Joseph Benedict Chifley

Joseph Benedict Chifley (1885-1951), prime minister of Australia, was one of the ablest and most successful leaders of the Australian Labour party.

Joseph Benedict Chifley was born of Irish-Australian parentage at Bathurst, New South Wales, on Sept. 22, 1885. He lived and worked on his grandfather's farm until he was 13 and then attended the Patrician Brothers' School at Bathurst for 2 years. In 1903 he joined the New South Wales Railways as a shop boy, rising to be the youngest first-class locomotive driver in the service.

Tall, rangy, and a convinced labor man, Chifley soon became an active spokesman for his union. During the 1917 railway and general strike he was discharged but reinstated on appeal. In 1920 he confounded the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen. Well known as a union official, advocate, and expert witness before arbitration authorities, he won, in 1928, the federal seat of Macquarie in Parliament and was reelected in 1929 in a Labour landslide. Two years later Chifley became minister for defense and assistant to the federal treasurer in the Labour government of James Scullin.

Internecine party dissension and the political impact of the Great Depression led in December 1931 to Chifley's loss of his seat in the House of Representatives, and he did not return until 1940. During his absence from federal government Chifley was active in local government and prominent in the politics of divided Labour, which maintained a branch of the Federal party in opposition to the New South Wales State Labour group of Premier J. T. Lang. In 1936 Chifley was appointed member of the Royal Commission on Banking and Monetary Reform, and when World War II began, his recognized capacity, integrity, and experience made him a valuable director of labor regulation and supply in the Department of Munitions.

By 1941 Chifley was treasurer in the wartime government of John Curtin and a member of the War Cabinet. The following year he took over the additional portfolio of post-war reconstruction. He made such an effective mark that, after Curtin's death in 1945, he succeeded to the leadership of the party and the position of prime minister. He retained the Treasury post, having gained a reputation for financial judgment and high administrative ability.

After Labour's postwar victory in the general election of 1946, Chifley moved to expand the foundations of an Australian welfare state. Despite much positive legislation in this direction, his attempts to introduce a free medicine scheme, as in Britain and New Zealand, were frustrated by the opposition of the medical profession. At the same time his campaign to nationalize the banks came to legal and political grief. His government was defeated in December 1949, though Labour controlled the Senate until 1951. Chifley remained leader of the opposition until his death from a heart attack in Canberra on June 13, 1951.

Further Reading

A full-length study of Chifley is L. F. Crisp, Ben Chifley. General works which discuss Chifley are S. Encel, Cabinet Government in Australia (1962); Donald W. Rawson, Labor in Vain? A Survey of the Australian Labor Party (1966); Fred Alexander, Australia since Federation: A Narrative and Critical Analysis (1967); and Alan George Lewers Shaw and H. D. Nicolson, Australia in the Twentieth Century: An Introduction to Modern Society (1967). □

Chifley, Joseph Benedict ( ‘Ben’ Chifley) (b. 22 Sept. 1885, d. 13 June 1951). Prime Minister of Australia 1945–9 Born in Bathurst (New South Wales), he became a railway engine driver and in 1920 joined the state general committee of the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen. After three unsuccessful attempts he was finally elected to the House of Representatives in 1928. He briefly became Minister for Defence in 1931 until he lost his seat that year, returning to Bathurst local politics. In 1935, Casey ensured his appointment to the Royal Commission on Monetary and Banking Systems. This made him familiar with the intricate system of government finance, and convinced him of the need to nationalize all banking, which he advocated in a minority report. Moreover, he used his time outside Parliament to rebuild Labor support at the grass roots in New South Wales. His efforts were rewarded by Labor's landslide victory there in 1941, when he returned to parliament. Despite the high cost of World War II, as Secretary to the Treasury (1941–9) he actually managed to reduce Australia's foreign debt significantly. He also became Minister for Postwar Reconstruction in 1942, when he devised many social policies that became law in the postwar period.

Succeeding his friend Curtin as Prime Minister in 1945, he supported Calwell's immigration policies, and introduced the Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1947 to regulate industrial arbitration. Although he encouraged, for example, the building of public housing, his social policies were relatively careful. Having been deeply influenced by the Great Depression, to him the stability of the economy was paramount over social welfare schemes. The latter became particularly difficult to introduce, as buoyant domestic demand and high wage claims were already fuelling inflationary pressures. He tried to establish control over the Australian financial system, principally through the establishment of a central bank. When aspects of this measure were successfully challenged in the High Court, he responded by introducing legislation to nationalize all banks. In a two-year battle, this was also rejected by Australian and London High Courts. Unsuccessful in the introduction of a national health service in the face of doctors' resistance, and unpopular through his stern economic policies (such as the maintenance of petrol rationing), he lost the 1949 elections to Menzies.

Chifley, Joseph Benedict (1885–1951) Australian Labor statesman, Prime Minister (1945–49). He entered Parliament in 1928; after World War II he became Prime Minister on the death of John Curtin. During his term of office he continued to fulfil Labor's nationalization and welfare programme; he also initiated Australia's immigration policy and the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme. He was defeated in the 1949 election but remained leader of the Labor Party until his death.