Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
name	Ben Chifley
order	16th Prime Minister of AustraliaElections: 1946, 1949, 1951
term start	13 July 1945
term end	19 December 1949
monarch	George VI
governor-general	Prince Henry, Duke of GloucesterWilliam McKell
predecessor	Frank Forde
successor	Robert Menzies
birth date	September 22, 1885
birth place	Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia
death date	June 13, 1951
death place	Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
party	Labor
constituency	Macquarie (New South Wales)
spouse	Elizabeth Chifley
religion	Roman Catholicism }}

Joseph Benedict Chifley (; 1885–1951), Australian politician, was the 16th Prime Minister of Australia. He took over the Australian Labor Party leadership and Prime Ministership after the death of John Curtin in 1945, and went on to retain government at the 1946 election, before being defeated at the 1949 election.

Amongst the Chifley Labor Government's legislation was the post-war immigration scheme, the establishment of Australian citizenship, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, over-viewing the foundation of airlines Qantas and TAA, improvements in social services, the creation of the Commonwealth Employment Service, the introduction of federal funds to the States for public housing construction, the establishment of a Universities Commission for the expansion of university education, the introduction of a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and free hospital ward treatment, the reorganisation and enlargement of the CSIRO, the establishment of a civilian rehabilitation service, the founding of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), and the establishment of the Australian National University.

One of the few successful referendums to modify the Australian Constitution, the 1946 Social Services referendum, took place during Chifley's term.

Early life

Born in Bathurst, New South Wales, Chifley was the son of a blacksmith of Irish Roman Catholic descent. He was one of four brothers and between the ages of five and 14 was raised mostly by his grandfather, who lost all his savings in the bank crash of 1892: Chifley acquired his lifelong dislike of the private banks early. He was educated at Roman Catholic schools in Bathurst, and joined the New South Wales Railways at 15.

Ben Chifley became an engine driver. He was one of the founders of the AFULE (the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen) and an active member of the Labor Party. In 1914 he married Elizabeth Mackenzie. Mackenzie was a staunch Presbyterian, and the couple exchanged wedding vows in a Presbyterian church. Chifley remained a practising Catholic, but his marriage with a non-Catholic ignited criticisms among Catholic circles. In 1917 he was one of the leaders of a prolonged strike, which resulted in his being dismissed. He was reinstated by the Jack Lang New South Wales Labor government in 1920. He represented his union before industrial tribunals and taught himself industrial law.

Parliament

In 1928, at his second try, Chifley won the Bathurst-based seat of Macquarie in the House of Representatives. He was in general a supporter of the James Scullin government's economic policies, and in 1931 he became Minister for Defence. At the 1931 general election, the Scullin government fell and Chifley lost his seat. During the Depression he survived on his wife's family's money and his part-ownership of the Bathurst newspaper the ''National Advocate''.

In 1935 the Lyons government appointed him a member of the Royal Commission on Banking, a subject on which he had become an expert. He submitted a minority report advocating that the private banks be nationalised.

Chifley finally won his seat back in 1940, and the following year he became Treasurer (finance minister) in John Curtin's Labor government. Although Frank Forde was Curtin's deputy, Chifley became the minister Curtin most relied on, and he controlled most domestic policy while Curtin was preoccupied with the war effort. He presided over the massive increases in government expenditure and taxation that accompanied the war, and imposed a regime of economic regulation that made him very unpopular with business and the press.

Prime minister

When Curtin died in July 1945, Forde became Prime Minister, but Chifley defeated him in the leadership ballot and replaced him only six days later. Once the war ended, normal political life resumed, and Chifley faced Robert Menzies and his new Liberal Party in the 1946 election, which Chifley comfortably won. In the post-war years, Chifley maintained wartime economic controls including the highly unpopular petrol rationing. He did this partly to help Britain in its postwar economic difficulties.

Feeling secure in power, Chifley decided it was time to advance towards Labor's objective of democratic socialism. According to a biographer of Ben Chifley’s, his government embarked upon greater ‘general intervention and planning in economic and social affairs,’ with its policies directed towards better conditions in the workplace, full employment, and an improvement in the ‘equalisation of wealth, income and opportunity'. Amongst other measures, Chifley passed legislation to establish a free formulary of essential medicines. This was successfully opposed in the Australian High Court by the British Medical Association (precursor of the Australian Medical Association) Chifley then organised one of the few successful constitutional referenda to insert a new section 51xxiiiA which permitted federal legislation over pharmaceutical benefits. together with family allowances, benefits to students and hospital benefits, child endowment, widows’ pensions, unemployment benefits, and maternity allowances. The subsequent federal legislation was deemed constitutional by the High Court. This paved the way for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Chifley was also successful in transforming the wartime economy into a peacetime economy, and undertook a number of social welfare initiatives, as characterised by fairer pensions and unemployment and sickness benefits, the construction of new universities and technical colleges, and the building of 200,000 houses between 1945 and 1949. The achievements of both Chifley’s government and those of the previous Curtin Government in expanding Australia’s social services (as characterised by a tenfold increase in commonwealth expenditure on social provision between 1941 and 1949 were also brought together under the Social Services Consolidation Act of 1947, which consolidated the various social services benefits, liberalised some existing social security provisions, and increased the rates of various benefits. The radical reforming nature of Chifley's premiership was such that between 1946 and 1949, the Australian Parliament enacted 299 bills, a record up until then.

Chifley and his ministers were also able to ensure that Australia’s wartime economy was managed effectively and that post-war debts were minimised. In addition, as noted by one historian, Chifley’s government

“balanced economic development and welfare support with restraint and regulation and provided the framework for Australia’s post-war economic prosperity.“

In 1947, Chifley announced the government's intention to nationalise the banks. This provoked massive opposition from the press, and middle-class opinion turned against Labor. The High Court eventually found Chifley's legislation to be unconstitutional. Chifley's government did, however, succeed in passing the Banking and Commonwealth Bank Acts of 1945, which gave the government control over monetary policy and established the Commonwealth Bank as Australia’s national bank.

In the winter of 1949 a prolonged and bitter strike in the coal industry caused unemployment and hardship. Chifley saw the strike as a move by the Communist Party to challenge Labor's place as the party of the working class, and he sent in the army to break the strike. Despite this, Menzies exploited the rising Cold War hysteria to portray Labor as soft on Communism.

These events, together with a perception that Chifley and Labor had grown increasingly arrogant in office, led to the sweeping Liberal election victory of December 1949.

Opposition again

Chifley was now aged 64 and in poor health (like Curtin he was a lifelong smoker), but he refused to retire from politics. Labor had retained control of the Senate, and Chifley, now Leader of the Opposition, took advantage of this to bring misery to the Menzies government at every turn. Menzies responded by introducing a bill to ban the Communist Party of Australia. He expected Chifley to reject it and give him an excuse to call double dissolution election. Menzies apparently hoped to repeat his "soft-on-Communism" theme to win a majority in both chambers. However, Chifley let the bill pass (it was ultimately thrown out by the High Court)

However, when Chifley rejected Menzies' banking bill a few months later, Menzies called a double dissolution election in April 1951. He succeeded in winning control of both Houses at the election.

Death

A few weeks later Chifley died of a heart attack in his room at the Kurrajong Hotel in Canberra (he had lived there throughout his prime ministership, having refused to reside at The Lodge). Menzies heard of Chifley's demise while attending an official event at the Albert Hall in Canberra, to mark fifty years of Australian Federation. Normally impassive, "Ming the Merciless" (as his foes called him) had difficulty on this occasion in fighting back tears; and he ordered that the function be brought to an end, in homage to his predecessor and adversary, whom he had always respected personally.

"Chifley legend"

More than 30 years after his death, Chifley's name still aroused partisan passions. In 1987 the New South Wales Labor government decided to name the planned new university in Sydney's western suburbs Chifley University. When, in 1989, a new Liberal government renamed it the University of Western Sydney, controversy broke out. According to a debate on the topic, held in 1997 after the Labor Party had regained government, the decision to rename Chifley University reflected a desire to attach the name of Western Sydney to institutions of lasting significance, and that idea ultimately received the support of Bob Carr, later the Premier of New South Wales.

Chifley had lived apart from his wife for many years: his secretary, Phyllis Donnelly, was with him when he died. Long-held suspicions that she had been his lover were confirmed in David Day's 2001 biography.

The light on the hill

"I try to think of the labour movement, not as putting an extra sixpence into somebody's pocket, or making somebody Prime Minister or Premier, but as a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people. We have a great objective - the light on the hill - which we aim to reach by working the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labour movement would not be worth fighting for." (excerpt from "The Light on the Hill" speech, 12 June 1949)

Honours

Places and institutions that have been named after Chifley include:

the suburb of Chifley in Canberra

the suburb of Chifley in Sydney

the Division of Chifley, a federal electorate

Chifley Library, the main library of the Australian National University, Canberra

Chifley Tower and Chifley Square in Sydney

several public high schools in Western Sydney are now known as Chifley College

a grouping of dormitories at the Bathurst campus of Charles Sturt University are collectively named as Chifley Halls

an Australian hotel chain.

In 1975 he was honoured on a postage stamp bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post.

See also

First Chifley Ministry

Second Chifley Ministry

1949 Australian coal strike

The light on the hill

Notes and references

Bibliography

Duncan, Bruce, ''Crusade or conspiracy?: Catholics and the anti-communist struggle in Australia'', UNSW Press, 2001, ISBN 0868407313

Further reading

Chifley, Ben (1952), ''Things Worth Fighting For'' (collected speeches), Melbourne University Press, Parkville, Victoria.

Crisp, L.F. (1961), ''Ben Chifley: A Political Biography'', Longman, Green and Co, Melbourne, Victoria.

Day, David (2001), ''Chifley'', HarperCollins, 2001

Hughes, Colin A (1976), ''Mr Prime Minister. Australian Prime Ministers 1901-1972'', Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria, Ch.17. ISBN 0-19-550471-2

Makin, Norman (1961), ''Federal Labour Leaders'', Union Printing, Sydney, New South Wales, Pages 122-131.

Waterson, Duncan (1993), ''Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol. 13 A-D pp. 412–420'', Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria.

External links

Chifley Research Centre

Chifley College, Sydney

National Museum of Australia Chifley memorabilia: Ben Chifley's Akubra hat

Category:1885 births Category:1951 deaths Category:Prime Ministers of Australia Category:Australian Roman Catholics Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Treasurers of Australia Category:Members of the Cabinet of Australia Category:Australian Leaders of the Opposition Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives Category:Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Macquarie Category:Australian Labor Party politicians Category:World War II political leaders Category:Australian people of Irish descent Category:Railroad engineers

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Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
name	Chris Haywood
birth date	24/07/1948
birth place	Billericay, Essex, England, UK
birthname	Chris Haywood Australian actor
years active	1970 - present
afiawards	Best Actor xxxxx19xx and 20xx'' }}

Chris Haywood (born 24 July 1948) is an English-born, Australian-based film and televisionactor/producer.

Early life

Haywood was born in Billericay, Essex, England. He spent his early childhood in Chelmsford before moving to High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire where he attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School from 1959 to 1965. He then started working in the cellars of a local wine shipper before gaining a place at E15 Acting School. After graduating in 1970 he migrated to Australia and soon after, he was involved with Sydney's Nimrod Theatre Company and according to an interview with ABC reporter Jane Cowan, actually helped build the premises with scrap timber. He was the Artistic Director of the Pro's and Con's Playhouse at Parramatta Jail for two years. He established the drama service on Kiribati National Radio.

Film

Film credits include: ''The Cars That Ate Paris'', ''Newsfront'', ''In Search of Anna'', ''Kostas'', ''Breaker Morant'', ''The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey'', ''Running on Empty'', ''Man of Flowers'', ''Quigley Down Under'', ''Lonely Hearts'', ''Strikebound'', ''Malcolm'', ''The Bit Part'', ''Golden Braid'', ''A Woman's Tale'', ''The First Kangaroos'', ''Muriel's Wedding'',''Shine'' and ''Under Hill 60''

Television

TV credits include: ''Homicide'', ''Against the Wind'', ''Five Mile Creek'', ''Return to Eden'', ''Waterfront'', ''A Good Thing Going'', ''Boys From The Bush'', ''Water Rats'', ''Farscape'', ''McLeod's Daughters'', ''All Saints'', ''Stingers'', ''Grass Roots'' and ''Home and Away''.

Awards

His performances have been honoured with three Awards from the Australian Film Institute (from a total of eight nominations) for his roles in the feature films ''A Street to Die'' and ''Emerald City'', and for television in Stingers as well as the Film Critics Circle Award for ''Kiss or Kill'' and the Asian Film Festival Award for ''In Search of Anna''. He garnered three Logie Awards for his work on television-for Essington, Good Thing Going and Janus. Most recently he won the Best Actor award at the Tampa Bay Film Festival in Florida.

References

External links

Category:1948 births Category:English film actors Category:English television actors Category:Living people Category:Old Wycombiensians Category:People from Billericay

sv:Chris Haywood

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
Name	Kristina Keneally
Honorific-suffix	MP
Office	42nd Premier of New South WalesElections: 2011
Governor	Marie Bashir
Deputy	Carmel Tebbutt
Term start	4 December 2009
Term end	28 March 2011
Predecessor	Nathan Rees
Successor	Barry O'Farrell
Office2	19th Leader of the Labor Party in New South Wales
Deputy2	Carmel Tebbutt
Term start2	3 December 2009
Term end2	31 March 2011
Predecessor2	Nathan Rees
Successor2	John Robertson
Constituency mp3	Heffron
Parliament3	New South Wales
Term start3	22 March 2003
Predecessor3	Deirdre Grusovin
Birth date	December 19, 1968
Birth place	Las Vegas, Nevada
Party	Australian Labor Party (2000–present)
Otherparty	United States Democratic Party (Before 2000)
Spouse	Ben Keneally
Children	DanielBrendan
Alma mater	University of DaytonMarquette University
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Website	Parliament website }}

Kristina Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an Australian politician and was the 42nd Premier of New South Wales. She was elected leader of the Australian Labor Party and thus Premier in 2009, but went on to lose government to the Liberal/National Coalition at the March 2011 state election. She was replaced as Leader by John Robertson, who was elected unopposed, on 31 March 2011.

Keneally was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Heffron at the 2003 state election, succeeding Deirdre Grusovin after a controversial preselection. After being re-elected to parliament at the 2007 state election, she became the Minister for Ageing and Disability Services and was subsequently appointed Minister for Planning by Premier Nathan Rees in 2008. She held the position of the NSW Government's Spokesperson for World Youth Day 2008.

Early life

Keneally was born Kristina Marie Kerscher in Las Vegas to an American father and an Australian-born mother. She lived briefly in Colorado but grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where she attended high school at Notre Dame Academy. While at Notre Dame she was twice awarded most valuable player (1985, 1986) in the Academy's soccer team.

Upon graduating from Notre Dame, she undertook studies at the University of Dayton, also in Ohio. While there she became involved in student politics, and was involved in founding the National Association of Students at Catholic Colleges and Universities, serving as president of the group in 1990 and 1991. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1991, was a registered Democrat and worked as an intern for the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, Paul Leonard. In 1995 she graduated with a Master of Arts in religious studies. She later studied at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After graduating from the University of Dayton she worked for a year as a volunteer teacher in New Mexico.

Keneally met her future husband, an Australian, Ben Keneally, at World Youth Day 1991 in Poland. She moved to Australia in 1994 to be with him, but they returned to the US so that Ben could take up a position with the Boston Consulting Group. They married there in 1996. They returned to Australia two years after their elder son was born. She became a naturalised Australian in 2000, the same year she joined the Labor Party.

Working life

After arriving in Australia she worked for the New South Wales branch of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul as State Youth Coordinator before leaving full-time work to care for her children. She also briefly attended the Australian Catholic University in Strathfield, New South Wales.

Political career

Keneally was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 2003, following a bitter pre-election battle with Deirdre Grusovin, the sister of senior Labor politician Laurie Brereton. It was in fact her husband Ben who was more interested in a political career, relying on his friendship with Joe Tripodi. However, the party's affirmative action rules required a female candidate, so Keneally ran instead. In her inaugural speech she talked about her commitment to social justice, equal opportunity for women and her Roman Catholic faith.

As NSW Minister for Disability Services, Keneally undertook measures to rebuild outdated institutional residential facilities for people with disability, going back on promises made by her (non-immediate) predecessor Faye Lo Po'.

As NSW Planning Minister from August 2008, Mrs Keneally's department oversaw the local traffic diversions, and strict environmental management during construction, around the desalination pipeline works between Erskineville and Kurnell, approved by the department under the desalination pipeline project approval, granted by Frank Sartor, in November 2007.

In August 2009, Keneally was alleged to be one of the names being put forward in a challenge to wrest the leadership from NSW Premier Nathan Rees. Keneally responded to the accusations by stating: "He (Nathan Rees) has my support (as Premier)" and it was reported that she insisted she would never be Premier of New South Wales, something that was continuously disputed in the media.

In November 2009 Keneally again denied she wanted to be Premier, saying "I have always supported the Premier, Bob Carr, Morris Iemma and now Nathan Rees. Now is the time to put this ridiculous leadership speculation behind us." Less than a month later Keneally challenged and defeated Rees to become the 42nd Premier of New South Wales and the first woman, and first former American to hold the office.

Premier

On 3 December 2009 Keneally won a party room ballot against Premier Nathan Rees with a majority of 45–21, gaining the support of the dominant right faction of the Labor Party caucus. Prior to the vote, Nathan Rees declared "''Should I not be Premier at the end of this day, let there be no doubt in the community's mind that any challenger would be a puppet of Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi''", a claim later rejected by Keneally, who stated "''I am nobody's puppet, I am nobody's protege, I am nobody's girl.''"

On 4 December 2009 Keneally was sworn in as the 42nd (and first female) premier of New South Wales by the State Governor, Marie Bashir. She led the first two-woman executive (Premier and Deputy Premier) in Australian history. :

Party renewal

Keneally pushed to renew the Labor Party, with 23 members of the 50 caucus members retiring. Her push also included the resignation of the NSW Labor President, Bernie Riordan and retirements of Labor Powerbrokers, Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid.

Electricity privatisation

On 14 December 2010 her government sold the first tranche of the partial privatisation of the state's electricity assets (see Electricity Commission of New South Wales) for $5.3 billion. Eight of the directors quit in protest over the sale of trading rights to the output of generators. After criticism of the privatisation, her Government abandoned the second stage of its electricity privatisation plan, as no companies bidded.

On 22 December 2010 NSW Governor Marie Bashir prorogued Parliament on Keneally's request. This act normally takes place later than December prior to elections. There were accusations that Keneally tried to halt the electricity inquiry, which later proceeded.

Popularity

When she became Premier, she was highly popular and was the most popular political leader at one stage, as the Galaxy poll showed in March 2010, her personal satisfaction was 53 per cent. Her popularity began to decline in August 2010, with her approval rating falling to 39 per cent. In October 2010, her government became the most unpopular Labor government there was in Australia, with Newspoll showing Labor only had 23 per cent of the primary vote.

Election defeat

Keneally's term as Premier ended following the 2011 state election on 26 March 2011. The Labor government was defeated with a swing against it of over 16 per cent—the highest for a general election in Australia since World War 2—to the Liberal National Coalition led by Barry O'Farrell. On the evening of that election, Keneally announced that she would not contest the leadership of the NSW Labor Party, and stated that she would return to the back bench.

Personal life

Keneally and her husband have two sons, Daniel and Brendan. A daughter, Caroline, died at birth. Her husband is the nephew of Australian writer Thomas Keneally.

Publications

See also

Keneally ministry

New South Wales state election, 2011

References

External links

NSW Premier official website

Official Parliamentary Profile

''Making a Premier'' – Sydney Morning Herald profile

Kristina Keneally – Ready made for television

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Category:1968 births Category:American emigrants to Australia Category:Australian Labor Party politicians Category:Australian Roman Catholics Category:Australian people of American descent Category:Living people Category:Keneally Cabinet Category:Marquette University alumni Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Category:People from the Las Vegas metropolitan area Category:People from Sydney Category:People from Toledo, Ohio Category:Premiers of New South Wales Category:The Catholic University of America alumni Category:University of Dayton alumni

cs:Kristina Keneallyová de:Kristina Keneally fr:Kristina Keneally pl:Kristina Keneally simple:Kristina Keneally sk:Kristina Keneallyová