Earle Page - Political Career

Political Career

In 1919 Page was elected to the House of Representatives from Cowper in northeastern New South Wales. He ran as a candidate of the Farmers and Settlers Association of New South Wales, which in 1920 merged with several other rural-based parties to form the Country Party. He became the party's leader in 1921, ousting William McWilliams. Dislike of the Hughes government's rural policies was one of the reasons the Country Party was formed, and when the party won the balance of power in the House at the 1922 election, Page demanded and got Hughes's resignation as the price for supporting the Nationalist government.

Page then began negotiations with Hughes' successor as leader of the Nationalists, Stanley Bruce. His terms were stiff; he wanted his Country Party to have five seats in an 11-man Cabinet, including the post of Treasurer and the second rank in the ministry for himself. These demands were unprecedented for such a new party. Nonetheless, as the Country Party was the Nationalists' only realistic coalition partner, Bruce accepted Page's terms. For all intents and purposes, Page was the first Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (a title that did not officially exist until 1968). Since then, the leader of the Country/National Party has been the second-ranking member in nearly every non-Labor government.

Page continued his professional medical practice, and on 22 October 1924 he had to tell his best friend, Thomas Shorten Cole (1870-1957), the news that his wife Mary Ann Crane had just died on the operating table from complications of intestinal or stomach cancer – reputed by their daughter Dorothy May Cole to be "the worst day of his life".

He was a strong believer in orthodox finance and conservative policies, except where the welfare of farmers was concerned: then he was happy to see government money spent freely. He was also a "high protectionist": a supporter of high tariff barriers to protect Australian rural industries.

The Bruce-Page government was defeated by Labor in 1929 (with Bruce losing his own seat), and Page went into opposition. In 1931, a group of dissident Labor MPs led by Joseph Lyons merged with the Nationalists to form the United Australia Party, with Lyons as leader. Page and the Country Party continued in coalition with the UAP. The UAP-Country Coalition won a comprehensive victory in the 1931 election. However, the UAP was in a strong enough position (only four seats short of a majority) that Lyons was able to form an exclusively UAP government with confidence and supply support from the Country Party. In 1934, however, Lyons was forced to take the Country Party back into his government in a full-fledged Coalition. Page became Minister for Commerce. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the New Year’s Day Honours of 1938.