Billy Hughes

William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, PC, KC (25 September, 1862 – 28 October, 1952), Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia, the longest-serving member of the Australian Parliament, and one of the most colourful figures in Australian political history. Over the course of his 51-year federal parliamentary career, Hughes represented four different electorates and was expelled from three different political parties.

Early years

Hughes was born in London of Welsh parents: his father was a carpenter at the House of Lords. Hughes was raised in Llandudno, Wales, also spending time with relatives in rural Montgomeryshire, where he picked up some fluency in Welsh. When he was 14 he returned to London and worked as a pupil teacher. In 1884 he migrated to Australia, and worked as a labourer, bush worker and cook. He arrived in Sydney in 1886 and opened a bookshop. He joined the Socialist League and became a street-corner orator.

In 1893 he became an organiser with the Australian Workers' Union and joined the newly formed Labor Party.

Enters Parliament

Hughes was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as a Labour member in 1894. 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 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.

Conscription crisis

In October 1915 Fisher retired and Hughes succeeded him as Prime Minster. He was a strong supporter of Australia's participation in World War I, and after a visit to Britain in 1916 he became convinced that conscription was necessary if Australia was to sustain its contribution to the war effort. The vast majority of his party, which included Catholics and Union representatives, were bitterly opposed to this. In October Hughes held a plebiscite to try to gain approval for conscription, but the plebiscite, was narrowly defeated by the Australian population. Archbishop Daniel Mannix stood as his main opponent in the conscription issue. (Although commonly referred to as a referendum this is incorrect as no constitutional change was involved). The defeat, however, did not deter Hughes. Hughes continued to vigorously argue in favour of conscription. This produced a deep and bitter split between the Australian community as well as the members of his own party. In November 1916 he was expelled from the Labor Party.

Hughes and his followers formed a minority government, and he negotiated with the Liberal leader, Joseph Cook to form a new party, the Nationalist Party. In May 1917 the Nationalists won a huge electoral victory. At this election Hughes abandoned his working-class seat and was elected for Bendigo in Victoria. Hughes had promised to resign if his government did not win the power to conscript. A second plebisciteon conscription was held in December 1917, but was again defeated. Hughes, after receiving a vote of confidence in his leadership, resigned as Prime Minister, but as there were no alternative candidates Governor-General Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson immediately re-commissioned him, thus allowing him to remain as Prime Minister while keeping his promise to resign.

Hughes attends Paris peace conference

In 1919, Hughes and former Prime Minister Joseph Cook travelled to London 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 demanded heavy reparations from Germany and frequently clashed with President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, the latter describing Hughes as a 'pestiferous varmint'. He succeeded in securing Australian control of Germany's colonial possessions in New Guinea. 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.

Political eclipse

After 1920 Hughes's political position declined. A new party, the Country Party, was formed, representing farmers who were discontented with the Nationalists' rural policies. Many conservatives opposed Hughes because they saw him as still a socialist at heart, despite his break with Labor. At the 1922 elections, Hughes switched from the rural seat of Bendigo to North Sydney, but the Country Party won enough seats in Parliament to be able to demand Hughes's resignation as their price for joining a Nationalist government.

Hughes resigned in February 1923, and was succeeded by his Treasurer, Stanley Bruce. 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. In 1931 he buried the hatchet with his former colleagues and joined the new United Australia Party (UAP), under the leadership of Joseph Lyons.

Political re-emergence

In 1934 he became Minister for Health and Repatriation in the Lyons government. He was also Navy Minister, Industry Minister and Attorney-General at various times under Lyons and his successor, Robert Menzies, between 1934 and 1941. After the UAP nearly lost the 1940 federal election, Menzies was forced to resign by his colleagues, and in October 1941 Labor came to power under John Curtin. Menzies then resigned as UAP leader, and Hughes, aged 79 and very frail, was elected party leader. He led the UAP into the 1943 election 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 for that he 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 electorate of Bradfield in 1949. He remained a member of Parliament until his death in October 1952. 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. 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 - that honour goes to King O'Malley who outlived him by fourteen months. His period of service remains a record in Australia. He was also the last Australian Prime Minister born in Britain.

Hughes' state funeral in Sydney was one of the largest Australia has seen: some 450,000 spectators lined the streets. 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. This admiration is not shared by the Labor Party, which still remembers him as a "rat".

Sources

^* Adam Carr's Election Archive - 1929 election, North Sydney

External links

^* William Morris Hughes - Australia's Prime Ministers/National Archives of Australia

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