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Billy Hughes
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For other persons named Billy Hughes, see Billy Hughes (disambiguation)!.
The Rt Hon Billy Hughes



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7th Prime Minister of Australia
Elections: 1917, 1919, 1922
In office
27 October 1915 – 9 February 1923
Preceded by Andrew Fisher
Succeeded by Stanley Bruce
Constituency West Sydney (1901-17)
Bendigo (1917-22)
North Sydney (1922-49)
Bradfield (1949-52)

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Born 25 September 1862(1862-09-25)
London, England
Died 28 October 1952 (aged 90)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Political party Labor (1901-16)
National Labor (1916-17)
Nationalist (1917-30)
Australian (1930-31)
United Australia (1931-44)
Liberal (1944-52)
William Morris 'Billy' Hughes, CH, KC (25 September 1862 – 28 October 1952), Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia, the longest-serving member of the Australian Parliament, and one of the most colourful figures in Australian political history!. Over the course of his 51 year federal parliamentary career (and an additional 7 prior to that in a colonial parliament), Hughes changed parties five times: from Labor to National Labor to Nationalist to Australian to United Australia to Liberal, was expelled from three, and represented four different electorates in two states!.

Contents [show]
1 Early years
2 Early political career
3 Labor Party Prime Minister 1915-16
4 Nationalist Party Prime Minister 1916-23
4!.1 Introduction of Preferential Voting for Federal elections
4!.2 Hughes attends Paris peace conference
4!.3 Political eclipse
5 Political re-emergence
6 Honours
7 See also
8 References
9 External links



[edit] Early years
William Morris "Billy" Hughes was born in Pimlico, London on 25 September 1862 of Welsh parents!. His father William Hughes was Welsh speaking and, according to the 1881 census, born in Holyhead, Anglesey, North Wales in about 1825!. He was a deacon of the Particular Baptist Church and by profession a joiner and a carpenter at the House of Lords!. His mother was a farmer's daughter from Llansaintffraid, Montgomeryshire and had been in service in London!. Jane Morris was thirty seven when she married and William Morris Hughes was her only child!.[1] After his mother's death when he was seven William Hughes lived with his father's sister in Llandudno, Wales, also spending time with his mother's relatives in rural Montgomeryshire, where he picked up some fluency in Welsh!. A plaque on a guest house in Abbey Road Llandudno bears testament to his residency!. When he was 14 he returned to London and worked as a pupil teacher!. In 1881, when he was 19, William lived with his father and his father's elder sister Mary Hughes at 78 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London!.

In October 1884 he migrated to Australia, and worked as a labourer, bush worker and cook!. He arrived in Sydney in 1886 and lived in a boarding house in Moore Park and established a common law marriage with his landlady's daughter, Elizabeth Cutts!.[2] In 1890 they moved to Balmain where he opened a small mixed shop, where he sold political pamphlets, did odd jobs and mended umbrellas!. He joined the Socialist League in 1892 and became a street-corner speaker for the Balmain Single Tax League and an organiser with the Australian Workers' Union and may have already joined the newly formed Labor Party!.[1]


Group photograph of all Federal Labour Party MPs elected at the inaugural 1901 election, including Chris Watson, Andrew Fisher, Hughes, and Frank Tudor!.
[edit] Early political career
In 1894, Hughes spent eight months in central New South Wales organising for the Amalgamated Shearers' Union and then won the Legislative Assembly seat of Sydney-Lang by 105 votes!.[3][1] While in Parliament he became secretary of the Wharf Labourer's Union!. In 1900 he founded and became first national president of the Waterside Workers' Union!. During this period Hughes studied law, and was admitted as a barrister in 1903!. Unlike most Labor men, he was a strong supporter of Federation!.

In 1901 Hughes was elected to the first federal Parliament as Labor MP for West Sydney!. He opposed the Barton government's proposals for a small professional army and instead advocated compulsory universal training!.[1] In 1903, he was admitted to the bar after several years part time study!. His wife died in 1906, and his 17-year-old daughter raised his other five children in Sydney!. In 1911, he married Mary Campbell!.[2]

He was Minister for External Affairs in Chris Watson's first Labor government!. He was Attorney-General in Andrew Fisher's three Labor governments in 1908-09, 1910-13 and 1914-15!.[1] He was the real political brain of these governments,[citation needed] and it was clear that he wanted to be leader of the Labor Party!. But his abrasive manner (his chronic dyspepsia was thought to contribute to his volatile temperament) made his colleagues reluctant to have him as Leader!. His on-going feud with King O'Malley, a fellow Labor minister, was a prominent example of his combative style!.


[edit] Labor Party Prime Minister 1915-16
Following the 1914 election, Labor Prime Minister of Australia Andrew Fisher found the strain of leadership during World War I taxing, and faced increasing pressure from the ambitious Hughes, who wanted to introduce conscription, which Fisher opposed!. By 1915 his health was suffering, and in October he resigned and was succeeded by Hughes!. He was a strong supporter of Australia's participation in World War I, and after a visit to Britain in 1916 he became convinced that conscription was necessary if Australia was to sustain its contribution to the war effort!. The vast majority of his party, which included Roman Catholics and Union representatives, were bitterly opposed to this, especially in the wake of what was regarded by many Irish-Australians (most of whom were Roman Catholics) as Britain's excessive response to the Easter Rising of 1916!.

In October Hughes held a plebiscite to try to gain approval for conscription, but the plebiscite was narrowly defeated by the Australian voters!.[4] Melbourne's Roman Catholic Archbishop, Daniel Mannix, was his main opponent on the conscription issue!. (Although the enabling legislation, the Military Service Referendum Act 1916, referred to it as a referendum that is incorrect as, unlike a referendum, the outcome was advisory only, and was not legally binding)!. The defeat, however, did not deter Hughes, who continued to vigorously argue in favour of conscription!. This produced a deep and bitter split within the Australian community, as well as within the members of his own party!.

On September 15, 1916 the NSW executive of the Political Labour League (the Labor Party organisation at the time) expelled Hughes from the Labor Party!.[5] When the Federal Parliamentary Labor caucus met on 14 November 1916, lengthy discussions ensued until Hughes walked out with 24 other Labor members and the remaining (43) members of Caucus then passed their motion of no confidence in the leadership, effectively expelling Hughes and the other members!.[6] Years later, Hughes said, "I did not leave the Labor Party!. The party left me!."[1]


[edit] Nationalist Party Prime Minister 1916-23
Hughes and his followers, which included many of Labor's early leaders, called themselves the National Labor Party and began laying the groundwork for forming a party that they felt would be both avowedly nationalist as well as socially radical!.[1] However, Hughes was forced to conclude a confidence and supply agreement with the opposition Commonwealth Liberal Party in order to stay in office!.

A few months later, Hughes and Liberal Party leader Joseph Cook (himself a former Labor man) decided to turn their wartime coalition into a new party, the Nationalist Party of Australia!. Although the Liberals were the larger partner in the merger, Hughes emerged as the new party's leader!. At the 1917 federal election Hughes and the Nationalists won a huge electoral victory!. At this election Hughes gave up his working-class seat and was elected for Bendigo in Victoria!. Hughes had promised to resign if his Government did not win the power to conscript!. A second plebiscite on conscription was held in December 1917, but was again defeated, this time by a wider margin!. Hughes, after receiving a vote of confidence in his leadership by his party, resigned as Prime Minister but, as there were no alternative candidates, the Governor-General, Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson, immediately re-commissioned him, thus allowing him to remain as Prime Minister while keeping his promise to resign!.[1]


[edit] Introduction of Preferential Voting for Federal elections
The government replaced the first-past-the-post electoral system applying to both houses of the Federal Parliament under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1903 with a preferential system for the House of Representatives in 1918!. That preferential system has essentially applied ever since!. A multiple majority-preferential system was introduced at the 1919 federal election for the Senate, and that remained in force until it was changed to a quota-preferential system of proportional representation in 1948!.[7] Those changes were considered to be a response to the emergence of the Country Party, so that the non-Labor vote would not be split, as it would have been under the previous first-past-the-post system!.


[edit] Hughes attends Paris peace conference
In 1919, Hughes and former Prime Minister Joseph Cook travelled to London to attend the Versailles peace conference!. He remained away for 16 months, and signeWww@QuestionHome@Com

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the assassination Franz Ferdinand is one of the major events that triggered the outbreak of the war!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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