10jul20 Chifley TLOTH FA PDF
10jul20 Chifley TLOTH FA PDF
10jul20 Chifley TLOTH FA PDF
Celebrating the
75th Anniversary of
Ben Chifley’s Prime
Ministership
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
I try to think of the Labour comes there will be work, that the
movement, not as putting an extra government is striving its hardest
sixpence into somebody’s pocket, to do its best, then the Labour
or making somebody Prime Minister movement will be completely
or Premier, but as a movement justified.
bringing something better to the
people, better standards of living, It does not matter about persons
greater happiness to the mass like me who have our limitations.
of the people. We have a great I only hope that the generosity,
objective – the light on the hill – kindliness and friendliness shown to
which we aim to reach by working me by thousands of my colleagues
the betterment of mankind not only in the Labour movement
here but anywhere we may give a will continue to be given
helping hand. If it were not for that, to the movement and add
the Labour movement would not be zest to its work.
worth fighting for.
JB. Chifley in speech to
If the movement can make the NSW Labor Party
someone more comfortable, give Conference, 12 June 1949.
to some father or mother a greater
feeling of security for their children,
a feeling that if a depression
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
“All who were privileged “I do not want to even “He would say nothing
to know the late Ben try and talk about him that he did not believe
Chifley were impressed because although to be true”
by his sincerity, integrity we were political
Lithgow Mercury
and devotion to duty. opponents, he was a
These great qualities, great friend of mine
together with his work and all of us, and a fine “if I think a thing is worth
for Labor and the nation, Australian. Mr Chifley fighting for, no matter
and strong human served his country what the penalty is, I will
feelings, made him a magnificently for fight for the right, and
figure that will never be years…” truth and justice will
forgotten” prevail”
Prime Minister Robert
J A Ferguson, Federal Menzies Ben Chifley
President of the ALP
“the most valuable man
“The only things I hate in Parliament”
are want, misery and
Prime Minister John
insecurity of any people
Curtin
in any country”
Ben Chifley
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Ben Chifley 1945 walking Kurrajong to Parliament
The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
Foreword
Brett Gale
Executive Director Chifley Research
Centre
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
About Our
Authors
Sue Martin
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
Ben Chifley:
75 years on
The architect of post-war Australia
by David Day
During the 1940s, Australia was Both men had been in parliament
led by three of its most significant when the Labor government of
political figures, John Curtin and Ben James Scullin was elected in
Chifley from 1941-49, and Robert 1929, only for it to be brought
Menzies at the beginning and end down by the testing times of the
of the decade. It was fortunate for Depression, when the interests of
the nation that Menzies lost the ordinary Australians were sold out
confidence of the parliament in to the bankers and bondholders of
1941, which allowed Curtin to form Britain. For the former train driver,
a minority Labor government that Ben Chifley it was an important
kept Australia safe from invasion learning experience, as he watched
and laid the groundwork for a the burden of the Depression
more vibrant, forward-looking and being loaded onto the shoulders
fairer society. It was a tragedy that of working people and he read of
Curtin didn’t live to witness those the new economic theories being
developments come to fruition proposed by J.M. Keynes that could
under Chifley. have charted an easier way out of
the morass.
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
to the developing
countries of the
region. Hence his
encouragement for
the local manufacture
of motor cars, starting
with the Holden.
In Chifley’s vision,
the new factories
wouldn’t just be in the
cities, but would be
encouraged to locate
in country towns like
Bathurst, where he
Ben Chifley 1948 - with the first Holden foresaw them one
day being driven by
hydro-electricity
Britons who wanted to leave that from the Snowy Mountains and
war-damaged land. By the time even atomic power derived from
they became available, the number Australian uranium. Of course, this
of potential British migrants would require a workforce that had
had dwindled, compelling the progressed beyond the stump-jump
government to look increasingly to plough and steam-driven shears.
Europe. Hence the creation of the Australian
National University in Canberra, with
Although people such as B.A. one of its first appointments being
Santamaria wanted immigrants the noted nuclear physicist, Mark
to work small farms set around Oliphant, along with others involved
towns and villages, Chifley had a in the study of Asia and the Pacific.
bolder and more modern vision. It was a vision of a confident and
He’d lived a rude existence on his self-reliant nation creating a secure
grandfather’s small farm near place for itself in a post-imperial
Bathurst and knew that the future region and world.
prosperity and security of Australia
could not be found in a slab hut. This didn’t mean turning away
Instead, he wanted to accelerate from its historic ties with Britain,
the transformation of Australia based on its membership of the
from a mainly rural-based economy British Empire, or its new-found
that exchanged primary produce friendship with the United States,
for manufactured goods imported based on mutual wartime interests.
from Britain and the United States, Chifley envisaged Australia moving
to an urban, industrialised economy into the post-war power vacuum
that exported manufactured goods created in the South-West Pacific
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
Ben Chifley (fourth from right) and India’s Jawaharlal Nehru (far right) with other leaders in London on 21
April 1949 for the Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers.
by the retreat of European empires, There was a limit to what Chifley and
confident that Australia could hold his government could do. He was
sway there, both economically and right that the old world dominated
militarily. Rather than encouraging by empires was disappearing, but it
the return of the old empires, was not replaced by a world where
Chifley encouraged the Indonesians middle powers could hold sway or
fighting for their independence even exert much influence. Instead,
against the Dutch and refused it gradually settled into a world
British entreaties to send troops to divided between the ‘West’ and the
help them re-establish their control ‘East’ and characterised by a rivalry
over Malaya. so intense that it became known
as the Cold War. This effectively
Instead of being dependent on extinguished Chifley’s vision of
distant protectors, Chifley planned a new world order and ended
to make Australia more self-reliant the dream of Australia having
by retaining the core, wartime independent foreign and defence
manufacturing facilities, so that its policies. Domestically, it would
defence forces could continue to be help to bring an end to the Chifley
equipped with aircraft, both four- government and go on to poison
engine bombers and fighters, as Australian politics for the next thirty
well as ships, guns and munitions, or so years.
while he also purchased two British
aircraft carriers so Australia could Like other Labor governments
extend its power over the immediate before him and since, Chifley was
region. And he looked to the United also limited by the Constitution,
Nations to help ensure the peace which prevented him from
and to provide Australia with a regulating the economy along lines
stronger voice in world affairs, along that had been possible in wartime.
with other middle powers. He and Curtin had tried to change
it by referendum in 1944, so that
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
Walking in
his shoes
By Ed Husic
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The bronze Chilfely and Curtin statues, Canberra
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
The federal seat Chifley pursued Apart from the time St Marys sat in
- Macquarie, now held by that Chifley’s old seat, the man himself
dynamo Susan Templeman - was campaigned on occasion in areas
expansive. It stretched roughly such as Mount Druitt, a suburb
160kms from Bathurst to St Marys embedded now as the heart of the
(St Marys itself has at various current Chifley electorate.
stages sat within the electorate
eventually named after Chifley I mention all this because I’ve been
himself). conscious of the past footsteps
taken in our patch of western
It contained notoriously tricky Sydney by a younger, aspiring
electoral terrain for Labor. Crisp political candidate in Chifley.
recorded that the candidate “carried
out a personal canvass, often And distinct from physical markers,
walking from door to door in and I’ve wondered about the influence
around Windsor, Richmond and of decisions taken by Chifley as an
Penrith.” older, established parliamentarian.
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
It’s hard going digesting those to dust the last vestiges of the
comments, especially for the child White Australia Policy, it should also
of “Jugo-Slovakians”. How do we not be forgotten that Chifley had to
interpret them today? move beyond objections to
“foreign labour”.
While we can celebrate the way a Once the architecture was put in
later Labor lion in Whitlam reduced place to start developing the longer
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
it now possesses.”
Growing public impatience with
A declaration which no doubt rationing. Drought. Balance of
prompted Chifley to suddenly Payments crises. An ongoing arm
become a “keen exponent” of large wrestle against inflation. A bitter
scale migration as early as 1944, struggle against the emergence of
notes Crisp. communism on Australian shores.
Disputes with unions, broken
The times demanded a
rethink. Circumstance
prompted new In time, Labor re-charted its
approaches.
direction. We took bolder, firmer
As always, Labor steps to tackle discrimination,
evolved - reflecting finally ending the White
personal journeys
of leaders. Reforms
Australia Policy, championing
and programs set in multiculturalism, advancing land
place that played a
pivotal role setting
rights reform and reconciliation
foundations from with First Nations’ people.
which Australia’s post-
war prosperity would
be built. by calling in the military. These
episodes lay ahead.
By the time a shattered and
grieving Chifley was talked into At the time of his election as leader
the leadership following the death though, Chifley enjoyed widespread
in 1945 of his friend and Prime support. “I did not want this and I
Minister John Curtin, much of the don’t think I have any special talents
government’s future trajectory had for it,” he said gruffly (in a voice
been set. likened once to the sound of a nail
scraping a can).
That’s not to say that from there
it was a smooth ride. Hardly so. “The only reason I think I’m here is
that when I was Treasurer there were
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
two doors always open and anybody his typically pragmatic way - by
at any time could drop in and talk opening the door for large scale
things over,” he figures. migration - he took the steps to
walk past those sharp words once
Yet I come back to the place of race flung out of the mouth of a fledgling
in those early campaigns. Should it political candidate, nearly two
stand in the way of us recognising decades earlier.
and respecting what Chifley was
able to achieve? Should it diminish In time, Labor re-charted its
or dim our respect of him? To be direction. We took bolder, firmer
fair to past generations, who’s to steps to tackle discrimination, finally
say that the decisions I made with ending the White Australia Policy,
a generation of politicians today will championing multiculturalism,
not be challenged by the next? advancing land rights reform and
reconciliation with First Nations’
While putting into perspective people.
elements of the early Chifley’s
campaign rhetoric - pitting As we admire those statues of
Europeans against British Chifley and Curtin, we see the light
descendents - we cannot brush and the shade that is cast. And
away what was said. we in good faith admit that few of
us are in a position to pick out the
I don’t think I’m being too tough imperfections of others, without
bringing this focus to bear on Chifley first acknowledging our own.
simply because the early years of
our nation were scarred by painful
instances where intemperate words
about race led to sticks and stones
being used to break bones.
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
A Sacred Trust
By Sue Martin
On July 13th this year it will be 75 him home to rest. It wasn’t until he
years since Ben Chifley became was told by James Scullin that it had
Australia’s 16th Prime Minister after been the wish of John Curtin for Ben
serving as Treasurer in John Curtin’s to lead the party, that he agreed to
war time government. nominate.
His wife Elizabeth also thought he Just a month before in June, Ben
was working too hard and wanted had been successful in being made
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
His goal was a debt free Australia pensions and tried unsuccessfully
with full employment and economic to establish a free national health
stability with housing for all. By service for everyone, but failed to
1948 the country had achieved full do so due to opposition from the
employment even with the tens doctors. He did, however, manage to
of thousands of service men and enact the hospital Subsidy Scheme
women returning from war service which made all public ward beds
to rejoin the workforce. free as well as the Pharmaceutical
Benefits scheme which provided
He set up scholarship and cheaper medicine for all. His work
educational opportunities for all ex- with the Bathurst District hospital
servicemen and increased existing had shown him the great need for it.
benefits and pensions as well as
introducing new ones, including Tertiary education was expanded
widows pensions, family allowances, through funding of Commonwealth
students benefits, maternity scholarships and educational
allowances, unemployment and training. The Australian National
sickness benefits. University was established and
grants to tertiary institutions
The Chifley government significantly expanded plus the Australian
increased old age and disability University Act provided post
graduate facilities to enable staff to
further their education.
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
right for self determination and Ben died in 1951, and more
independence. He played a pivotal than 40,000 people packed
role in India’s negotiations for into Bathurst, then a town of
independence and refused to send only 12,000. Mourners lined the
troops to quell the insurrection in street ten deep all the way to the
Malaya or Indonesia. In the politically cemetery. His state funeral was led
charged debate over a Jewish by three large military trucks full of
State, Australia went against British flowers and 20 police motorcycles.
Flags were flown at half
mast, while the Bathurst
Ben was determined to make carillon played sacred music
sure Australia played it’s part in during the day, sporting
building a world where lasting fixtures were cancelled and
peace was a possibility. shops closed as the town
came to a virtual standstill.
interests and was the first country Two extra specially scheduled trains
to vote in support of a Jewish came from Sydney packed full of
homeland. mourners and special police squads
were stationed on duty all along the
Ben believed it was the 130 mile road trip from Sydney. Nine
responsibility of Australia and charted planes carrying over 3,000
Western nations to help improve people arrived as well as hundreds
conditions and standards of living in of buses and more than 2,000
those countries who needed it and private cars full of people coming
would be susceptible to the growth for the funeral.
of Communism.
Former NSW member of parliament
He also advocated that Australia Gerard Martin was told by his
must help Japan find an economic mother that people were crying
place after the war to avoid because “Mr Chifley died and
another war even though countless everyone loved Mr Chifley.” As
Australians had suffered at the his wife Elizabeth said to the
hands of Japanese. family after his death, “Ben loved
everything and everyone.”
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
During the first week of July 1945, had reason to hope he might hold
with Germany defeated and the it. After all, he had lost to Curtin by
war in the Pacific six weeks from just a single vote when Caucus last
conclusion, John Curtin lay dying chose a leader.
in the Lodge. Among friends
and politicians who came to pay There were four candidates on
their respects was Ben Chifley, 12 July: Forde, Chifley, Bert Evatt,
his closest colleague. A journalist the thrusting Minister for External
reported that when Chifley emerged Affairs, and another lacklustre
from his last visit his face was iron minister. Chifley had serious doubts
grey. about standing: his health was
not good and he had seen how
For the past three months Chifley the strains of office killed Curtin.
had performed the Prime Minister’s Besides, he was a notoriously poor
duties in addition to his own heavy public speaker.
load as Treasurer, an unusual
arrangement since Frank Forde, His colleagues had no such doubts.
the Deputy Prime Minister, would Ever since he had taken charge
normally be expected to take over. It of the government in April, Chifley
was Curtin’s decision to pass Forde displayed a capacity to consult
over, smoothed by sending him to along with a willingness to make
the conference at San Francisco decisions and a sure grasp of the
that created the United Nations. decisions that needed to be made.
He won a decisive majority, by 45
Even so, Forde was sworn into office votes to Forde’s 15, with a handful
on 6 July when Curtin died and for the other two candidates.
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
newspaper, a member of the board and radio station, the one over
of Bathurst’s hospital and later a which Chifley presided struggled. It
local government representative. attracted just 10 per cent of the vote
In 1925 he launched his first bid for in 1934 and failed to win a single
endorsement for the federal seat seat. The effects were felt nationally.
of Macquarie, succeeded three Without improving its performance
years later and won the subsequent in the most populous state, Labor
election. could not hope to regain office.
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
Chifley the
Internationalist
by Julie Suares
Ben Chifley was given the portfolio did incalculable harm to trade and
of treasurer after the Fadden went far to cause the armed conflict
conservative government fell and of 1939’.4 He argued: ‘Of all the
the Curtin Labor government took dangers that beset international
office on 7 October 1941. After the
1
relationships the greatest is the
death of prime minister John Curtin illusion that any country … can stand
on 5 July 1945, Chifley became apart in isolation’.5
prime minister on 13 July. 2 He served
as prime minister and treasurer until Ben Chifley’s legacy in the domestic
December 1949 and was leader of and the international spheres
the Opposition from 1949 until his was substantial. As treasurer and
death in 1951. prime minister, he initiated many
innovative nation-building policies,
Chifley, the ex-train driver, was a establishing a strong social security
‘leader loved for his compelling system and other reforms—still in
modesty and authenticity’. In this
3
place today— that led to many years
era of narcissistic and isolationist of prosperity for Australia. Similarly,
leaders, who reject international the bold and radical policies the
collaboration and institutions, Chifley government pursued in
engaging in trade wars that hark foreign policy and his backing of
back to the 1930s, Chifley—in organisations such as the United
the post-war period—was quite Nations, meant that his government
remarkable in his commitment to made decisions in support of its
internationalism. For Chifley, the Asian neighbours that previous
1930s was ‘an epoch of chaos’, a and subsequent Australian prime
period of ‘economic warfare that ministers and governments would
have found unimaginable.6
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
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The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
the fact that ‘the people of Asia no as the ‘very ecstasy of suicide’,
longer want white government’. 16
that Australia, ‘a country isolated
The Chifley government had in the world, with a handful of
therefore, supported the Indonesian people, a white man’s country’ –
nationalists in their struggle against should take sides against a former
the Netherlands’ brutal attempts, Dutch ally. 21 The Australian media,
in July 1947 and December 1948, also accused the government of
to regain their resource-rich former ‘Cold Shouldering An Ally’. 22 The
colony.17 prime minister, however, withstood
pressure from both the media
In 1947, Australia, together with and the Opposition to reverse his
India, supported the Republic decision. Unless there was evidence
by referring the conflict to the that the Dutch were willing to
United Nations Security Council. accommodate the republic, Chifley
This was the start of a combined said he would not attempt to
effort by ‘two smaller powers, persuade the Indonesians to accept
Australia and India’, to rally the ‘unreasonable’ Dutch demands.
United Nations in support of This would ‘widen the gulf between
the ‘beleaguered Indonesian Eastern and Western countries in
Republic’. 18
In late December 1948, this area which throughout these
the Dutch unleashed a second negotiations we have persistently
military offensive against the endeavoured to bridge’. 23
Indonesian Republic. Chifley acted
swiftly, issuing a press statement Chifley was extremely critical of
that condemned the Dutch 19
and politicians who regularly sent young
Australia charged the Netherlands men to war. He accused members
with carrying out the first outright of the Menzies Opposition of blithely
violation of the United Nations suggesting force could solve any
Charter. 20
problem. He advised politicians to
consider the catastrophic impact
Chifley’s support for the Indonesian of a third world war with the ‘new
republicans was vehemently forms of warfare’ now in use. His
opposed by Robert Menzies, leader government had worked hard
of the Opposition. The government’s to bring the nations of the world
actions were criticised by Menzies
36.
The light on the Hill Celebrating Ben Chifley
India’s prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru (seated, second from left) and Australia’s Ben Chifley
(seated, far right) with other Commonwealth leaders and spouses at 10 Downing Street, Lon-
don, in April 1949
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