Arthur Fadden
Sir Arthur William Fadden was an Australian politician and accountant who served as the 13th prime minister of Australia from 29 August to 7 October 1941. He held office as the leader of the Country Party from 1940 to 1958 and served as treasurer of Australia from 1940 to 1941 and 1949 to 1958.
Fadden was born in Ingham, Queensland, to Irish immigrant parents. He was raised in Walkerston, and left school at the age of 15. He was appointed town clerk of Mackay in 1916, but following the 1918 cyclone moved to Townsville and opened an accountancy firm. He was elected to the Townsville City Council in 1930, and in 1932 was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly for the Country and Progressive National Party. Fadden lost his seat in 1935, but the following year won a by-election to the federal Division of Darling Downs.
In March 1940, Fadden was named a minister without portfolio in the government of Robert Menzies, who led the United Australia Party in a coalition with the Country Party. A few months later, following the deaths of three senior ministers in an air crash, he took over as Minister for Air and Minister for Civil Aviation. In October 1940, Fadden was elected acting leader of the Country Party as a compromise candidate, following a deadlocked leadership vote between Earle Page and John McEwen. He became the de facto deputy prime minister and was promoted by Menzies to treasurer.
Fadden was acting prime minister for four months early in 1941, and became popular for his conciliatory manner. He became the official leader of the Country Party following a ballot in March 1941. In August 1941, Menzies resigned as prime minister after losing the confidence of his ministry. Fadden was elected leader of the UAP–Country coalition in his place, and consequently became prime minister. However, he held office for just 39 days before being replaced by John Curtin, whose Labor Party had successfully moved a motion of no confidence with the support of two independents. After losing the prime ministership, Fadden continued on as leader of the opposition for two more years. In that capacity, he eventually resigned in favour of Menzies following the coalition's massive defeat at the 1943 election.
When Menzies returned as prime minister in 1949, Fadden became treasurer and de facto deputy prime minister for a second time, holding office until his retirement from politics in 1958. Only Peter Costello has served in the position for longer. Fadden enjoyed one of the most rapid rises in Australian political history, moving from private citizen to the prime ministership in just 11 years. He was the first prime minister born in Queensland, and the first and only member of the Country Party to become prime minister with his own mandate.
Early life
Childhood
Fadden was born in Ingham, Queensland, on 13 April 1894. He was the eldest of ten children – seven sons and three daughters – born to Annie and Richard John Fadden. His parents were both born in Ireland, his mother in County Tyrone and his father in County Galway.Fadden moved to Walkerston at a young age, where his father was officer-in-charge of the local police station. He had a "typical country childhood", but suffered the deaths of three of his younger siblings in separate accidents. Fadden received his only formal education at the Walkerston State School, except for a brief period at Te Kowai while his usual school was being renovated. His first jobs included collecting cane beetles and performing sound effects at the local cinema. Fadden left school at the age of 15 and began working as a "billy boy" on a cane-cutting gang at Pleystowe. He later secured an indoor job as an office boy at the Pleystowe Sugar Mill, where his colleagues include two future Labor MPs – Maurice Hynes and George Martens. In his spare time, he developed an interest in the theatre, both as a performer and treasurer of the local company.
Professional career
In April 1913, Fadden moved to Mackay to become assistant town clerk of the Mackay Town Council. He defeated 56 other applicants for the position. In 1916, his superior, Frederick Morley, was dismissed as town clerk over allegations of theft, which Fadden himself had uncovered. Morley eventually received a two-year jail term, and Fadden was promoted in his place, again defeating more than 50 other applicants; he was reputedly the "youngest town clerk in Australia". He had attempted to enlist in the Australian Army the previous year, but was rejected on health grounds. In 1918, Fadden served on the committee of the relief fund for the Mackay cyclone, which devastated the town and killed thirty people. However, he resigned as town clerk in September of that year and moved to Townsville, where he established his own accountancy firm. He had qualified as an accountant through a correspondence course from a school in Melbourne.According to his memoirs, Fadden initially struggled to make ends meet as an accountant, and considered relocating to Brisbane. However, he eventually found an unused loophole in the tax code that allowed him to gain a competitive advantage. His business prospered thereafter, and he was able to take on partners and opened a second office in Brisbane. In 1930, Fadden was elected to the Townsville City Council as part of a non-partisan grouping calling themselves the "serviceable six". He developed a feud with the city's chief engineer, Sidney Roberts, whom he publicly criticised for using coal from New South Wales instead of from the local Bowen Basin mines. He was once again able to use his auditing skills to his advantage, getting Roberts fired for inconsistencies in his balance sheets. The resulting publicity was a springboard for his political career.
Early political career
State politics
At the 1932 Queensland state election, Fadden was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as a member of the Country and Progressive National Party. Aided by a favourable redistribution, he won the seat of Kennedy from the Australian Labor Party by just 62 votes. He was the only candidate from his party to win a seat from Labor, which won majority government on a swing of almost 10 points. In parliament, Fadden came to notice as a critic of the new government's financial operations. He accused the government of lacking transparency and accountability, particularly in its use of trust funds which he said had been used to cover up revenue deficiencies. His speeches impressed both his party and political correspondents, and he was asked to write a series of articles for The Courier-Mail.Fadden was the CPNP's lead speaker in the 1934 budget debates, effectively making him the chief financial spokesman for the opposition. In the lead-up to the 1935 state election, a redistribution turned Kennedy into a safe Labor seat. It was alleged by the opposition that the government had specifically targeted Fadden's seat in order to remove him as a political threat. Faced with certain defeat, he chose to run in the neighbouring seat of Mirani. However, he lost to Labor's Ted Walsh by 224 votes, as the government won a landslide victory. In his memoirs, he accused Labor of having pork-barreled Mirani in the lead-up to the election to ensure his defeat.
Move to federal politics
After losing his seat in state parliament, Fadden moved to Brisbane, and initially returned to his accounting practice. In early 1936, he joined the Queensland Country Party, which had split from the CPNP in order to align with the federal Country Party. Later that year, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives at a by-election for the Division of Darling Downs. It was caused by the death of the previous member, Littleton Groom, who was a member of the United Australia Party. Fadden, who had no previous connection with the area, was the first member of his party to contest the seat; the UAP suffered a negative swing of over 40 points. He consolidated his hold on the seat at the 1937 federal election, held less than a year later.Menzies government, 1939–1941
Country Party tensions
In April 1939, Prime Minister Joseph Lyons died in office and was replaced by Country Party leader Earle Page on an interim basis. When Robert Menzies was elected by the United Australia Party as Lyons' replacement, Page gave a speech accusing Menzies of disloyalty and questioning his record of military service. As a result of Page's attacks, which they deemed unfair, Fadden and Bernard Corser resigned from the parliamentary Country Party to sit as "Independent Country" members; they were soon followed by Oliver Badman and Thomas Collins. Fadden was generally seen as the leader of the group. When Page was forced out of the leadership in September 1939, they attempted to re-join the party, but the remaining members opted – by a single vote – not to re-admit them. Archie Cameron, generally seen as Page's ally, was elected as the party's new leader. Fadden did not regard Cameron favourably, in one debate stating: "I take this opportunity to declare without the slightest degree of reservation that the honourable gentleman is not my leader". When asked in another debate if he were still a member of the Country Party, he replied "no, I am not, thank goodness, as it is now constituted and under its present leadership". However, in early November 1939, Cameron invited the four breakaways to rejoin the party in the interests of unity, which they accepted.The Country Party's coalition with the UAP had lapsed following Menzies' elevation to the prime ministership. In March 1940, Menzies and Cameron agreed to resume the coalition, providing an opportunity for five Country Party members to be added to the ministry. Cameron somewhat unexpectedly nominated Fadden as a Country Party representative, and he was appointed as an assistant minister to the Treasurer of Australia and the Minister for Supply and Development. In August 1940, Fadden narrowly escaped being killed in the Canberra air disaster, which claimed the lives of three government ministers and the Chief of the General Staff. He was scheduled to be aboard the flight, which was transporting the ministers back to Canberra after a cabinet meeting in Melbourne, but instead took an overnight train. He traded places with Richard Elford, who had wanted to stay in Melbourne to celebrate a wedding anniversary; both Elford and Fairbairn were among those killed. After the crash, Fadden replaced Fairbairn as Minister for Air and Minister for Civil Aviation; he also continued as assistant minister to the Treasurer.