John Gorton - Prime Minister

Prime Minister

Harold Holt disappeared while swimming on 17 December 1967 and was declared presumed drowned two days later. His presumed successor was Liberal deputy leader William McMahon. However, on 18 December, the Country Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen announced that the Country Party would not continue to serve in the coalition if McMahon were to be the new Liberal leader. His reasons were never stated publicly, but in a private meeting with McMahon, he said "I will not serve under you because I do not trust you". McEwen's shock declaration triggered a leadership crisis within the Liberal Party; even more significantly, it raised the threat of a possible breaking of the Coalition, which would spell electoral disaster for the Liberals. The Liberals had never won enough seats in any House of Representatives election to be able to govern without Country Party support, and would not do so until 1975. Indeed, since the Coalition's formation in 1923, the major non-Labor party had only been able to govern alone once, during Joseph Lyons' first ministry--and even then, Lyons' United Australia Party had come up four seats short of a majority and needed confidence and supply support from the Country Party to govern.

The Governor-General Lord Casey swore McEwen in as Prime Minister, on an interim basis pending the Liberal Party electing its new leader. McEwen agreed to accept an interim appointment provided there was no formal statement of time limit. This appointment was in keeping with previous occasions when a conservative Coalition government had been deprived of its leader. Casey also concurred in the view put to him by McEwen that to commission a Liberal temporarily as Prime Minister would give that person an unfair advantage in the forthcoming party room ballot for the permanent leader.

In the subsequent leadership struggle, Gorton was championed by Army Minister Malcolm Fraser and Liberal Party Whip Dudley Erwin, and with their support he was able to defeat his main rival, External Affairs Minister Paul Hasluck, to become Liberal leader even though he was a member of the Senate. He was elected party leader on 9 January 1968, and appointed Prime Minister on 10 January, replacing McEwen. He was the only Senator in Australia's history to be Prime Minister and the only Prime Minister to have ever served in the Senate. He remained a Senator until, in accordance with the Westminster tradition that the Prime Minister is a member of the lower house of parliament, he resigned on 1 February 1968 in order to contest the House of Representatives by-election for the electorate of Higgins in south Melbourne (necessitated by Holt's death). That by-election was held on 24 February; there were three other candidates, but Gorton achieved a massive 68% of the formal vote. He visited all the polling booths during the day, but was unable to vote for himself as he was still enrolled in the western Victorian seat of Mallee. Between 2 and 23 February (both dates inclusive) he was a member of neither house of parliament.

Gorton was initially a very popular Prime Minister. He carved out a style quite distinct from those of his predecessors – the aloof Menzies and the affable, sporty Holt. Gorton liked to portray himself as a man of the people who enjoyed a beer and a gamble, with a bit of a "larrikin" streak about him. Unfortunately for him, this reputation later came back to haunt him.

He also began to follow new policies, pursuing independent defence and foreign policies and distancing Australia from its traditional ties to Britain. But he continued to support Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, a position he had reluctantly inherited from Holt, which became increasingly unpopular after 1968. On domestic issues, he favoured centralist policies at the expense of the states, which alienated powerful Liberal state leaders like Sir Henry Bolte of Victoria and Sir Robert Askin of New South Wales. He also fostered an independent Australian film industry and increased government funding for the arts.

Gorton proved to be a surprisingly poor media performer and public speaker, and was portrayed by the media as a foolish and incompetent administrator. He was unlucky to come up against a new and formidable Labor Opposition Leader in Gough Whitlam. Also, he was subjected to media speculation about his drinking habits and his involvements with women. He generated great resentment within his party, and his opponents became increasingly critical of his reliance on an inner circle of advisers – most notably his private secretary Ainsley Gotto.

The Coalition suffered a 7% swing against it at the 1969 election, and Labor outpolled it on the two-party-preferred vote. The Coalition lost most of the sizeable majority in the House of Representatives it had inherited from Holt, with its majority reduced from 45 seats to seven. It may have lost government had it not been for the Democratic Labor Party's longstanding practice of preferencing against Labor. Indeed, had DLP preferences in four Melbourne-area seats--the DLP's heartland--gone the other way, Whitlam would have become Prime Minister.