John McEwen

Sir John McEwen (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980) was an Australian politician and farmer who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia from 1967 to 1968, in a caretaker capacity following the disappearance of prime minister Harold Holt. He was the leader of the Country Party from 1958 to 1971, serving as the inaugural deputy prime minister of Australia from 1968 to 1971.

McEwen was born in Chiltern, Victoria. He was orphaned at the age of seven and raised by his grandmother, initially in Wangaratta and then in Dandenong. McEwen left school when he was 13 and joined the Australian Army at the age of 18, but the war ended before his unit was shipped out. He was nonetheless eligible for a soldier settlement scheme, and selected a property at Stanhope. He established a dairy farm, but later bought a larger property and farmed beef cattle.

After several previous unsuccessful candidacies, McEwen was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1934 federal election. He was first elevated to cabinet by Joseph Lyons in 1937. McEwen became deputy leader of the Country Party in 1940, under Arthur Fadden. He replaced Fadden as leader in 1958, and remained in the position until his retirement from politics in 1971. He served in parliament for 36 years in total, spending a record 25 years as a government minister.

The Liberal-Country Coalition returned to power in 1949, initially under Robert Menzies and then under Harold Holt. McEwen came to have a major influence on economic policy, particularly in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing, and trade. When Holt disappeared and was presumed dead while in office in December 1967, he was commissioned as caretaker prime minister while the Liberal Party elected a new leader. He was 67 at the time, the oldest person to become prime minister and only the third from the Country Party. McEwen ceded power to John Gorton after 23 days in office, and in recognition of his service was appointed deputy prime minister, the first time that position had been formally created. He was Australia's third shortest serving prime minister, after Earle Page and Frank Forde. He remained as deputy prime minister until his retirement from politics in 1971.

Birth and family background
McEwen was born on 29 March 1900, at his parents' home in Chiltern, Victoria. He was the son of Amy Ellen (née Porter) and David James McEwen. His mother was born in Victoria, and had English and Irish ancestry. His father was of Ulster Scots origin, born in Mountnorris, County Armagh (in present-day Northern Ireland). He worked as a chemist, and also served a term on the Chiltern Shire Council. The family surname was originally spelled "MacEwen", but was altered upon David McEwen's arrival in Australia in 1889.

Childhood
In his memoirs, McEwen recounted that he had almost no memories of his parents. His mother died of lung disease in March 1902, just before his second birthday; she had given birth to a daughter, Amy, a few months earlier. She was the second of his father's three wives, and McEwen had three half-siblings – Gladys, Evelyn, and George. After their mother's death, McEwen and his sister were raised by their father, living in the rooms behind his chemist's shop. He died from meningitis in September 1907, when his son was seven. John and Amy were sent to live with their widowed grandmother, Nellie Porter (née Cook), while their younger half-brother went to live with his mother in Melbourne. They had never lived with their older half-sisters, who had been sent to live in a children's home upon their mother's death in 1893.

McEwen's grandmother ran a boardinghouse in Wangaratta. He grew up in what he described as "pretty frugal circumstances", and in 1912 his grandmother moved the family to Dandenong, on the outskirts of Melbourne. McEwen attended state schools in Wangaratta and Dandenong until the age of thirteen, when he began working for Rocke, Tompsitt & Co., a drug manufacturer in central Melbourne. He initially worked as a switchboard operator, for which he was paid 15 shillings per week. McEwen began attending night school in Prahran, and in 1915 passed an examination for the Commonwealth Public Service and began working as a junior clerk at the office of the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor. His immediate superior there was Fred Whitlam, the father of another future prime minister, Gough Whitlam.

Soldier-settler
With World War I ongoing, McEwen resolved to enter the military when he turned 18. He joined the Australian Army Cadets and completed a Royal Australian Navy course in radiotelegraphy, hoping to qualify for the newly opened Royal Military College, Duntroon. He passed the entrance exam, but instead chose to enlist as a private in the Australian Imperial Force, in order to be posted overseas sooner. The war ended before his unit shipped out. Despite the briefness of his service, McEwen was eligible for the Victorian government's soldier settlement scheme. He selected an 86 acre lot at Stanhope, on land that previously been a sheep station. As with many other soldier-settlers, McEwen initially did not have the money or the expertise needed to run a farm. He spent several months working as a farm labourer and later did the same as a stevedore at the Port of Melbourne, eventually saving enough money to return to Stanhope and establish his dairy farm.

McEwen's new property was virtually undeveloped, with only a single existing building (a small shack) and no fences, irrigation, or paddocks. He and the other soldier-settlers in the Stanhope district suffered a number of hardships in the early 1920s, including droughts, rabbit plagues, and low milk prices. Many of them were forced off their properties, allowing those who survived to expand their holdings relatively cheaply. In 1926, McEwen sold his property and bought a larger farm nearby, which he named Chilgala (a portmanteau of Chiltern and Tongala, the birthplaces of himself and his wife). He switched from dairy to beef cattle, and was able to expand his property by buying abandoned farms from the government. At its peak, Chilgala covered 3000 acre and carried 1,800 head of cattle. McEwen had a reputation as one of the best farmers in the district, and came to be seen by the other soldier-settlers as a spokesman and leader. He represented them in meetings with government officials, and was secretary of the local Water Users' League, which protected the interests of irrigators. In 1923, he co-founded the Stanhope Dairy Co-operative, and was elected as the company's inaugural chairman.

Early years in politics
McEwen joined the Victorian Farmers' Union in 1919 at the age of 19 and was soon active in the Country Party, its political wing. He first stood for parliament at the 1932 Victorian state election, contesting the Legislative Assembly seat of Waranga. While unsuccessful, he more than doubled the Country Party's vote from the previous election. His campaigning efforts brought him to the attention of party leaders and he soon joined the state executive.

In 1934, the Victorian Country Party's central council mandated that its federal MPs and senators sign a pledge requiring strict party discipline and giving the central council a veto over the terms of any coalition government. The party's three MPs and two senators in Victoria refused to sign the pledge, receiving support from their parliamentary colleagues and the party's federal executive. Country MP William Hill decided to quit politics altogether in protest, with McEwen endorsed by the Victorian party as its replacement for Hill in the seat of Echuca. At the 1934 election he faced two "Independent Country" opponents supported by the federal party, with the party's federal leader Earle Page actively campaigning in their favour. McEwen nonetheless retained Echuca with the aid of favourable preference flows from Australian Labor Party (ALP) voters.

Despite McEwen's acceptance of the Victorian Country Party's pledge, after his election to parliament he "immediately associated himself with the federal party and incurred the hostility of his Victorian colleagues for urging that the breach be healed". In his first term he successfully lobbied the Lyons government to introduce a variable excise duty on flour, linking the duty paid by farmers to the international spot rate. He regarded this as "the first step towards a wheat industry stabilisation plan". In April 1935 he announced his support for a royal commission into the Australian banking system, which the government convened later in the year. In 1936, following the Privy Council's ruling in James v Commonwealth, McEwen moved in parliament that the constitution be amended to allow for the federal government to legislate on the marketing of agricultural products. The government ultimately put forward a referendum proposal in 1937 which was defeated by voters.

Interior minister, 1937–1939
McEwen's seat was abolished in a redistribution during his first term and he transferred to the seat of Indi at the 1937 election. He rose rapidly within the parliamentary Country Party and narrowly failed to win the deputy leadership after the 1937 election, losing to Harold Thorby by a single vote on the second ballot. He was subsequently appointed Minister for the Interior in the third Lyons ministry, a coalition government between the Country Party and the United Australia Party (UAP) led by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons. His new portfolio was "spacious in its command of broad policy issues and diversity of administrative functions" and included "Commonwealth public works, railways, immigration, the Northern and Australian Capital territories, Aborigines, electoral administration, mining, and oil exploration".

As interior minister, McEwen instituted the New Deal for Aborigines, a landmark policy statement on Indigenous Australians which described its aim as "the raising of their status so as to entitle them by right and by qualification to the ordinary rights of citizenship and enable them and help them to share with us the opportunities that are available in their own native land". The policy specified cultural assimilation as the basis on which civil rights would be extended to the Indigenous population. The policy was drafted by McEwen in conjunction with his adviser A. P. Elkin.

Following Lyons' death in April 1939, Country Party leader Earle Page withdrew his party from the coalition with the UAP and McEwen's first stint as a minister came to an end. Page's decision – largely due to his personal disdain for the new UAP prime minister Robert Menzies – proved controversial within his own party and four Country MPs left the parliamentary party.

World War II
Upon the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Page resigned as Country Party leader in order to facilitate the resumption of a coalition government with the UAP. McEwen contested the resulting leadership ballot against South Australian MP Archie Cameron, losing by seven votes to five. Prior to the ballot, the Country Party voted against allowing the four dissident MPs to rejoin the parliamentary party, although this decision was reversed a few months later. According to McEwen, the four MPs were his supporters and their presence would have meant he won the leadership ballot over Cameron.

In 1939, McEwen was appointed Minister for External Affairs and (simultaneously) Minister for Air and Minister for Civil Aviation. In 1940, when Archie Cameron resigned as Country Party leader, McEwen contested the leadership ballot against Sir Earle Page: the ballot was tied and Arthur Fadden was chosen as a compromise. McEwen became his deputy.

Air minister, 1940–1941
In October 1940, McEwen was appointed Minister for Air and Minister for Civil Aviation in a cabinet reshuffle that followed the 1940 federal election. Fadden had been acting in the portfolios for several months following the death of James Fairbairn, who had been one of three government ministers killed in the Canberra air disaster in August 1940. McEwen remained as air and civil aviation minister until the defeat of the Fadden government in October 1941, with Fadden having succeeded as prime minister upon Menzies' resignation in August 1941.

As air minister, McEwen oversaw the continued expansion of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He secured war cabinet approval for volunteers to be recruited from the Citizen Military Forces and also authorised steps to expand RAAF auxiliaries, announcing the creation of the Australian Air Force Cadets and the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force in early 1941. According to an official RAAF history, he "made it clear that he did not favour the enlistment of women in the air force unless it was unavoidable, but unavoidable it became". He had a strained relationship with RAAF chief Charles Burnett, frequently clashing over expenditure matters.

McEwen oversaw the acceleration of Australia's involvement in the Empire Air Training Scheme, which saw RAAF personnel receive training in Canada before being seconded to the Royal Air Force (RAF) for combat in the European theatre. In May 1941, McEwen announced that 1,000 RAAF ground staff would be seconded to the RAF. He faced criticisms that RAAF personnel in the UK were being assigned to RAF units rather than the Article XV squadrons required by the scheme, and that Australian officers were being denied senior leadership opportunities in RAF commands. In August 1941 he despatched Richard Williams to London to establish RAAF Overseas Headquarters, with the aim of securing greater Australian input in decision-making.

Menzies and Holt governments
When the conservatives returned to office in 1949 under Robert Menzies after eight years in opposition, McEwen became Minister for Commerce and Agriculture, switching to Minister for Trade in 1956. Menzies nicknamed him "Black Jack", due to his dark eyebrows, grim nature, and occasional temper. In the Menzies government, McEwen 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 industry (Australian governments traditionally owned banks and insurance companies and the railways and through policies designed to assist particular industries) and decentralisation.

In 1958, following Fadden's retirement, McEwen was elected unopposed as leader of the Country Party. Under the Coalition agreement, he thus became the de facto deputy prime minister, and was afforded a free choice of portfolio. Fadden had been Treasurer, but McEwen somewhat unexpectedly chose to continue on as trade minister. This allowed Harold Holt to become the first Liberal MP to serve as Treasurer; since then every Treasurer in a Coalition government has been a Liberal. McEwen nonetheless had considerable influence in cabinet. He and his party favoured interventionist economic policies and were opposed to foreign ownership of industrial assets, which placed him frequently at odds with his Liberal colleagues. In 1962, a dispute between McEwen and Assistant Treasurer Les Bury ended with Bury being sacked from cabinet. His stature eventually grew to the point where he was considered a potential successor to Menzies as prime minister. An opinion poll in December 1963 showed that 19 percent of Coalition voters favoured McEwen as Menzies' successor, only two points behind the poll leader Holt. By December 1965, this number had risen to 27 percent, compared with Holt's 22 percent. McEwen's cause was championed by a number of media outlets, including The Sun and The Australian. Nonetheless, he had few supporters within the Liberal Party, and it was generally held that he would have to become a Liberal if he were to lead the Coalition, which he was unwilling to do.

Holt replaced Menzies as prime minister in January 1966, with McEwen continuing on his previous position. His portfolio had been expanded after the 1963 election, with his department now called the Department of Trade and Industry. McEwen enjoyed a "sound working relationship" with Holt, but without the same rapport he had had with Menzies. However, he had a poor relationship with William McMahon, Holt's replacement as Treasurer. They had philosophical differences over free trade and foreign investment, both of which McEwen opposed. McMahon was also suspected to be undermining McEwen through his connections in the media.

McEwen's most serious disagreement with Holt came in November 1967, when it was announced that Australia – which had converted to decimal currency the previous year – would not follow the recent devaluation of the pound sterling. This effectively marked Australia's withdrawal from the sterling area. McEwen issued a public statement criticising the decision, which he feared would damage primary industry. Holt considered this a breach of cabinet solidarity, and made preparations for the Liberal Party to govern in its own right in case the Country Party withdrew from the government. The situation was eventually resolved In Holt's favour.

Prime Minister
Harold Holt disappeared while swimming at Portsea, Victoria, on 17 December 1967, and was officially presumed dead two days later. The Governor-General, Lord Casey, sent for McEwen and commissioned him as interim Prime Minister, on the understanding that his commission would continue only so long as it took for the Liberals to elect a new leader. McEwen contended that if Casey commissioned a Liberal as interim Prime Minister, it would give that person an undue advantage in the upcoming ballot for a full-time leader.

McEwen retained all of Holt's ministers, and had them sworn in as the McEwen Ministry. Approaching 68, McEwen was the oldest person ever to be appointed Prime Minister of Australia, although not the oldest to serve; Menzies left office one month and six days after his 71st birthday. McEwen had been encouraged to remain Prime Minister on a more permanent basis but to do so would have required him to defect to the Liberals, an option he had never contemplated.

It had long been presumed that McMahon, who was both Treasurer and deputy Liberal leader, would succeed Holt as Liberal leader and hence Prime Minister. However, McEwen sparked a leadership crisis when he announced that he and his Country Party colleagues would not serve under McMahon. McEwen is reported to have despised McMahon personally. 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.

Even in the wake of their landslide victory in 1966, the Liberals were still four seats short of an outright majority. With only the Country Party as a realistic coalition partner, McEwen's opposition forced McMahon to withdraw from the leadership ballot. This opened the door for the successful campaign to promote the Minister for Education and Science, Senator John Gorton, to the Prime Ministership with the support of a group led by Defence Minister Malcolm Fraser. Gorton was elected as leader of the Liberal Party on 9 January 1968, and succeeded McEwen as Prime Minister the following day. It was the second time the Country Party had effectively vetoed its senior partner's choice for the leadership; in 1923 Earle Page had demanded that the Nationalist Party, one of the forerunners of the Liberals, remove Billy Hughes as leader before he would even consider coalition talks.

Gorton government and final years
Gorton created the formal title Deputy Prime Minister for McEwen, confirming his status as the second-ranking member of the government. Prior to then, the title had been used informally for whoever was recognised as the second-ranking member of the government – the leader of the Country Party when the Coalition was in government, and Labor's deputy leader when Labor was in government. Even before being formally named Deputy Prime Minister, McEwen had exercised an effective veto over government policy since 1966 by virtue of being the most senior member of the government, having been a member of the Coalition frontbench without interruption since 1937.

McEwen retired from politics in 1971. In his memoir, he recalls his career as being "long and very, very hard", and turned back to managing 1,800 head of cattle on his property in Goulburn Valley. In the same year, Clifton Pugh won the Archibald Prize for a portrait of McEwen. While he had softened in his "unequivocal support for protection" by the time of his retirement he had given way to free-traders with regards to agriculture. However, he felt differently about manufacturing, as it was essential to National power:"'My own view has always been that it would be ridiculous to think that Australia was safe in the long term unless we built up our population and built up our industries. So I have always wanted to make Australia a powerful industrialised country as well as a major agricultural and mining country. This basic attitude meant that I was bound to favour broadly protectionist policies aimed at developing our manufacturing sector.'"At the time of his resignation, he had served in parliament for 36 years and 5 months, including 34 years as either a minister (1937–1941 and 1949–1971) or opposition frontbencher (1941–1949). He was the last serving parliamentarian from the Great Depression era, and hence the last parliamentary survivor of the Lyons government. By the time of his death, Malcolm Fraser's government was abandoning McEwenite trade policies.

Honours


McEwen was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1969. He was knighted in 1971 after his retirement from politics, becoming a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG). The Japanese government conferred on him the Grand Cordon, Order of the Rising Sun in 1973.

Personal life and death
On 21 September 1921, he married Anne Mills McLeod, known as Annie; they had no children. In 1966, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). After a long illness Dame Anne McEwen died on 10 February 1967.

At the time of becoming Prime Minister in December of that year, McEwen was a widower, being the first Australian Prime Minister unmarried during his term of office. (The next such case was Julia Gillard, Prime Minister 2010–13, who had a domestic partner although unwed.)

On 26 July 1968, McEwen married Mary Eileen Byrne, his personal secretary for 15 years, at Wesley Church, Melbourne; he was aged 68, she was 46. In retirement he distanced himself from politics, undertook some consulting work, and travelled to Japan and South Africa. He had no children by any of his marriages.

McEwen had severe dermatitis for most of his adult life. He recounted that "for literally months at a time, I would be walking about Parliament House with my feet bleeding and damaged." The pain became unbearable in later years, and he began refusing food in order to hasten his death; he died of self-imposed starvation on 20 November 1980, aged 80. McEwen was cremated, and his estate was sworn for probate at $2,180,479. He was also receiving a small pension from the Department of Social Security at the time of his death.