Australian Politics for Dummies by Ghazarian Zareh Economou Nicholas

Author:Ghazarian, Zareh, Economou, Nicholas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published: 2010-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

Ben Chifley and bank nationalisation

The only federal Labor government to have seriously attempted socialisation of a sector of the economy consistent with the Socialist Objective was that headed by Prime Minister Ben Chifley. In 1947, as part of his government’s post-war reconstruction plans, the Chifley government passed legislation in the national parliament converting the private ownership of the country’s banks to government ownership.

The Chifley government had succeeded the wartime government headed by John Curtin. (Curtin had died in office and Chifley took over as Labor leader and prime minister.) During the war, government had effectively taken over the running of the Australian economy. The Chifley government argued that it was simply carrying on the wartime management of the economy into post-war reconstruction and that its intention was to free up capital to help other private businesses to get established.

The bank nationalisation plan was a political disaster, however. The banks were furious at what the government had done, and the anger extended down to the bank employees as well. And both the banks and their workers were sent into the arms of a newly formed anti-Labor political party, called the Liberal Party, at the 1949 election (see Chapter 10). But, before then, the banks took Chifley’s legislation to the High Court of Australia, which ruled it contravened Section 92 of the Australian Constitution. The Act was invalidated.

Chifley and the unions

So, you think the Labor Party is merely a cipher of the unions? Then consider this: In 1948 and 1949, Australia’s coalmining unions went on strike across the country. This strike was a major challenge to the government’s reconstruction plans, and Prime Minister Chifley decided to reassert his authority by using the Australian army to mine and transport coal. Of course, that action looks like an act of treachery committed by one arm of the labour movement against the other. However, the unions involved in the strike were not affiliated with the Labor Party. Rather, these unions belonged to the Communist Party of Australia. A massive rivalry was developing between the ALP and CPA that would erupt into a major split in the Labor Party in 1955 (see the next section, ‘The Splits’).

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