Home > Ben Chifley

Born in Bathurst, New South Wales, Chifley was the son of a blacksmith of Irish Catholic descent. He was largely raised by his grandfather, who lost all his savings in the bank crash of 1892: Chifley acquired his lifelong hatred of the private banks early. He was educated at Catholic schools in Bathurst, and joined the New South Wales Railways at 15.

Ben Chifley became an engine driver, which was a skilled and responsible position. He was one of the founders of the AFULE, the engine drivers' union, and an active member of the Labor Party. In 1914 he married Elizabeth Mackenzie. She was a Presbyterian; Chifley left the Catholic Church to marry her and never returned. In 1917 he was one of the leaders of a prolonged strike which resulted in his being dismissed. He was reinstated by a New South Wales Labor government in 1920. He represented his union before industrial tribunals and taught himself industrial law.

In 1928Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 See also 1928 in aviation 1928 in film 1928 in literature 1928 in mu, at his second try, Chifley won the Bathurst-based seat of Macquarie in the House of Representatives. He was in general a supporter of the ScullinJames Henry Scullin ( September 18 1876 January 28 1953), Australian politician and ninth Prime Minister of Australia, was born in the small town of Trawalla, in western Victoria, the son of a railway worker of Irish descent. He was educated at state prim government's economic policies, and in 19311931 is the common year starting on Thursday. see link for calendar) Events January January 4 Female aviator Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa January 6 Thomas Edison submits his last patent application. January 22 Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the he became Minister for Defence. When the Scullin government fell later in the same year, he lost his seat. During the DepressionThe Great Depression was a global economic slump that began in the United States following Black Thursday, the Wall Street panic of October 1929. On October 24, 1929, share prices on Wall Street collapsed catastrophically, setting off a chain of bankruptc he survived on his wife's family's money and his part-ownership of the Bathurst National Advocate. In 1935Events January January 1 Italian colonies of Tripoli and Kyrenaika are joined together as Libya January 7 World War II: Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French foreign minister Pierre Laval conclude agreement in which each power undertakes not to oppo the LyonsJoseph Aloysius Lyons ( September 15, 1879 April 7, 1939), Australian politician and tenth Prime Minister of Australia, was born in Stanley, Tasmania, the son of Irish immigrants. He left school at nine to work as a messenger and printer's devil. But with government appointed him a member of the Royal Commission on Banking, a subject on which he had become an expert. He submitted a minority report advocating that the private banks be nationalised.

Chifley finally won his seat back in 1940Events January-February January 5 FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time. January 6 World War II: Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the Poznan, Warthegau. January 12 World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland. February 2 F, and the following year he became Treasurer (finance minister) in John CurtinJohn Curtin ( January 8 1885 July 5 1945), Australian politician and 14th Prime Minister of Australia, led Australia through the darkest period of its history: when the Australian mainland came under direct military threat during the Japanese advance in W's Labor government. Although Frank Forde was officially Curtin's deputy, Chifley became the minister Curtin most relied on, and he controlled most domestic policy while Curtin was preoccupied with the war effort. He presided over the massive increases in government expenditure and taxation that accompanied the war, and imposed a regime of economic regulation that made him very unpopular with business and the press.

When Curtin died in July 1945, Chifley defeated Forde in the leadership ballot and became Prime Minister. Once the war ended, normal political life resumed, and Chifley faced Robert Menzies and his new Liberal Party in 1946 elections, which Chifley comfortably won. In the postwar years Chifley maintained wartime economic controls including the highly unpopular petrol rationing. He did this partly to help Britain in its postwar economic difficulties.

Feeling secure in power, Chifley decided it was time to advance towards Labor's objective of democratic socialism. In 1947 he announced the government's intention to nationalise the banks. This provoked massive opposition from the press, and middle-class opinion turned against Labor. The High Court of Australia eventually found Chifley's legislation to be unconstututional.

In the winter of 1949 a prolonged and bitter strike in the coal industry caused unemployment and hardship. Chifley saw the strike as a move by the Communist Party to challenge Labor's place as the party of the working class, and he sent in the army to break the strike. Despite this, Menzies exploited the rising Cold War hysteria to portray Labor as soft on Communism.

These events, together with a perception that Chifley and Labor had grown increasingly arrogant in office, led to the sweeping Liberal election victory of December 1949. Chifley, at 64 and in poor health (like Curtin he was a lifelong smoker), refused to retire. Labor had retained control of the Senate and Chifley intended frustrating the Menzies government and returning to power. But in 1951 Menzies introduced his bill to ban the Communist Party, which Chifley opposed on civil liberties grounds.

Menzies exploited this issue to call a double dissolution election in April 1951, and succeeded in winning control of both Houses. A few weeks later Chifley died of a heart attack in his hotel room in Canberra. Chifley had lived apart from his wife for many years: his secretary, Phyllis Donnelly, was with him when he died. Long-held suspicions that she had been his lover were confirmed in David Day's 2001 biography.

Chifley, like Curtin, has been made a secular saint by the labour movement, but the basis of the "Chifley legend" is somewhat different. Curtin is remembered mainly for his wartime leadership and forging the US Alliance. Chifley is remembered by the left as the only Labor Prime Minister who tried to implement the party's socialist objective. The fact that this led to electoral defeat and 23 years in opposition has not detracted from this esteem.

More than 30 years after his death, Chifley's name still aroused partisan passions. In 1987 the New South Wales Labor government decided to name the planned new university in Sydney's western suburbs Chifley University. When, in 1989 a new Liberal government renamed it the University of Western Sydney, controversy broke out. According to a debate on the topic, held in 1997 after the Labour party had regained government, the decision to rename Chifley University reflected a desire to attach the term of Western Sydney to institutions of lasting significance, and that the idea ultimately received the support of Bob Carr, later the Premier of New South Wales.

Other namings of places and institutions after Chifley have proved more successful. There is an Australian hotel chain, a central Sydney building and square, and two suburbs (in Canberra and Sydney), named after him. Many of his reforms also remain in place.