The Right Honourable Sir John McEwen GCMG, CH |
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18th Prime Minister of Australia | |
In office 19 December 1967 – 10 January 1968 |
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Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Governor-General | Lord Casey |
Preceded by | Harold Holt |
Succeeded by | John Gorton |
1st Deputy Prime Minister of Australia | |
In office 10 January 1968 – 5 February 1971 |
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Prime Minister | John Gorton |
Preceded by | Position Officially Established |
Succeeded by | Doug Anthony |
Leader of the Country Party | |
In office 26 March 1958 – 5 February 1971 |
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Deputy | Charles Davidson Charles Adermann Doug Anthony |
Preceded by | Arthur Fadden |
Succeeded by | John McEwen |
Deputy Leader of the Country Party | |
In office 12 March 1941 – 26 March 1958 |
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Leader | Arthur Fadden |
Preceded by | Arthur Fadden |
Succeeded by | Charles Davidson |
Member of the Australian Parliament for Indi | |
In office 23 October 1937 – 10 December 1949 |
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Preceded by | William Hutchinson |
Succeeded by | William Bostock |
Member of the Australian Parliament for Murray | |
In office 10 December 1949 – 20 March 1971 |
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Preceded by | seat created |
Succeeded by | Bruce Lloyd |
Personal details | |
Born | Chiltern, Colony of Victoria, British Empire |
29 March 1900
Died | 20 November 1980 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
(aged 80)
Political party | Country Party |
Spouse(s) | Dame Anne Mills McEwen (née McLeod) (m. 1921–1967; her death) Mary Eileen McEwen (née Byrne) (m. 1968–1980; his death) |
Sir John McEwen, GCMG, CH (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980) was an Australian politician and the 18th Prime Minister of Australia. He was the last member of the Country Party to serve as Prime Minister. He was nicknamed "Black Jack" by Robert Menzies due to his dark 'beetle-browed' appearance and temper.[1][2]
Contents
Early life
McEwen was born at Chiltern, Victoria to David James McEwen, a pharmacist from Ireland, and his second wife, Amy Ellen (née Porter; died 1901). His father died in 1907 and consequently McEwen was raised by his grandmother with her sister. He was educated at state schools and at 15 became a junior public service clerk. He enlisted in the Army immediately upon turning 18 but the First World War ended while he was still in training.[3] He commenced dairy farming at Tongala (Victoria), near Shepparton, and then changed to sheep and cattle farming in nearby Stanhope.[4][5][6]
Political career
McEwen was active in farmer organisations and in the Country Party. In 1934 he was elected to the House of Representatives for the electorate of Echuca. That seat was abolished in 1937, and McEwen followed most of his constituents into Indi. He changed seats again in 1949, when Murray was carved out of the northwestern portion of Indi and McEwen transferred there. Between 1937 and 1941 he was successively Minister for the Interior, Minister for External Affairs and simultaneously Minister for Air and Minister for Civil Aviation. In 1940 when Archie Cameron resigned as Country Party leader he contested the leadership ballot against Sir Earle Page: the ballot was tied and Arthur Fadden was chosen as the independent.
When the conservatives returned to office in 1949 under Robert Menzies after eight years in opposition, McEwen became Minister for Commerce and Agriculture, switching to Minister for Trade and Industry in 1956. He pursued what became known as "McEwenism" – a policy of high tariff protection for the manufacturing industry, so that industry would not challenge the continuing high tariffs on imported raw materials, which benefitted farmers but pushed up industry's costs. This policy was a part (some argue the foundation) of what became known as the "Australian Settlement' which promoted high wages, industrial development, government intervention in industry (both as an owner- Australian governments traditionally owned banks and insurance companies and the railways and through policies designed to assist particular industries) and decentralisation. In 1958 Fadden retired and McEwen succeeded him as Country Party leader.
When Menzies retired in 1966, McEwen became the longest-serving figure in the government, and he had an effective veto over government policy. When Menzies' successor, Harold Holt, was officially presumed dead on 19 December 1967, the Governor-General Lord Casey sent for McEwen and he was sworn in as Prime Minister, on the understanding that his commission would continue only so long as it took for the Liberals to elect a new leader. He retained all the ministers appointed by Harold Holt and had them sworn in as the McEwen Ministry. Approaching 68, McEwen was the oldest person ever to be appointed Prime Minister of Australia, although not the oldest to serve; Menzies left office one month and six days after his 71st birthday.
McEwen had been encouraged to remain Prime Minister on a more permanent basis but to do so would have required him to defect to the Liberals, an option he had never contemplated.[7]
It had long been presumed that the Treasurer and Liberal deputy leader, William McMahon, would succeed Holt as Liberal leader. However, McEwen sparked a leadership crisis when he announced that he and his Country Party colleagues would not serve under McMahon. McEwen is reported to have despised McMahon personally. But more importantly, McEwen was bitterly opposed to McMahon on political grounds, because McMahon was allied with free trade advocates in the conservative parties and favoured sweeping tariff reforms, a position that was vehemently opposed by McEwen, his Country Party colleagues and their rural constituents.
Another key factor in McEwen's antipathy towards McMahon was hinted at soon after the crisis by the veteran political journalist Alan Reid. According to Reid, McEwen was aware that McMahon was habitually breaching Cabinet confidentiality and regularly leaking information to favoured journalists and lobbyists, including Maxwell Newton, who had been hired as a "consultant" by Japanese trade interests.
McEwen's opposition forced McMahon to withdraw from the leadership ballot and opened the way for the successful campaign to promote the Minister for Education and Science, Senator John Gorton, to the Prime Ministership with the support of a group led by Defence Minister Malcolm Fraser. Gorton replaced McEwen as Prime Minister on 10 January 1968. It was the second time the Country Party had effectively vetoed its senior partner's choice for the leadership; in 1923 Earle Page had demanded that the Nationalist Party, one of the forerunners of the Liberals, remove Billy Hughes as leader before he would even consider coalition talks. Gorton created the formal title Deputy Prime Minister for McEwen, confirming his status as the second-ranking member of the government. Prior to then, the title had been used informally for whoever was recognised as the second-ranking member of the government.
McEwen retired from politics in 1971. His successor, Doug Anthony, said that McEwen's previous objections to McMahon no longer held, finally freeing the Liberals to replace Gorton with McMahon within two months. At the time of his resignation, McEwen had served 36 years and 5 months, including 34 years as either a minister or opposition frontbencher. He was the last serving parliamentarian from the Great Depression era, the last parliamentary survivor of the Lyons government. By the time of his death, Malcolm Fraser's government was abandoning McEwenite trade policies.
Honours
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20160425150714im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/John_McEwen_bust.jpg/220px-John_McEwen_bust.jpg)
McEwen was awarded the Companion of Honour (CH) in 1969. He was knighted in 1971 after his retirement from politics, becoming a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG). The Japanese government conferred on him the Grand Cordon, Order of the Rising Sun in 1973.[2]
Personal
On 21 September 1921 he married Anne Mills McLeod, known as Annie; they had no children. In 1966, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). After a long illness Dame Anne McEwen died on 10 February 1967.
At the time of becoming Prime Minister in December of that year, McEwen was a widower, being the first Australian Prime Minister unmarried during his term of office. (The next such case was Julia Gillard, Prime Minister 2010–13, who has a domestic partner but is unmarried.)[2]
On 26 July 1968, McEwen married Mary Eileen Byrne, his personal secretary; he was aged 68, she was 46. In retirement he distanced himself from politics, undertook some consulting work, and travelled to Japan and South Africa. He had no children by any of his marriages.[2]
McEwen suffered dermatitis all his life and ended up committed suicide by starving himself to death on the 20th of November 1980, at the age of 80.[8] He was survived by his second wife, and was cremated. His estate was sworn for probate at $2,180,479. He was also receiving a small pension from the Department of Social Security at the time of his death. He was the last surviving member of Joseph Lyons' Cabinet.
See also
References
- ^ Fast facts: John McEwen, National Archives of Australia, primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers; accessed 10 June 2015.
- ^ a b c d C.J. Lloyd, McEwen, Sir John (1900–1980), adb.online.anu.edu.au; accessed 10 June 2015.
- ^ "First World War Service Record – John McEwen". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
- ^ Rt. Hon. Sir John McEwen GCMG CH, Stanhope DC
- ^ John McEwen: Before office, National Archives of Australia
- ^ Peter Golding, Black Jack McEwen: Political Gladiator, Carlton South: Melbourne University Press, 1996, pp. 41–42, 45, 48–49
- ^ A Country Road: The Nationals Episode 1
- ^ Julian Fitzgerald on Message: Political Communications of Australian Prime Ministers 1901 – 2014 Clareville Press 2014 p 292
Further reading
- Hughes, Colin A (1976), Mr Prime Minister. Australian Prime Ministers 1901–1972, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, Ch.20. ISBN 0-19-550471-2
External links
- "John McEwen". Australia's Prime Ministers. National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
- "Prime Ministers of Australia: John McEwen". National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
- C.J. Lloyd, 'McEwen, Sir John (1900–1980)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 15, Melbourne University Press, 2000, pp 205–208
- John McEwen at the National Film and Sound Archive
- "First World War Service Record – John McEwen". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
Political offices | ||
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Preceded by Thomas Paterson |
Minister for the Interior 1937–1939 |
Succeeded by Harry Foll |
Preceded by Sir Henry Gullett |
Minister for External Affairs 1940 |
Succeeded by Frederick Stewart |
Preceded by Arthur Fadden |
Minister for Air Minister for Civil Aviation 1940–1941 |
Succeeded by Arthur Drakeford |
Preceded by Reginald Pollard |
Minister for Commerce and Agriculture 1949–1956 |
Succeeded by William McMahon |
Preceded by Neil O'Sullivan |
Minister for Trade and Industry 1956–1971 |
Succeeded by Doug Anthony |
Preceded by Harold Holt |
Prime Minister of Australia 1967–1968 |
Succeeded by John Gorton |
New title | Deputy Prime Minister of Australia 1968–1971 |
Succeeded by Doug Anthony |
Party political offices | ||
Preceded by Arthur Fadden |
Leader of the Country Party 1958–1971 |
Succeeded by Doug Anthony |
Preceded by Arthur Fadden |
Deputy Leader of the Country Party of Australia 1943–1958 |
Succeeded by Charles Davidson |
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