John McEwen

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Rt. Hon. Sir John McEwen
18th Prime Minister of Australia
In office 19 December 1967 – 10 January 1968
Preceded by	Harold Holt
Succeeded by	John Gorton
Born	29 March 1900 Chiltern, Victoria, Australia
Died	20 November 1980
Political party	Country

Sir John McEwen, GCMG, CH (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980), was an Australian politician and 18th Prime Minister of Australia.

McEwen was born at Chiltern, Victoria, where his father was a pharmacist. He was educated at state schools and at 15 became a junior public service clerk. He enlisted in the Army immediately upon turning 18 but the First World War ended while he was still in training. He commenced dairy farming at Stanhope, near Shepparton.

McEwen was active in farmer organisations and in the Country Party. In 1934 he was elected to the House of Representatives for the electorate of Echuca, switching to Indi in 1937 and Murray in 1949. Between 1937 and 1941 he was successively Minister for the Interior, External Affairs and Commerce and Agriculture. In 1940 when Archie Cameron resigned as Country Party leader he contested the leadership ballot against Sir Earle Page: the ballot was tied and Arthur Fadden was chosen as a compromise.

When the conservatives returned to office in 1949 under Robert Menzies after eight years in opposition, McEwen became Minister for Commerce and Agriculture again, then Minister for Trade and Industry. He pursued what became known as "McEwenism" - a policy of high tariff protection for the manufacturing industry, so that industry would not challenge the continuing high tariffs on imported raw materials, which benefitted farmers but pushed up industry's costs. This policy was a part (some argue the foundation) of what became known as the "Australian Settlement' which promoted high wages, industrial development, government intervention in industy (both as an owner- Australian governments traditionally owned banks and insurance companies and the railways and through policies designed to assist particular industries) and decentralisation. In 1958 Fadden retired and McEwen succeeded him as Country Party leader.

When Menzies retired in 1966, McEwen became the longest-serving figure in the government, and he had a right of veto over government policy. When Menzies's successor, Harold Holt, died in 1967, the Governor-General sent for McEwen and he was sworn in as caretaker Prime Minister while the Liberals elected a new leader.

There was much support (including among some Liberals) for McEwen taking the job permanently, but within days of his appointment he sparked a leadership crisis when he announced that he and his Country Party colleagues would refuse to serve in a government led by Holt's presumed successor, Treasurer (finance minister), William McMahon.

McEwen is reported to have despised McMahon personally, and it is very possible that he disliked McMahon because of his rumoured homosexuality, which has been the subject of persistent rumours in Australia. But more importantly, McEwen was bitterly opposed to McMahon on political grounds, because McMahon was allied with free trade advocates in the conservative parties and favoured sweeping tariff reforms: a position that was vehemently opposed by McEwen, his Country Party colleagues and their rural constituents.

Another key factor in McEwen's antipathy towards McMahon was hinted at soon after the crisis by the veteran political journalist Alan Reid. According to Reid, McEwen was aware that McMahon was habitually breaching Cabinet confidentiality and regularly leaking information to favoured journalists and lobbyists, including Maxwell Newton, who had been hired as a "consultant" by Japanese trade interests. This version of events was confirmed years later by former Canberra lobbyist Richard Farmer, following the release of sealed Cabinet papers from the period.

McEwen's implacable opposition forced McMahon to withdraw from the leadership ballot and opened the way for the successful campaign to promote the Education Minister, Senator John Gorton, to the Prime Ministership with the support of a group led by Defence Minister, Malcolm Fraser. In the Gorton government McEwen was given the formal title Deputy Prime Minister, confirming his status in the government. His stern demeanour also earned him the nickname "Black Jack" (Sir Robert Menzies called him "Le Noir"). McEwen was awarded the C.H. in 1969.

McEwen retired in early 1971, finally freeing the Liberals to replace Gorton with McMahon, which they did within two months. He was knighted later that year, becoming a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George. McEwen died in 1980, aged 80, by which time Malcolm Fraser's government was abandoning McEwenite trade policies.

[edit] See also

• McEwen Ministry

[edit] External links

• John McEwen Australia's Prime Ministers, National Archives of Australia
• C. J. Lloyd, 'McEwen, Sir John (1900 - 1980)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 15, Melbourne University Press, 2000, pp 205-208

Preceded by Arthur Fadden	Leader of the Country Party 1958 – 1971	Succeeded by Doug Anthony
Preceded by None	Deputy Prime Minister of Australia 1968 – 1971
Preceded by Harold Holt	Prime Minister of Australia 1967 – 1968	Succeeded by John Gorton

Preceded by Eddie Ward Robert Menzies Joseph Clark

Longest serving member of the Australian House of Representatives 1969 – 1971

Succeeded by Arthur Calwell

Prime Ministers of Australia
Barton | Deakin | Watson | Reid | Fisher | Cook | Hughes | Bruce | Scullin | Lyons | Page | Menzies | Fadden | Curtin | Forde | Chifley | Holt | McEwen | Gorton | McMahon | Whitlam | Fraser | Hawke | Keating | Howard