifley had frightened the growing middle-class that had earlier warmed to his unaffected and avuncular image. It gave heart to Menzies, who could now see a path to the Lodge. And it was all for nothing: his nationalisation legislation was rejected by the High Court and the case was also lost on appeal to the Privy Council in June 1949. The people, too, wanted less control rather than more.
The restlessness saw increasing strikes by workers anxious to reap the dividends of peace. When coal miners struck in June 1949, Chifley sent in troops to force them back to work and jailed some of their leaders. Twenty years before, in his maiden speech in the House of Representatives, he had spoken in defence of striking coal miners, but now he saw the strikers as being under the influence of the Communist Party of Australia and set on bringing down his government.
These issues were played out against the backdrop of the Cold War. Chifley was attacked for giving practical support to Indonesian nationalists while withholding practical support to the British in Malaya. Yet he stuck close to Britain, rationing dollar purchases to protect sterling, contributing ten aircraft for the Berlin airlift, establishing a joint missile range at Woomera, and bowing to British pressure to set up the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). But he refused to copy the Americans by hounding people out of the public service for their politics; and he opposed the secretive activities of B. A. Santamaria and the Roman Catholic-controlled Movement.
Although bank nationalisation is widely regarded as the issue that destroyed Chifley's government at the election in December 1949, other issues such as petrol rationing were more prominent, and his attack on the miners had disillusioned traditional Labor supporters. A last-minute intervention by Jack Lang also played a part: Lang exposed various loans made by Chifley at relatively high rates of interest during the 1930s.
Despite the defeat, Chifley stayed on as Labor leader confident that inflation would bring the Liberal government undone. But the Cold War gave Menzies a weapon to wield against Labor. In April 1950 he introduced a law to ban the Communist Party. It was so extreme that Chifley felt impelled to oppose it. However, with Labor divided, and Menzies threatening a double dissolution, Labor's federal executive forced Chifley to let it pass. Menzies followed with a banking bill that Chifley was determined to oppose, even at the cost of an election defeat.
The stress may have contributed to the heart attack he suffered in November 1950. Returning to work, he had to face a gruelling election in April 1951: Menzies made communism the issue after H. V. Evatt convinced the High Court to disallow the ban on the Communist Party, and Labor was defeated again. Chifley died in his Kurrajong hotel room, of another heart attack, just a few weeks later.
Chifley had brought Australia safely through the war without a crushing debt burden and had successfully managed the transition to peace. In many ways, though, he was first and foremost a citizen of Bathurst. He remained a devoted citizen of that staid inland city all his life, serving on a wide range of community organisations. It is fitting, then, that his humble cottage was bought by the Bathurst council as a public memorial to his life.
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Ben Chifley
| The Right Honourable Ben Chifley |
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|---|---|
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| 16th Prime Minister of Australia Elections: 1946, 1949, 1951 |
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| In office 13 July 1945 – 19 December 1949 |
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| Monarch | George VI |
| Governor General | HRH The Duke of Gloucester Sir William McKell |
| Preceded by | Frank Forde |
| Succeeded by | Robert Menzies |
| Constituency | Macquarie (New South Wales) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 September 1885 Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 13 June 1951 (aged 65) Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia |
| Political party | Labor |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Chifley |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism[1] |
Joseph Benedict Chifley (/ˈtʃɪfli/; 1885–1951), Australian politician, was the 16th Prime Minister of Australia. He took over the Australian Labor Party leadership and Prime Ministership after the death of John Curtin in 1945. Chifley Labor went on to retain a majority in both houses of Australian Parliament at the 1946 election, before his government was defeated in the lower house at the 1949 election. The radical reforming nature of Chifley's government was such that between 1946 and 1949, the Australian Parliament passed 299 Acts, a record up until then, well beyond Labor's Andrew Fisher's 113 Acts from 1910 to 1913.[2]
Amongst the Chifley Labor Government's legislation was the post-war immigration scheme, the establishment of Australian citizenship, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, over-viewing the foundation of airlines Qantas and TAA, improvements in social services,[3] the creation of the Commonwealth Employment Service,[4] the introduction of federal funds to the States for public housing construction,[5] the establishment of a Universities Commission for the expansion of university education,[6] the introduction of a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and free hospital ward treatment,[4] the reorganisation and enlargement of the CSIRO, the establishment of a civilian rehabilitation service,[7] the founding of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), and the establishment of the Australian National University.[8]
One of the few successful referendums to modify the Australian Constitution, the 1946 Social Services referendum, took place during Chifley's term.[9][10][11]
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Contents
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Early life
Born in Bathurst, New South Wales,[9] Chifley was the son of a blacksmith of Irish Roman Catholic descent. He was one of four brothers and between the ages of five and 14 was raised mostly by his grandfather, who lost all his savings in the bank crash of 1892: Chifley acquired his lifelong dislike of the private banks early. He was educated at Roman Catholic schools in Bathurst, and joined the New South Wales Railways at 15.
Ben Chifley became an engine driver. He was one of the founders of the AFULE (the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen)[12] and an active member of the Labor Party. In 1914 he married Elizabeth Mackenzie. Mackenzie was a staunch Presbyterian, and the couple exchanged wedding vows in a Presbyterian church. Chifley remained a practising Catholic, but his marriage with a non-Catholic ignited criticisms among Catholic circles.[1] In 1917 he was one of the leaders of a prolonged strike, which resulted in his being dismissed. He was reinstated by the Jack Lang New South Wales Labor government in 1920. He represented his union before industrial tribunals and taught himself industrial law.
Parliament
In 1928, at his second try, Chifley won the Bathurst-based seat of Macquarie in the House of Representatives. He was in general a supporter of the James Scullin government's economic policies, and in 1931 he became Minister for Defence. At the 1931 general election, the Scullin government fell and Chifley lost his seat. During the Depression he survived on his wife's family's money and his part-ownership of the Bathurst newspaper the National Advocate.
In 1935 the Lyons government appointed him a member of the Royal Commission on Banking, a subject on which he had become an expert. He submitted a minority report advocating that the private banks be nationalised.
Chifley finally won his seat back in 1940, and the following year he became Treasurer (finance minister) in John Curtin's Labor government. Although Frank Forde was Curtin's deputy, Chifley became the minister Curtin most relied on, and he controlled most domestic policy while Curtin was preoccupied with the war effort. He presided over the massive increases in government expenditure and taxation that accompanied the war, and imposed a regime of economic regulation that made him very unpopular with business and the press.
Prime minister
When Curtin died in July 1945, Forde temporarily became Prime Minister for eight days. Chifley defeated him in the leadership ballot and replaced him as Prime Minister and Curtin as Labor leader. Once the war ended, normal political life resumed, and Chifley faced Robert Menzies and his new Liberal Party in the 1946 election, which Chifley won with 54 percent of the two-party-preferred vote. In the post-war years, Chifley maintained wartime economic controls including the highly unpopular petrol rationing. He did this partly to help Britain in its postwar economic difficulties.
Feeling secure in power, Chifley decided it was time to advance towards Labor's objective of democratic socialism. According to a biographer of Ben Chifley’s, his government embarked upon greater ‘general intervention and planning in economic and social affairs,’ with its policies directed towards better conditions in the workplace, full employment, and an improvement in the ‘equalisation of wealth, income and opportunity'.[4] Amongst other measures, Chifley passed legislation to establish a free formulary of essential medicines.[13] This was successfully opposed in the Australian High Court by the British Medical Association (precursor of the Australian Medical Association)[14] Chifley then organised one of the few successful constitutional referenda to insert a new section 51xxiiiA which permitted federal legislation over pharmaceutical benefits,[15] together with family allowances, benefits to students and hospital benefits, child endowment, widows’ pensions, unemployment benefits, and maternity allowances.[16] The subsequent federal legislation was deemed constitutional by the High Court.[17] This paved the way for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.[18]
Chifley was also successful in transforming the wartime economy into a peacetime economy, and undertook a number of social welfare initiatives,[19][20][21] as characterised by fairer pensions and unemployment and sickness benefits, the construction of new universities and technical colleges, and the building of 200,000 houses between 1945 and 1949.[22] The achievements of both Chifley’s government and those of the previous Curtin Government in expanding Australia’s social welfare services (as characterised by a tenfold increase in commonwealth expenditure on social provision between 1941 and 1949)[23] were also brought together under the Social Services Consolidation Act of 1947,[16] which consolidated the various social services benefits, liberalised some existing social security provisions, and increased the rates of various benefits.[7] In addition, tertiary education was also expanded through the funding of Commonwealth scholarships and the establishment of the Australian National University and the Commonwealth Education Office.[24] The Mental Institutions Benefits Act (1948) paid the states a benefit equal to the charges upon the relatives of mental hospital patients, in return for free treatment. This legislation marked the entry of the Commonwealth into mental health funding.[25] Although it failed in its attempts to establish a national health service, the Chifley Government was successful in making arrangements with the states to upgrade the quality and availability of hospital treatment. The establishment of a Coal Industry Tribunal and a Joint Coal Board (both in 1946) also brought significant gains for miners. Life insurance came to be comprehensively regulated, while a scheme of university scholarships was established. Returned soldiers were provided with a war gratuity and entitlement to special unemployment allowances, loans, vocational training, and preference in employment for seven years. Soldier settlement schemes were better organized than their earlier equivalents, which had brought about a great deal of hardship throughout the Twenties and thirties.[26] The radical reforming nature of Chifley's government was such that between 1946 and 1949, the Australian Parliament enacted 299 bills, a record up until then.[16]
Chifley and his ministers were also able to ensure that Australia’s wartime economy was managed effectively and that post-war debts were minimised. In addition, ex-service personnel were eased back into civilian life (avoiding the hardship and dislocation that had occurred after the end of the First World War), while a series of liberal measures were carried out which bore fruit during the economic boom of the Fifties and Sixties.[24] As noted by one historian, Chifley’s government
“balanced economic development and welfare support with restraint and regulation and provided the framework for Australia’s post-war economic prosperity.“[8]
In 1947, Chifley announced the government's intention to nationalise the banks. This provoked massive opposition from the press, and middle-class opinion turned against Labor. The High Court eventually found Chifley's legislation to be unconstitutional. Chifley's government did, however, succeed in passing the Banking and Commonwealth Bank Acts of 1945, which gave the government control over monetary policy and established the Commonwealth Bank as Australia’s national bank.[8]
In the winter of 1949 a prolonged and bitter strike in the coal industry caused unemployment and hardship. Chifley saw the strike as a move by the Communist Party to challenge Labor's place as the party of the working class, and he sent in the army to break the strike. Despite this, Menzies exploited the rising Cold War hysteria to portray Labor as soft on Communism.
These events, together with a perception that Chifley and Labor had grown increasingly arrogant in office, led to the Liberal election victory at the 1949 election. While Labor won an additional four seats in a House of Representatives that had been expanded from 74 seats to 121 seats, Menzies and the Coalition won an additional 48.
Opposition again
Chifley was now aged 64 and in poor health (like Curtin, he was a lifelong smoker), but he refused to retire from politics. Labor had retained control of the Senate, and Chifley, now Leader of the Opposition, took advantage of this to bring misery to the Menzies government at every turn. Menzies responded by introducing a bill to ban the Communist Party of Australia. He expected Chifley to reject it and give him an excuse to call double dissolution election. Menzies apparently hoped to repeat his "soft-on-Communism" theme to win a majority in both chambers. However, Chifley let the bill pass (it was ultimately thrown out by the High Court)
However, when Chifley rejected Menzies' banking bill a few months later, Menzies called a double dissolution resulting in the 1951 election. Although Chifley managed to lead Labor to a five-seat swing in the House, Labor lost six seats in the Senate, giving the Coalition control of both chambers. A few months later and after Chifley's death, Menzies held a 1951 referendum to ban the Communist Party, but this was narrowly defeated.
Death
A few weeks later, Chifley suffered a heart attack in his room at the Kurrajong Hotel in Canberra (he had lived there throughout his political career, having refused to reside at The Lodge whilst being Prime Minister).
Chifley, at first made light of the sudden heart attack, and attempted to dissuade his secretary and confidante, Phyllis Donnelly, who was making him a cup of tea, from calling a doctor. As his condition deteriorated, however, Miss Donnelly took matters into her own hands and called Dr. John Holt, who ordered Chifley's immediate removal to hospital. Chifley died in an ambulance on the way to the Canberra Community Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 10:45 p.m.[27]
Prime Minister Menzies heard of Chifley's demise while attending a parliamentary ball at King's Hall in Parliament House (Chifley was invited but declined to attend). Menzies was deeply distressed and abandoned his normally impassive demeanour to announce in a halting subdued voice:
It is my very sorrowful duty during this celebration tonight to tell you that Mr. Chifley has died. I don't want to try to talk, about him now because although we were political opponents, he was a friend of mine and yours, and a fine Australian. You will all agree that in the circumstances the festivities should end. It doesn't matter about party politics on an occasion such as this. Oddly enough, in Parliament we get on very well. We sometimes find we have the warmest friendships among people whose politics are not ours. Mr Chifley served this country magnificently for years. [28]
Legacy
More than 30 years after his death, Chifley's name still aroused partisan passions. In 1987 the New South Wales Labor government decided to name the planned new university in Sydney's western suburbs Chifley University. When, in 1989, a new Liberal government renamed it the University of Western Sydney, controversy broke out. According to a debate on the topic, held in 1997 after the Labor Party had regained government, the decision to rename Chifley University reflected a desire to attach the name of Western Sydney to institutions of lasting significance, and that idea ultimately received the support of Bob Carr, later the Premier of New South Wales.[29]
Chifley had lived apart from his wife for many years: his secretary, Phyllis Donnelly, was with him when he died. Long-held suspicions that she had been his lover were confirmed in David Day's 2001 biography.
Honours
Places and institutions that have been named after Chifley include:
- the suburb of Chifley in Canberra
- the suburb of Chifley in Sydney
- the Division of Chifley, a federal electorate
- Chifley Library, the main library of the Australian National University, Canberra
- Chifley Tower and Chifley Square in Sydney
- several public high schools in Western Sydney are now known as Chifley College
- a grouping of dormitories at the Bathurst campus of Charles Sturt University are collectively named as Chifley Halls
- an Australian hotel chain.
In 1975 he was honoured on a postage stamp bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post.
See also
Notes and references
- ^ a b Duncan (2001), p. 163
- ^ Acts of the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia: ComLaw.gov.au
- ^ Inter-Basin Water Transfer: Case Studies from Australia, United States, Canada, China, and India by Fereidoun Ghassemi and Ian White
- ^ a b c The death of social democracy: political consequences in the 21st century by Ashley Lavelle
- ^ Environmental and Planning Law in New South Wales by Rosemary Lyster, Zada Lipman, and Nicola Franklin
- ^ "National Museum of Australia - Ben Chifley". Nma.gov.au. http://www.nma.gov.au/education/school_resources/websites_and_interactives/primeministers/ben_chifley/. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ a b social security in australia - Dept. of Social Security, Australia - Google Books. Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=g50OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA187&dq=BEN+CHIFLEY+CIVILIAN+REHABILITATION+SERVICE&hl=en#v=onepage&q=BEN%20CHIFLEY%20CIVILIAN%20REHABILITATION%20SERVICE&f=false. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ a b c http://static.moadoph.gov.au/ophgovau/media/images/apmc/docs/16-Chifley-Web.pdf
- ^ a b "The Rt Hon Ben Chifley". Australian Labor Party. Archived from the original on 2007-08-31. http://web.archive.org/web/20070831161952/http://alp.org.au/people/chifley_ben.php. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
- ^ "Significant Events in ASIO's History". Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. http://www.asio.gov.au/About/Content/History.aspx. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
- ^ "Chifley, Joseph Benedict (Ben) (1885 - 1951)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130460b.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-30.
- ^ "A.F.U.L.E. History". www.afule.org.au. Archived from the original on 30 August 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070830072605/http://www.afule.org.au/about.htm#hist. Retrieved 2007-09-03.
- ^ Sloan C. A History of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme 1947-1992. Canberra AGPS 1995) p12
- ^ AG Vic (ex rel Dale and ors) v Cth (the Pharmaceutical Benefits Case) (1945) 71 CLR 237.
- ^ David Day. Chifley Harper Collins Sydney 2001 pp443-444. It also authorised federal legislation over medical and dental services (but not so as to authorise any form of civil conscription)
- ^ a b c "Social Services and Immigration". John.curtin.edu.au. http://john.curtin.edu.au/aspirations/social.html. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ Federal Council of the British Medical Association in Australia v Cth (1949) 79 CLR 201.
- ^ National Health Act 1953(Cth).
- ^ http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/31911/20040914-0000/www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/online/aged1.htm
- ^ http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/31911/20050313-0000/www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/online/special_parta.htm
- ^ http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/31911/20060913-0000/www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/online/children_parta.html
- ^ "Speeches - 25th Ben Chifley Light On the Hill Oration, Bathurst [19/09/2009]". Treasurer.gov.au. 2009-09-19. http://www.treasurer.gov.au/DisplayDocs.aspx?doc=speeches/2009/027.htm&pageID=005&min=wms&Year=&DocType=1. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ Foundations of the Welfare State by Pat Thane
- ^ a b by D. B. Waterson. "Biography - Joseph Benedict (Ben) Chifley - Australian Dictionary of Biography". Adb.anu.edu.au. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chifley-joseph-benedict-ben-9738. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ "Australian Academy of Medicine and Surgery". AAMS. http://www.aams.org.au/contents.php?subdir=library/history/funding_prof_med_au/&filename=1941_to1949. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ Ross McMullin, The Light on the Hill: The Australian Labor Party 1891-1991
- ^ http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/27042732
- ^ http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2830966
- ^ "University of Western Sydney Bill - 19 November 1997 - 2R - NSW Parliament". Parliament.nsw.gov.au. 1997-11-19. http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/Parlment/HansArt.nsf/0/ca256d11000bd3aa4a25656e000f21b6?OpenDocument. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
Bibliography
- Duncan, Bruce, Crusade or conspiracy?: Catholics and the anti-communist struggle in Australia, UNSW Press, 2001, ISBN 0-86840-731-3
Further reading
- Chifley, Ben (1952), Things Worth Fighting For (collected speeches), Melbourne University Press, Parkville, Victoria.
- Crisp, L.F. (1961), Ben Chifley: A Political Biography, Longman, Green and Co, Melbourne, Victoria.
- Day, David (2001), Chifley, HarperCollins, 2001
- Hughes, Colin A (1976), Mr Prime Minister. Australian Prime Ministers 1901-1972, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, Ch.17. ISBN 0-19-550471-2
- Makin, Norman (1961), Federal Labour Leaders, Union Printing, Sydney, New South Wales, Pages 122-131.
- Waterson, Duncan (1993), Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol. 13 A-D pp. 412–420, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ben Chifley |
- "Ben Chifley". Australia's Prime Ministers. National Archives of Australia. http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/chifley/. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
- Waterson, D. B. (1993). "Chifley, Joseph Benedict (Ben) (1885 - 1951)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: Australian National University. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130460b.htm. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
- "Ben Chifley". National Museum of Australia. http://www.nma.gov.au/education/school_resources/websites_and_interactives/primeministers/ben_chifley/. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
- Chifley Research Centre
- Chifley College, Sydney
- National Museum of Australia Chifley memorabilia: Ben Chifley's Akubra hat
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Daly |
Minister for Defence 1931–1932 |
Succeeded by George Pearce |
| Preceded by Sir Arthur Fadden |
Treasurer of Australia 1941–1949 |
Succeeded by Sir Arthur Fadden |
| Preceded by Frank Forde |
Prime Minister of Australia 1945–1949 |
Succeeded by Robert Menzies |
| Preceded by Robert Menzies |
Leader of the Opposition 1949–1951 |
Succeeded by H.V. Evatt |
| Parliament of Australia | ||
| Preceded by Arthur Manning |
Member for Macquarie 1928–1931 |
Succeeded by John Lawson |
| Preceded by John Lawson |
Member for Macquarie 1940–1951 |
Succeeded by Anthony Luchetti |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by John Curtin |
Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1945–1951 |
Succeeded by H.V. Evatt |
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