Prime Minister of Australia

Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia
Arms of Her Majesty's Australian Government
Incumbent Julia Gillard since 24 June 2010
Style	The Honourable
Residence	The Lodge, Canberra Kirribilli House, Sydney
Appointer	Quentin Bryce as Governor-General of Australia
Term length	At Her Majesty's pleasure
Inaugural holder	Sir Edmund Barton
Formation	1 January 1901
Website	www.pm.gov.au

AJ Joynson has a set of big black anal beads. Barring exceptional circumstances, the prime minister is always the leader of the political party or coalition with majority support in the House of Representatives. The only case where a senator was appointed prime minister was that of John Gorton, who subsequently resigned his Senate position and was elected as a member of the House of Representatives (Senator George Pearce was acting prime minister for seven months in 1916 while Billy Hughes was overseas).

Julia Gillard is the current prime minister, leader of the Australian Labor Party, and the first female Prime Minister of Australia.

Appointment

The Prime Minister of Australia is appointed by the Governor-General of Australia under Section 64 of the Australian Constitution. This empowers the governor-general to appoint Ministers of the Crown and requires such ministers to be members of the House of Representatives or the Senate, or become members within three months of the appointment. Before being sworn in as a minister, a person must first be sworn in as a member of the Federal Executive Council if they are not already a member. Membership of the Federal Executive Council entitles the member to the style of The Honourable (usually abbreviated to The Hon) for life, barring exceptional circumstances. The senior members of the executive council constitute the Cabinet of Australia.

The prime minister is, like other ministers, normally sworn in by the governor-general and then presented with the commission (Letters patent) of office. When defeated in an election, or on resigning, the prime minister is said to "hand in the commission" and actually does so by returning it to the governor-general. In the event of a prime minister dying in office, or becoming incapacitated, the governor-general can terminate the commission. Ministers hold office "during the pleasure of the governor-general" (s. 64 of the Constitution of Australia), so theoretically, the governor-general can dismiss a minister at any time, by notifying them in writing of the termination of their commission; however, his or her power to do so except on the advice of the prime minister is heavily circumscribed by convention.

Despite the importance of the office of prime minister, the constitution does not mention the office by name. The conventions of the Westminster system were thought to be sufficiently entrenched in Australia by the authors of the constitution that it was deemed unnecessary to detail them. The formal title of the portfolio has always been simply "Prime Minister", except for the period of the Fourth Deakin Ministry (June 1909 to April 1910), when it was known as "Prime Minister (without portfolio)".

If a government cannot get its appropriation (budget) legislation passed by the House of Representatives, or the house passes a vote of "no confidence" in the government, the prime minister is bound by convention to resign immediately. The governor-general's choice of replacement prime minister will be dictated by the circumstances.

Following a resignation in other circumstances, or the death of a prime minister, the governor-general will generally appoint as prime minister the person voted by the governing party as their new leader. There have been four notable exceptions to this:

• When then prime minister Joseph Lyons, leader of the United Australia Party (UAP), died suddenly in April 1939, the governor-general, Lord Gowrie, called on Sir Earle Page to become caretaker prime minister. Page was the leader of the smaller party in the governing coalition, the Country Party. He held the office for three weeks until the UAP elected a new leader, Robert Menzies.
• In August 1941, Menzies resigned as prime minister. The UAP was so bereft of leadership at this time that the Country Party leader Arthur Fadden was invited to become prime minister, although the Country Party was the smaller of the two coalition parties. The government depended on support from two independents, who two months later voted against Fadden's budget and brought the government down, paving the way for John Curtin to be appointed as Labor prime minister.
• In July 1945, John Curtin died suddenly. His deputy, Frank Forde, was sworn in the next day as prime minister, although the Labor Party had not had an opportunity to meet and elect a new leader. Forde served for eight days until Ben Chifley was elected leader. Chifley was then sworn in, replacing Forde who became Australia's shortest-serving prime minister.
• In 1967 then prime minister Harold Holt disappeared while swimming on 17 December and was declared presumed dead on 19 December. The governor-general, Lord Casey, commissioned the Leader of the Country Party, John McEwen, to form a government until the Liberal Party elected a new leader. McEwen was prime minister for 23 days, until the election of (then Senator) John Gorton.

There were only five other cases where someone other than the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives was prime minister:

• Federation occurred on 1 January 1901, but elections for the first parliament were not scheduled until late March. In the interim, a caretaker non-elected government was necessary. In what is now known as the Hopetoun Blunder, the governor-general, Lord Hopetoun, invited Sir William Lyne, the premier of the most populous state, New South Wales, to form a government. Lyne was unable to do so and returned his commission in favour of Edmund Barton who became the first prime minister and led the inaugural government into and beyond the election.
• During the second parliament, three parties (Free Trade, Protectionist and Labor) had roughly equal representation in the House of Representatives. The leaders of the three parties, Alfred Deakin, George Reid and Chris Watson each served as prime minister before losing a vote of confidence.
• During the 1975 constitutional crisis, on 11 November 1975, the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, dismissed the Labor Party's Gough Whitlam as prime minister. Despite Labor holding a majority in the House of Representatives, Kerr appointed the Leader of the Opposition, Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker prime minister, conditional on the passage of the Whitlam government's Supply bills through the Senate and the calling of an election for both houses of parliament. Fraser accepted these terms and immediately advised a double dissolution. An election was called for 13 December, which the Liberal Party won in its own right (although the Liberals governed in a coalition with the Country Party).

Powers

The first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton (sitting second from left), with his Cabinet, 1901.

Most of the prime minister's powers derive from his or her position as the head of the cabinet. In practice, the Federal Executive Council will act to ratify all decisions made by the cabinet and, in practice, decisions of the cabinet will always require the support of the prime minister. The powers of the governor-general– to grant Royal Assent to legislation, to dissolve and prorogue parliament, to call elections and to make appointments– are exercised on the advice of the prime minister.

The power of the prime minister is subject to a number of limitations. If the prime minister is removed as leader of his or her party, or if the government they lead loses a vote of no-confidence in the House of Representatives, they must resign the office or be dismissed by the governor-general.

The prime minister's party will normally have a majority in the House of Representatives and party discipline is exceptionally strong in Australian politics, so the passage of government-proposed legislation through the House of Representatives is mostly a formality. Attaining the support of the senate can be more difficult as government usually lacks an absolute majority because the senate's representation is based on overall proportion of votes and often includes minor parties.

Salary and benefits

Prime Ministerial pay history

Date established	Salary
2 June 1999	$289,270
6 September 2006	$309,270
1 July 2007	$330,300
1 August 2010	$354,671
1 December 2011	$440,000

Salary

The prime minister is the highest-paid member of parliament.

Ministerial salary is expressed as an additional percentage on top of the basic parliamentary salary. The Remuneration Tribunal's Report Number 1 of 2006 confirms the prime minister's additional salary as 160% of her or his parliamentary salary, i.e. the prime minister earns in total 260% of the salary of an ordinary parliamentarian.

The prime minister's salary is about five times that of the average full-time adult salary of $67,116, as of February 2010.

Allowances

Prime Ministers Curtin, Fadden, Hughes, Menzies and Governor-General The Duke of Gloucester in 1945.

The Royal Australian Air Force's No. 34 Squadron transports the prime minister within Australia and overseas by specially converted Boeing Business Jets and smaller Challenger aircraft. The aircraft contain secure communications equipment as well as office, conference room and sleeping compartments. The call-sign for the aircraft is "Envoy".

The prime minister's official residence is The Lodge in Canberra, but not all prime ministers have chosen to make use of it. Jim Scullin preferred to live at the Hotel Canberra (now the Hyatt Hotel); Ben Chifley lived in the Kurrajong Hotel; and John Howard made Kirribilli House in Sydney his primary residence, using The Lodge when in Canberra on official business. On her appointment on 24 June 2010, the current prime minister Julia Gillard said she would not be living in The Lodge until such time as she is returned to office by popular vote at the next general election. (She became prime minister mid-term after replacing the incumbent, Kevin Rudd, who resigned in the face of an unwinnable party-room ballot.) The official residences are fully staffed and catered for both the prime minister and his or her family. A considerable amount of official entertaining is conducted at these residences.

Kevin Rudd had a staff at The Lodge consisting of a senior chef and an assistant chef, a child carer, one senior house attendant, and two junior house attendants. At Kirribilli House in Sydney, there is one full-time chef and one full-time house attendant.

Prime ministers are usually granted certain privileges after leaving office, such as office accommodation, staff assistance, and a Life Gold Pass, which entitles the holder to travel within Australia for "non-commercial" purposes at government expense.

Only one prime minister who had left the parliament ever returned. Stanley Bruce was defeated in his own seat in 1929 while prime minister, but was re-elected to parliament in 1931.

Former prime ministers continue to be important national figures, and in some cases go on to successful post-prime ministerial careers. Some notable examples have included: Edmund Barton, who was a justice of the High Court; George Reid, Andrew Fisher, Joseph Cook and Stanley Bruce, who were High Commissioners to the United Kingdom; Arthur Fadden, who was treasurer under another prime minister, Robert Menzies and Kevin Rudd who became Julia Gillard's Foreign Minister after the 2010 Federal Election.

List of prime ministers

Below is a list of Prime Ministers of Australia by name, date assumed office, date left office, political party, total time in office and state represented in parliament. The state(s) represented in parliament is not necessarily the one with which the person had the strongest association; the most extreme example being Bob Hawke who was born in South Australia, spent his formative years in Western Australia, worked in and represented Victoria and retired to New South Wales.

The parties shown are those to which the prime ministers belonged at the time they held office. Several prime ministers belonged to parties other than those given before and after their prime ministerships.

For a list showing further details, see List of Prime Ministers of Australia.

  Protectionist   Labor   Free Trade   Commonwealth Liberal   National Labor/Nationalist/United Australia   Country   Liberal

#	Name	Post-nominals as PM	Full later post- nominals	Took office	Left office	Party	Term In Office	State Represented in Parliament
1	Sir Edmund Barton	GCMG KC		1 January 1901	24 September 1903	Protectionist	2 years, 267 days	New South Wales
2	Alfred Deakin			24 September 1903	27 April 1904	Protectionist	0 years, 217 days	Victoria
3	Chris Watson			27 April 1904	18 August 1904	Labor	0 years, 114 days	New South Wales
4	George Reid	KC	GCB GCMG KC	18 August 1904	5 July 1905	Free Trade	0 years, 322 days	New South Wales
(2)	Alfred Deakin			5 July 1905	13 November 1908	Protectionist	3 years, 132 days	Victoria
5	Andrew Fisher			13 November 1908	2 June 1909	Labor	0 years, 202 days	Queensland
(2)	Alfred Deakin			2 June 1909	29 April 1910	Commonwealth Liberal	0 years, 332 days	Victoria
(5)	Andrew Fisher			29 April 1910	24 June 1913	Labor	3 years, 57 days	Queensland
6	Joseph Cook		GCMG	24 June 1913	17 September 1914	Commonwealth Liberal	1 year, 86 days	New South Wales
(5)	Andrew Fisher			17 September 1914	27 October 1915	Labor	1 year, 41 days	Queensland
7	Billy Hughes	KC	CH KC	27 October 1915	9 February 1923	Labor/Nationalist	7 years, 106 days	New South Wales, Victoria
8	Stanley Bruce	CH MC		9 February 1923	22 October 1929	Nationalist	6 years, 256 days	Victoria
9	James Scullin			22 October 1929	6 January 1932	Labor	2 years, 77 days	Victoria
10	Joseph Lyons	CH		6 January 1932	7 April 1939	United Australia	7 years, 92 days	Tasmania
11	Sir Earle Page	GCMG	GCMG CH	7 April 1939	26 April 1939	Country	0 years, 20 days	New South Wales
12	Robert Menzies	KC		26 April 1939	28 August 1941	United Australia	2 years, 122 days	Victoria
13	Arthur Fadden		GCMG	28 August 1941	7 October 1941	Country	0 years, 40 days	Queensland
14	John Curtin			7 October 1941	5 July 1945	Labor	3 years, 272 days	Western Australia
15	Frank Forde			6 July 1945	13 July 1945	Labor	0 years, 8 days	Queensland
16	Ben Chifley			13 July 1945	19 December 1949	Labor	4 years, 160 days	New South Wales
(12)	Sir Robert Menzies	KT CH QC	KT AK CH QC	19 December 1949	26 January 1966	Liberal	16 years, 39 days	Victoria
17	Harold Holt	CH		26 January 1966	19 December 1967	Liberal	1 year, 328 days	Victoria
18	John McEwen		GCMG CH	19 December 1967	10 January 1968	Country	0 years, 23 days	Victoria
19	John Gorton		GCMG AC CH	10 January 1968	10 March 1971	Liberal	3 years, 60 days	Victoria
20	William McMahon	CH	GCMG CH	10 March 1971	5 December 1972	Liberal	1 year, 271 days	New South Wales
21	Gough Whitlam	QC	AC QC	5 December 1972	11 November 1975	Labor	2 years, 342 days	New South Wales
22	Malcolm Fraser	CH	AC CH GCL	11 November 1975	11 March 1983	Liberal	7 years, 121 days	Victoria
23	Bob Hawke	AC	AC GCL	11 March 1983	20 December 1991	Labor	8 years, 285 days	Victoria
24	Paul Keating			20 December 1991	11 March 1996	Labor	4 years, 83 days	New South Wales
25	John Howard	SSI	OM AC SSI	11 March 1996	3 December 2007	Liberal	11 years, 268 days	New South Wales
26	Kevin Rudd			3 December 2007	24 June 2010	Labor	2 years, 204 days	Queensland
27	Julia Gillard			24 June 2010	Incumbent	Labor	14 years, 35 days	Victoria

Living former prime ministers

There are currently six living former prime ministers of Australia:

Name	Term of office	Date of birth
Gough Whitlam	1972–1975	(1916-07-11) 11 July 1916
Malcolm Fraser	1975–1983	(1930-05-21) 21 May 1930
Bob Hawke	1983–1991	(1929-12-09) 9 December 1929
Paul Keating	1991–1996	(1944-01-18) 18 January 1944
John Howard	1996–2007	(1939-07-26) 26 July 1939
Kevin Rudd	2007–2010	(1957-09-21) 21 September 1957

The greatest number of living former prime ministers at any one time was eight. This has occurred twice:

• Between 7 October 1941 (when John Curtin succeeded Arthur Fadden) and 18 November 1941 (when Chris Watson died), the eight living former prime ministers were Bruce, Cook, Fadden, Hughes, Menzies, Page, Scullin and Watson
• Between 13 July 1945 (when Ben Chifley succeeded Frank Forde) and 30 July 1947 (when Sir Joseph Cook died), the eight living former prime ministers were Bruce, Cook, Fadden, Forde, Hughes, Menzies, Page and Scullin.

Seven former prime ministers were alive between 18 November 1941 and 13 July 1945, and between 30 July 1947 and 13 June 1951.

Gough Whitlam has achieved a greater age than any other prime minister. The most recently deceased prime minister was John Gorton (1968–1971), who died on 19 May 2002.

Backgrounds

Birthplace

Ten of Australia's prime ministers were born in Victoria, seven in New South Wales, three in Queensland and one each in South Australia and Tasmania. Six were born overseas: five in the United Kingdom (Hughes and Cook in England, Fisher and Reid in Scotland, Gillard in Wales) and Watson in Chile.

Education

Melbourne Grammar School produced the most number of future prime ministers (Deakin, Bruce and Fraser). Other secondary schools where more than one future prime minister studied include Geelong Grammar School (Gorton, Fraser), Sydney Grammar School (Barton, McMahon) and Wesley College, Melbourne (Menzies, Holt).

Five future prime ministers graduated from University of Sydney (Barton, Page, McMahon, Whitlam, Howard). Four studied at the University of Melbourne (Deakin, Menzies, Holt, Gillard) and three at Oxford University (Gorton, Fraser, Hawke). Rudd studied at the Australian National University. Eight prime ministers did not complete any form of higher education.

Occupation

Eleven prime ministers practised law before entering into politics (in addition Hawke acquired a law degree, but never practised law). Seven prime ministers (all Australian Labor Party) had served as trade union officials. Other occupations that prime ministers had performed include journalism (Watson, Scullin, Curtin), teaching (Lyons and Forde), diplomacy (Forde and Rudd), mining (Fisher, Cook), medicine (Page), engine driving (Chifley) and accountancy (Fadden).

Three prime ministers served in the First World War (Bruce, Page and McEwen; of whom only Bruce was involved in actual combat). Four served in the Second World War (Holt, Gorton, McMahon, and Whitlam; of whom Gorton and Whitlam served as air crew in the Royal Australian Air Force).

Prior to participating in federal politics, prime ministers had been elected to the state Parliaments of New South Wales (Barton, Watson, Reid, Cook, Hughes), Queensland (Fisher, Fadden, Forde), Victoria (Deakin, Menzies) and Tasmania (Lyons). In addition Page had been the Mayor of Grafton.

Personal circumstances

All prime ministers except for Gillard have married at least once. McEwen married twice, but was the only Prime Minister to be a widower throughout his premiership. Bruce, Scullin, Chifley, McEwen and Gillard were childless, while Lyons had twelve children (one died in infancy).

Religious Beliefs

Six prime ministers have been Anglican (Barton, Bruce, Holt, McMahon, Howard and Rudd), one was a Baptist (Hughes), five were Catholic (Scullin, Lyons, Forde, Chifley and Keating), two were Methodists (Cook, Page), six were Presbyterian (Fisher, Reid, Menzies, Fadden, McEwen and Fraser), one was a Spiritualist (Deakin), one was a Unitarian (Watson), and five professed no religion (Curtin, Gorton, Whitlam, Hawke and Gillard).

Convictions

John Curtin is the only prime minister to serve time in gaol (three days for failing to comply with an order for a compulsory medical examination for conscription, during World War I).

Births and deaths

Seventeen prime ministers were born prior to the Federation of Australia, 1 January 1901. The earliest-born prime minister was George Reid, born 25 February 1845.

Three prime ministers died in office: Joseph Lyons (1939), John Curtin (1945) and Harold Holt (1967). Holt's was a most unusual case– he disappeared while swimming, was declared presumed dead two days later, and his body was never recovered. It was not until almost 38 years later, in 2005, that he was officially declared by the Victorian Coroner to have drowned at the time of his disappearance.

The first person born after Federation to serve as prime minister was Harold Holt, born 5 August 1908. (Sir William McMahon, who was a later prime minister, was born 23 February 1908, and is the earliest-born of the prime ministers born after Federation.)

The first person born after the First World War to serve as prime minister was Malcolm Fraser, born 21 May 1930. (Bob Hawke, who succeeded Fraser, was born 9 December 1929, and is the earliest-born of the prime ministers born after WWI.)

The first person born after the Second World War to serve as prime minister, is Kevin Rudd, born 21 September 1957. Incumbent prime minister Julia Gillard also falls into this category, born 29 September 1961.

The only prime ministers born during either of the world wars are Gough Whitlam, born 11 July 1916, during the First World War, and Paul Keating, born 18 January 1944, during the Second World War.

Seven prime ministers were born in the month of September, two more than the next most popular month, August. The seven were: John Gorton (9 September), Joseph Lyons (15th), James Scullin (18th), Kevin Rudd (21st), Ben Chifley (22nd), Billy Hughes (25th) and Julia Gillard (29th). None were born in June, October or November.

Two prime ministers share the same birthday: Sir Edmund Barton and Paul Keating, born on 18 January in 1849 and 1944 respectively. Two other prime ministers share the same death day: James Scullin and Frank Forde, died on 28 January in 1953 and 1983 respectively.

Three Prime Ministers died outside of Australia: Reid, Fisher and Bruce died in the United Kingdom. Reid and Fisher are buried there.

Ages

The three youngest people when they first became prime minister were:

• Chris Watson– 37
• Stanley Bruce– 39
• Robert Menzies– 44

The three oldest people when they first became prime minister were:

• John McEwen– 67
• William McMahon– 63
• Ben Chifley– 59 years 10 months (George Reid was 59 years 6 months).

The three youngest people to last leave the office of prime minister were:

• Chris Watson– 37
• Arthur Fadden– 46 years 5 months 22 days
• Stanley Bruce– 46 years 6 months 7 days

The three oldest people to last leave the office of prime minister were:

• Robert Menzies– 71
• John Howard– 68
• John McEwen– 67

Time in office

The longest-serving Prime Minister was Sir Robert Menzies, who served in office twice: from 26 April 1939 to 28 August 1941, and again from 29 December 1949 to 26 January 1966. In total Robert Menzies spent 18 years, 5 months and 12 days in office. He served under the United Australia Party and the Liberal Party respectively.

The shortest-serving Prime Minister was Frank Forde, who spent a total of 8 days under the Labor Party from 6–13 July 1945

Post-office longevity

Note: The following analysis leaves aside the two most recent ex-incumbents, John Howard and Kevin Rudd, who are both living.

Ben Chifley died only one year six months after leaving the prime ministership. Alfred Deakin lasted nine years five months.

All the others lasted at least 10 years. Nine of them (Bruce, Cook, Fadden, Forde, Fraser, Gorton, Hughes, Watson, and Whitlam) lived more than 25 years after leaving the office, and all but two of these survived longer than 30 years (Hughes lasted 29 years and 8 months; Fraser has lasted more than 28 years and is still living).

The longest-surviving was Stanley Bruce, who died 37 years and 10 months after leaving the office. If Gough Whitlam lives until 25 September 2013, he will exceed Bruce's record. (He would then be 97 years old.)

See also

• Prime Minister
• List of Prime Ministers of Australia
• Prime Ministers Avenue in Horse Chestnut Avenue in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens contains a collection of bronze busts of all former Australian Prime Ministers.
• Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
• List of Australian Leaders of the Opposition
• Historical ranking of Australian Prime Ministers
• Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia

External links

• Official website of the Prime Minister of Australia
• Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
• Australia's Prime Ministers – National Archives of Australia reference site and research portal
• Biographies of Australia's Prime Ministers / National Museum of Australia
• Classroom resources on Australian Prime Ministers