Joseph Cook - Prime Minister

Prime Minister

At the 1913 elections Cook won a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives, while Labor retained a majority in the Senate, and in doing so became the sixth Prime Minister of Australia. Unable to govern effectively without control of the Senate, Cook decided to bring about a double dissolution election under section 57 of the Constitution of Australia. He introduced a bill abolishing preferential employment for trade union members in the public service, a bill he knew the Senate would repeatedly reject. When this rejection duly took place, he sought and obtained a double dissolution of the Parliament from the Governor-General.

Unfortunately for Cook, World War I broke out in the middle of the election campaign for the September 1914 election. Fisher was able to remind the voters that it was Labor that had favoured an independent Australian defence force, which the conservatives had opposed. Cook was defeated and Fisher resumed office.