The Honourable Joseph Benedict ‘Ben’ Chifley was Australia’s 16th prime minister. Chifley came to office on 13 July 1945, as World War II was nearing its end. Germany had surrendered, and Japan was retreating throughout the Pacific region. Chifley's tenure as wartime prime minister lasted only 6 weeks. Chifley had served in the Curtin government since 1941, contributing to Australia's war effort. More significantly, Chifley was Prime Minister of Australia through 4 years of postwar reconstruction.

Early life

Ben Chifley was born in Bathurst, NSW, on 22 September 1885. His father was a blacksmith. At age 5, to alleviate the family's financial stress, Chifley was sent to live with his grandparents. Until he was 12, Chifley lived on their farm at Limekilns, about 30 km from his parents.

Chifley attended school infrequently until he started high school in 1899. But he was thirsty for knowledge and a voracious reader from his early years.

After about 2 years of high school, Chifley left to work as a cashier’s assistant and then in a tannery. Soon, he transferred to a railway workshop. Over the next 10 years, he worked his way up in the workshop: he was a shopboy, a cleaner and a fireman.

Chifley took night classes to increase his knowledge and skills, which paid off in 1914. He became a first-class locomotive engine driver – the youngest in New South Wales.

That same year, Chifley married Bathurst-born Elizabeth McKenzie, whose father was a financially secure engine driver.

Chifley soon became involved with railway union activities. His knowledge about wages and conditions made him valuable to his union.

During World War I, Chifley opposed proposals to introduce conscription. In 1917, he took part in a strike sparked by a new labour costing system.

The New South Wales Government retaliated by firing Chifley and his colleagues from the railway. It hired ‘scab’ (non-unionised) labour to help defeat the railway strike.

Chifley returned to the railways at a lower position and reduced wages. Later, he said the strike left ‘a legacy of bitterness and a trail of hate’.

Increasing political involvement

After the war, Chifley continued his involvement in union activities. Early in the 1920s, he also became involved in Labor Party politics. He sought Labor pre-selection for the state seat of Bathurst twice but failed. In 1925, he campaigned for the federal seat of Macquarie but lost.

Chifley finally entered federal politics in 1928 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the seat of Macquarie (NSW). In 1929, he was re-elected when the Scullin government (Labor) won office from the Bruce government (Nationalist–Country coalition).

Chifley was a backbencher for much of the Scullin government’s tenure. In March 1931 he became Minister for Defence. He won praise for his handling of the portfolio.

Division within Labor over responses to the Depression proved lethal to the government. In December 1931, Labor lost office in a landslide election, and Chifley lost his seat of Macquarie.

For the next 4 years, Chifley involved himself in Bathurst politics and business. He also tried to rebuild the divided Labor Party in New South Wales.

In 1935, Chifley took part in a royal commission on monetary and banking systems. The experience gave him vital understanding of government finance and new economic thinking. It firmed his view that banking should be a government responsibility.

In 1940, during World War II, Chifley became Director of Labour Supply and Regulation in the Department of Munitions. After 3 months, he resigned and won a federal seat in parliament at the 1940 general election.

Those elections left the Menzies government (Liberal–Country coalition) reliant on 2 independent MPs. Those MPs decided the government should change in October 1941.

On 7 October 1941, Labor leader John Curtin was sworn in as Prime Minister of his Labor government.

Wartime treasurer 1941 to 1945

In the new Curtin government, the Prime Minister appointed Chifley as his treasurer.

Chifley’s main task was to finance Australia’s war effort. He had to do this while keeping government debt low and inflation in check.

Increased public support for putting Australia on a total war footing helped Chifley. With that support, the government took income tax powers away from the states. It increased personal income, company, and sales taxes. With this money, the Curtin government almost doubled war expenditure in a year.

Chifley kept inflation in check partly through this higher taxation. Controls on production, trade, consumption, prices, rents, and wages were also critical. Using savings and war loans helped to soak up excess demand.

Chifley also introduced welfare measures. These included unemployment and sickness benefits, widows’ pensions and maternity allowances.

Labor reformed the governance and powers of the Commonwealth Bank. It empowered the Commonwealth Bank to act as a central bank.

At the end of 1942, Chifley added responsibilities for postwar reconstruction. His department developed innovative policies for postwar Australia. The intention was to achieve high standards of living, full employment and prosperity.

During the war, Chifley emerged in his own right as an influential figure. He mastered the Labor caucus and navigated the party’s industrial elements with ease. He served in the War Cabinet and was twice a replacement member of the Advisory War Council. He served as acting Prime Minister and became close to John Curtin.

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Wartime Prime Minister 1945

Prime Minister John Curtin died suddenly on 5 July 1945.

Colleagues urged Chifley to stand in the ballot to become Labor’s new leader. Chifley reluctantly agreed. He won with significant support over his nearest rivals. This included interim Prime Minister Frank Forde, then Minister for the Army.

On 13 July, the Governor-General commissioned Chifley as Australia's 16th Prime Minister. Chifley took the position while retaining his position as Treasurer.

By then, World War II was drawing to a close. Germany had surrendered in May 1945, and the Allies were focusing their efforts on defeating Japan in the Pacific.

On 6 and 9 August, the United States forces dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered, and the war was over.

Chifley announced the end of the war against Japan to Australians on national radio on 15 August 1945.

MR. CHIFLEY'S BROADCAST (1945) newsclip

Chifley argued that a peace treaty should not unduly punish Japan. He said:

Unless we help Japan, we will have another war in a generation.

The fast end of the war caused some immediate tasks for the Chifley government.

The United States ended its Lend-Lease scheme and created balance of payment problems. Chifley, as treasurer, had to make amendments to the federal Budget.

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Looking after veterans

The government's biggest task when the war ended was beginning Australia’s transition to peace.

At the end of July 1945, Chifley announced the release of 64,000 Army and Air Force servicemen from duty. He also announced a reduction in the size of Australia’s military forces.

Chifley was conscious that troops awaiting demobilisation were growing frustrated. At Christmas 1945, he travelled to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to visit troops and speak with them.

The task of repatriating, demobilising and rehabilitating veterans of World War II was significant.

The government had started preparing for this in 1941, building on approaches used during World War I. The immense scale of the task this time, soon became apparent.

The government's demobilisation plans were devised to dovetail with plans for post-war reconstruction. These aimed to minimise social and economic disruption and provide an ordered flow of service personnel to civilian employment.

The Chifley government formally launched the demobilisation program on 1 October 1945. By the time it ended in February 1947, over 500,000 service personnel, including 14,000 prisoners of war, had been discharged from the military. At its height, 3,000 service members were discharged each day (except on Sundays).

The Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Service was key to the next step, providing veterans with training, information, education and skills development courses to equip them for employment. At its peak, in June 1948, around 173,000 ex-service members were involved in various training schemes.

Payments for rehabilitation, pensions, and service benefits were altered during the war to be more generous and liberally approved. There was controversy over the treatment of service members who had been prisoners of war. The Chifley government refused to pay a special subsistence allowance to such veterans on the grounds that its obligations were already met.

The Chifley government's policies toward veterans were attacked in the media but also praised. As the normally critical Smiths Weekly editorialised:

The Repatriation Department has now been really organised, however, and has done a marvellous job all told during 1946. Many old methods of procedure have been scrapped. Approach by ex-servicemen has been made easier and more direct. Yards of red tape have been cut, many young men have been given responsibility, and a sincere effort is being made to speed up the action on initial applications.

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Prime Minister from 1946 to 1949

The Chifley government was most concerned with Australia’s post-war reconstruction. It believed that increased government involvement would ensure a smooth path to peacetime. So, the government became active in many industries that were usually the responsibility of the private sector.

Some of the government's key changes were:

• fostering a domestic car industry to provide employment opportunities and maintain a manufacturing base
• expanding Australia's immigration program to nurture the economy
• expanding tertiary education and establishing the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra to increase productivity and social mobility
• expanding social service payments
• starting the Snowy Mountains Scheme, a hydroelectricity and irrigation complex, to expand power supply and provide employment opportunities
• making Qantas the national carrier while trying to nationalise the airline industry to ensure air travel was accessible to the public.

To smooth boom-and-bust economic cycles, the government also tried, unsuccessfully, to reform the banking sector and nationalise the banking system.

Chifley led Labor to re-election in 1946.

By 1949, the extent of government power was a key issue. Fewer and fewer Australians were willing to accept the government's expanding involvement in daily life. Public opinion turned against Chifley over wartime controls and tensions over communism.

A strike on the coalfields near Newcastle in 1949 also demoralised the Labor Party.

Chifley defined Labor’s purpose that year as ‘bringing something better to the people.’ He captured this in an iconic phrase:

We have a great objective — the light on the hill.

While the phrase has come to define Labor’s mission, it was not attractive to voters at the time. Chifley led Labor in a devastating election defeat in December 1949.

Post prime ministerial career

Chifley remained leader of the Labor Party for the next 2 years. He led the party at the 1951 elections, which they lost.

On 13 June 1951, Chifley died in Canberra of a heart attack, aged 66. He was survived by his wife Elizabeth. Chifley was given a state funeral in Bathurst and is buried in Bathurst Cemetery.

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