The Deputy Prime Minister of Australia is the second-most senior officer in the Government of Australia. The office of Deputy Prime Minister was created as a ministerial portfolio in 1968. The Deputy Prime Minister is appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The current Deputy Prime Minister is National Party leader, Warren Truss. The Deputy Prime Minister is entitled to additional pay over and above those of a Minister in Cabinet.[1] Under the Coalition agreement between the Liberal and National parties, when in government, the position is held by the leader of the National Party. In the case of Labor governments, the party's deputy leader is the Deputy Prime Minister. The duties of the Deputy Prime Minister is largely contingent, coming into play only when the Prime Minister is absent from the country or is on leave, when he or she is referred to as Acting Prime Minister.
Contents
-
History 1
-
Duties 2
-
Living former Deputy Prime Ministers 3
-
List of Deputy Prime Ministers of Australia 4
-
Informal Deputy Prime Ministers 5
-
References 6
-
External links 7
History
Originally the position of deputy Prime Minister was an unofficial or honorary position. The unofficial position acquired more significance after the Coalition agreement reached by Stanley Bruce of the Nationalist Party and Earle Page of the Country Party following the 1922 federal election, which saw the Nationalists lose the parliamentary majority. Though Page’s only official title was Treasurer, he was considered as a deputy to Bruce.[2] Until 1968 the term was used unofficially for the second-highest ranking minister in the government, especially while the Coalition was in government. Under the Coalition agreement between the Liberal and National parties, when in government, the position was held by the leader of the National Party. That continues to be case when the Coalition is in government. In the case of Labor governments, the party's deputy leader was and continues to be the Deputy Prime Minister.
On 19 December 1967, John McEwen, the long-serving leader of the Country Party (later renamed the National Party) in the Coalition government, was sworn in as interim Prime Minister following the sudden death in office of Prime Minister Harold Holt. (There was discussion that the deputy Liberal Party leader should properly assume the office. Liberal deputy leader and Treasurer William McMahon had planned a party room meeting on 20 December to elect a new leader, intending to stand for the position himself. However, this was pre-empted by McEwen who publicly declared on the morning of 18 December that he would not serve in a McMahon government.) McEwen was sworn in as Prime Minister on the understanding that his commission would continue only so long as it took for the Liberals to elect a new leader. The Liberal leadership ballot was rescheduled for 9 January 1968. As it turned out, McMahon did not stand, and Senator John Gorton was elected, replacing McEwen as Prime Minister on 10 January 1968.[3] McEwen reverted to the usual deputy Prime Minister status under the Coalition agreement. The office of Deputy Prime Minister was then officially created by Gorton as a portfolio position, as an honour for McEwen, on McEwen's insistence, and with additional pay.
Governor-General Lord Casey also accepted the view put to him by McEwen that to commission a Liberal temporarily as Prime Minister would give that person an unfair advantage in the forthcoming party room ballot for the permanent leader. McEwen's appointment was in keeping with previous occasions when a conservative Coalition government had been deprived of its Liberal leader. Earle Page of the Country Party was interim Prime Minister between 7 April and 26 April 1939 following Joseph Lyons' sudden death. Arthur Fadden of the Country Party was interim Prime Minister between 29 August and 7 October 1941 following Robert Menzies' resignation, but after a joint United Australia-Country Party meeting on 28 August had chosen Fadden as leader of the Coalition.
Since 1968 only two Deputy Prime Ministers have gone on to become Prime Minister: Paul Keating and Julia Gillard. In both cases, they succeeded incumbent Prime Ministers who lost the support of their party caucus mid-term and their election as party leader preceded their predecessor's resignations and their subsequent appointments as Prime Minister. Frank Forde, who had been deputy Labor leader when John Curtin died, was interim Prime Minister between 6 July and 13 July 1945, when the leadership ballot took place.
In November 2007, when the Australian Labor Party won government, Julia Gillard became Australia's first female, and first foreign-born, Deputy Prime Minister. In practice, only National party leaders or Labor Party deputy leaders have held the position.
Duties
The duties of the Deputy Prime Minister are to act on behalf of the Prime Minister in his or her absence overseas or on leave. The Deputy Prime Minister has always been a member of the Cabinet, and has always held at least one substantive portfolio. (It would be technically possible for a minister to hold only the portfolio of Deputy Prime Minister, but this has never happened.)
If the Prime Minister were to die, become incapacitated or resign, the Governor-General would normally appoint the Deputy Prime Minister as Prime Minister on an interim basis until the governing party elects a new leader, but is not obligated to do so. This has not occurred since the office was created as a portfolio in 1968.
Living former Deputy Prime Ministers
Ten former Deputy Prime Ministers of Australia are living:
List of Deputy Prime Ministers of Australia
The following individuals have been officially appointed as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia:[4][5]
|
Order
|
Deputy Prime Minister
|
Party affiliation
and position
|
Ministerial title
|
Term start
|
Term end
|
Term in office
|
Prime Minister
|
|
1
|
John McEwen
|
|
|
Country
Leader 1958–71
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Trade and Industry
|
10 January 1968 (1968-01-10)
|
5 February 1971 (1971-02-05)
|
7007969192000000000♠3 years, 26 days
|
|
John Gorton
|
|
2
|
Doug Anthony
|
|
|
Country
Leader 1971–84
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Trade and Industry
|
5 February 1971 (1971-02-05)
|
10 March 1971 (1971-03-10)
|
7007578232000000000♠1 year, 304 days
|
|
|
|
10 March 1971 (1971-03-10)
|
5 December 1972 (1972-12-05)
|
|
William McMahon
|
|
3
|
Lance Barnard
|
|
|
Labor
Deputy Leader 1967–74
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Defence
|
5 December 1972 (1972-12-05)
|
12 June 1974 (1974-06-12)
|
7007478872000000000♠1 year, 189 days
|
|
Gough Whitlam
|
|
4
|
Jim Cairns
|
|
|
Labor
Deputy Leader 1974–75
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Treasurer
|
12 June 1974 (1974-06-12)
|
2 July 1975 (1975-07-02)
|
7007332856000000000♠1 year, 20 days
|
|
|
5
|
Frank Crean
|
|
|
Labor
Deputy Leader 1975
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Overseas Trade
|
2 July 1975 (1975-07-02)
|
11 November 1975 (1975-11-11)
|
132 days
|
|
|
(2)
|
Doug Anthony
|
|
|
Country
National
Leader 1971–84
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Trade and Industry
|
12 November 1975 (1975-11-12)
|
11 March 1983 (1983-03-11)
|
7008231184800000000♠7 years, 119 days
|
|
Malcolm Fraser
|
|
6
|
Lionel Bowen
|
|
|
Labor
Deputy Leader 1977–90
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Trade
Vice-President of the Executive Council
Attorney-General
|
11 March 1983 (1983-03-11)
|
4 April 1990 (1990-04-04)
|
7008222976800000000♠7 years, 24 days
|
|
Bob Hawke
|
|
7
|
Paul Keating
|
|
|
Labor
Deputy Leader 1990–91
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Treasurer
|
4 April 1990 (1990-04-04)
|
3 June 1991 (1991-06-03)
|
7007367416000000000♠1 year, 60 days
|
|
|
8
|
Brian Howe
|
|
|
Labor
Deputy Leader 1991–95
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Health
Minister for Housing
Minister for Community Services
Minister for Local Government
Minister for Regional Affairs
|
3 June 1991 (1991-06-03)
|
20 December 1991 (1991-12-20)
|
7008127699200000000♠4 years, 17 days
|
|
|
|
20 December 1991 (1991-12-20)
|
20 June 1995 (1995-06-20)
|
|
Paul Keating
|
|
9
|
Kim Beazley
|
|
|
Labor
Deputy Leader 1995–96
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Finance
|
20 June 1995 (1995-06-20)
|
11 March 1996 (1996-03-11)
|
265 days
|
|
|
10
|
Tim Fischer
|
|
|
National
Leader 1990–99
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Trade
|
11 March 1996 (1996-03-11)
|
20 July 1999 (1999-07-20)
|
7008105991200000000♠3 years, 131 days
|
|
John Howard
|
|
11
|
John Anderson
|
|
|
National
Leader 1999–2005
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Transport and Regional Development
|
20 July 1999 (1999-07-20)
|
6 July 2005 (2005-07-06)
|
7008188114400000000♠5 years, 351 days
|
|
|
12
|
Mark Vaile
|
.jpg)
|
|
National
Leader 2005–2007
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Trade
Minister for Transport and Regional Services
|
6 July 2005 (2005-07-06)
|
3 December 2007 (2007-12-03)
|
7007760752000000000♠2 years, 150 days
|
|
|
13
|
Julia Gillard
|
|
|
Labor
Deputy Leader 2006–2010
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Minister for Education
Minister for Social Inclusion
|
3 December 2007 (2007-12-03)
|
24 June 2010 (2010-06-24)
|
7007806544000000000♠2 years, 203 days
|
|
Kevin Rudd
|
|
14
|
Wayne Swan
|
|
|
Labor
Deputy Leader 2010–2013
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Treasurer
|
24 June 2010 (2010-06-24)
|
27 June 2013 (2013-06-27)
|
7007949320000000000♠3 years, 3 days
|
|
Julia Gillard
|
|
15
|
Anthony Albanese
|
|
|
Labor
Deputy Leader 2013–13
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
|
27 June 2013 (2013-06-27)
|
18 September 2013 (2013-09-18)
|
83 days
|
|
Kevin Rudd
|
|
16
|
Warren Truss
|
|
|
National
Leader 2007–present
|
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development
|
18 September 2013 (2013-09-18)
|
15 September 2015 (2015-09-15)
|
7007872208000000000♠2 years, 279 days
|
|
Tony Abbott
|
|
15 September 2015 (2015-09-15)
|
Incumbent
|
|
Malcolm Turnbull
|
Informal Deputy Prime Ministers
The office of Deputy Prime Minister was created in January 1968 but prior to that time the term was used unofficially for the second-highest ranking minister in the government.
References
-
^ ABC, Federal Election, 2013: Federal politicians' pay rises to at least $195,130: do we get what we pay for?
-
^ PrimeFacts: Deputy Prime Ministers of Australia
-
^ http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/mcmahon/before-office.aspx
-
^ "Ministries and Cabinets". 43rd Parliamentary Handbook: Historical information on the Australian Parliament.
-
^ "Deputy Prime Ministers of Australia" (PDF). Museum of Australian Democracy. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
External links
-
The official site of the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002.
Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization.