Important Industry Figures: Joseph Benedict "Ben" Chifley

When Prime Minister Curtin died in 1945, Joseph Benedict ("Ben") Chifley was elected to take over. He retained his role as Federal Treasurer. After the war, Chifley introduced a number of social welfare reforms, and laid a strong basis for post-war reconstruction, but eventually lost the support of the electorate because people disagreed with too much government regulation of the economy. He was a humble man who never forgot the fact that he had been a train driver before he was a politician.

Joseph Benedict Chifley - always known as Ben - was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, on 22nd September 1885. Chifley's parents were both of Irish descent. His father, Patrick Chifley, was a blacksmith. His mother's name was Mary Anne Corrigan. He lived and worked on his grandfather's farm at Limekilns near Bathurst until he was 13, sometimes attending the local bush school. He then spent two years at the Patrician Brothers School, Bathurst, before starting full-time work as a cashier's assistant in a general store.

Chifley joined the NSW Government Railways as a shop-boy at 17, then worked as a cleaner and fireman before becoming a locomotive driver. At 24, he was the youngest first-class locomotive driver in the NSW Railways. He was also an outstanding rugby union player.

At 27 he became an advocate for his union, the Locomotive Enginemen's Association. He was dismissed from the Railways because of his part in the union's national strike in 1917, but was reinstated as a cleaner on appeal

In 1914 he married Elizabeth McKenzie, but had no children.

After deciding to fight for unionists' rights by entering parliament, he prepared himself by learning economics and finance. He became a highly competent and successful private investor and financial manager. He endeavoured to gain Labor preselection for State seats in NSW in 1922 and 1924 without success. He became a candidate for election to the House of Representatives in his home district electorate, Macquarie, in 1925 but lost. He won the seat at the 1928 election and retained it in 1929, when JH Scullin's Labor government came to power. He became Scullin's Minister for Defence.

Chifley became embroiled in the long-running conflict within NSW Labor over policies for dealing with the Great Depression. He supported the "Federal" faction of the party against the "Lang" faction of J.T. Lang, the NSW Premier. He lost his seat in the electoral landslide against Labor in 1931. Determined to defeat Lang, he contested Lang·s seat of Auburn at the 1935 State elections, but lost. As State President of "Federal" Labor, Chifley was instrumental in restoring unity to NSW Labor in 1936. He regained his Macquarie seat in 1940, and held it through the next four general elections: in 1943, 1946, 1949 and 1951.

Scullin's' government adopted the "Premiers' Plan" to combat the depression in 1931. The plan was rejected by the NSW Labor Premier, J.T. Lang, causing a split within NSW Labor and the emergence of two rival Labor parties in NSW - "Federal" and "Lang". Lang was dismissed from office by the NSW Governor in 1932 after defying the federal United Australia Party government over repayment of foreign debts. Division within NSW Labor continued until 1936.

A deepening of the depression in 1932, despite the "Premiers' Plan". The number of jobless rose to an estimated 514,000 or 20% of the workforce - the highest rate in the entire century from 1891; during 1932-33 wages fell to four-fifths of the level of four years previously.

During his nine years of federal politics in the 1930s, he added to his reputation as a fine economist and administrator by serving as a member of the Royal Commission on Monetary and Banking Systems in 1935-36, and as the director of labour supply and administration for the Department of Supply from 1939 to 1940.

Internationally, events leading towards the Second World War unfolded during the 1930s. Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937; Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933; Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935 and annexed Albania in 1939; the Spanish Civil War - the 'curtain raiser' to the Second World War - continued from 1936-39; Germany occupied Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and Poland in 1939 - the final trigger to the Second World War.

Chifley became Treasurer in John Curtin's Labor government, with major responsibility for gearing the economy to wartime production. He remained Treasurer until his loss of government in 1949. He also served as Minister for Postwar Reconstruction from 1942 to 1945.

He became Prime Minister following Curtin's death, succeeding the caretaker Prime Minister, F.M. Forde, on 13 July 1945.

He visited the UK, USA. Japan and New Zealand while on four overseas trips to attend conferences, from 1946 to 1949.
Postwar reconstruction accelerated: in 1945 the Commonwealth Government became a signatory to the charter setting up the United Nations; it announced its objective of raising the population to 20 million and signed an agreement with the UK for free and assisted passages for immigrants; the War Service Land Settlement Act introduced the soldier settlement scheme; the first Holden car was 'launched' by Chifley in 1948; the Snowy Mountains Authority was founded in 1949.

He retained office at the 1946 elections but lost to R.G. Menzies' Liberal-Country Party coalition in December 1949. The defeat followed a series of events and issues through which Labor's popular support declined. These included a long running coal strike, Communist influence in the union movement, the continuation of wartime rationing controls over the sale of petrol, and Chifley's personal crusade to nationalise private sector banking.

Chifley continued in parliament as Opposition Leader after his defeat by Menzies. He died on the way to hospital after a heart attack in his hotel room in Canberra, 13 June 1951, while a ball celebrating the Jubilee of Commonwealth Parliament was in progress in Parliament House.