Ben Chifley

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Ben Chifley

Joseph Benedict Chifley (born September 22, 1885 in Bathurst , New South Wales , † June 13, 1951 in Canberra , Australian Capital Territory ) was a politician of the Australian Labor Party and the 16th Prime Minister of Australia . His term of office lasted from July 13, 1945 to December 19, 1949. From December 19, 1949 to June 13, 1951, he was opposition leader.

The time before he became Prime Minister (until July 1945)

Ben Chifley was born in Bathurst as the eldest of three sons of Patrick and Mary Anne Chifley, b. Corrigan, born. At the age of 5 he was sent to his grandfather's small farm . There he was raised and received a simple school education . After the death of his grandfather, the now 13-year-old had to return to his parents' house. After another year at a school in Bathurst, his working life began.

After initially working in a local shop and tannery , he joined New South Wales Railways at the age of 15 . He became a train driver there within 12 years . During this time he acquired a good education at night school. He was also actively involved in trade unions and joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP). In 1914 he married Elisabeth McKenzie. The marriage remained childless.

In 1917 he was one of the leaders of a railroad strike in Bathurst that developed into the Australian general strike of 1917 . After 6 weeks, however, this was ended by massive pressure from employers, which led many workers to dismissal or downgrading in the employment relationship. Ben Chifley was also fired and was only reinstated in 1920, albeit in a lower position. It was not until 1925 that he became a train driver again. This led to the fact that he turned more and more to active politics .

In 1925 he stood for the first time as a candidate for the ALP in the constituency of Macquarie , New South Wales , in the House of Representatives elections , but could not prevail. Only in the second attempt in the elections in 1928 did he win the seat in the House of Representatives, as well as in the early elections in 1929. In the course of a cabinet reshuffle, Ben Chifley was appointed Minister of Defense in 1931 under Prime Minister James Scullin . He lost this post along with his seat in parliament that same year when the Scullin government was voted out.

In the following years he had to concentrate on local politics, as he was unsuccessful in the subsequent House of Representatives election (1934) and was not even set up by his party in 1937 . At the state level, too, he had no success in the 1935 elections. In the same year he was appointed by the government of Joseph Lyons to the state commission for banking ( Royal Commission into the banking system ). There he advocated the nationalization of private banks , albeit in the minority with this opinion .

In 1940 he was re-run as a candidate in the Macquarie constituency and won it back. After Robert Menzies lost his office to the hapless Arthur Fadden in 1941 , who also had to resign after only 39 days as Prime Minister, John Curtin became Prime Minister. This made Ben Chifley his finance minister . 1942 Ben Chifley was also Minister in the newly created department Ministry for Postwar Reconstruction and thus the second most important member of the Cabinet, though he was not deputy prime minister.

The time as Prime Minister (July 1945 to December 1949)

After John Curtin died on July 5, 1945, Frank Forde was sworn in as Prime Minister. However, Ben Chifley won the election for party chairmanship of the ALP the following week, so that he took office on July 13, 1945 as Prime Minister.

Ben Chifley (center), Herbert Evatt (left) and Clement Attlee (right) at the Dominion and British Leaders Conference in 1946

In the first parliamentary elections, which he had to pass in September 1946, he was re-elected with a comfortable majority , so that he was able to continue the political course he had taken a year earlier. This course consisted in maintaining the rigid economic policy introduced during World War II . This also meant the rationing of important economic goods such as gasoline . Imports of goods to Australia were also subject to government control . Australia's external debt has been reduced while inflation has been contained.

He also opened the gates for immigrants to Australia and created a special ministry that dealt with questions of immigration policy. This became necessary because of the strong demand for labor that arose in the period after the Second World War. Ben Chifley thus laid the foundation for the multicultural society that can be found in Australia today.

In foreign policy , Ben Chifley worked for the independence of both India and Indonesia .

The following other milestones fall during Ben Chifley's tenure:

Assuming a secure power base, Ben Chifley now wanted to implement his old plan to nationalize the private banks. In October 1947 he introduced a corresponding law in parliament , which sparked a violent reaction from both the opposition and the press . This legislation was finally the High Court of Australia and the Privy Council for Australia in London for unconstitutional explained. Public opinion has since turned away from Ben Chifley and the ALP.

Then, in the winter of 1949, a long and fierce strike in the coal industry sparked unemployment and social hardship. Ben Chifley saw this strike as a move by the Communist Party of Australia to dispute the ALP's place as a party for the working class. He even used the military to break the strike and have some of the leaders arrested.

Opposition leader Robert Menzies took advantage of this situation and the increasing anti-communist hysteria caused by the beginning of the Cold War to mobilize public opinion against the ALP.

In the parliamentary elections on December 10, 1949, the ALP consequently lost its majority in the House of Representatives, so that Ben Chifley had to vacate his place as Prime Minister for Robert Menzies on December 19, 1949.

The time after he was Prime Minister (from December 1949)

After the election, Ben Chifley remained the party leader of the ALP and thus took over the role of opposition leader. In addition, his party continued to control the Senate, so that he intended to complicate Robert Menzie's government work and wanted to get back to power in this way.

In 1951, Robert Menzies introduced a law banning the Communist Party of Australia, against which Ben Chifley opposed on grounds of civil liberty. Robert Menzies exploited this attitude for his political purposes and called new elections for April 1951. In these elections he now also won the majority in the Senate.

On June 13, 1951, Ben Chifley suffered a fatal heart attack in his Canberra hotel room .

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personal data
SURNAME Chifley, Ben
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chifley, Joseph Benedict (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian politician and prime minister
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Bathurst , New South Wales , Australia
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1951
Place of death Canberra , Australian Capital Territory , Australia