Andrew Fisher (29 August 1862 – 22 October 1928) was an Australian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910-13 Labor ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation. The Fisher government legacy of reforms and national development lasted beyond the divisions that would later occur with World War I and Billy Hughes' conscription push.
Fisher's second Prime Ministership resulting from the 1910 federal election represented a number of firsts: it was Australia's first federal majority government; Australia's first Senate majority, and the world's first Labour Party majority government at a national level. At the time, it represented the culmination of Labour's involvement in politics. Passing 113 Acts, the 1910-13 government was a period of reform unmatched in the Commonwealth until the 1940s under John Curtin and Ben Chifley. Serving a collective total of four years and ten months, Fisher is second to Bob Hawke as Australia's longest serving Labor Prime Minister.
'Labour' was renamed to 'Labor' during 1912 at the instigation of King O'Malley.
Read more about Andrew Fisher: Early Life, High Commissioner, Honours
Famous quotes containing the words andrew and/or fisher:
“Strike on your drummes, spread out your ancyents!
Sound out your trumpetts, sound out amaine!”
—Unknown. Sir Andrew Barton. . .
English and Scottish Ballads (The Poetry Bookshelf)
“People ask me: “Why do you write about food, and eating, and drinking? Why don’t you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do?”... The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)