Deakin, Alfred (1856-1919), was the second prime minister of Australia. He was also a leader of the federation movement that united the six British colonies in Australia to form a nation. Deakin served as prime minister of Australia three times—from September 1903 to April 1904, from July 1905 to November 1908, and from June 1909 to April 1910. He was one of only two Australian prime ministers to hold the office three times. Andrew Fisher, who alternated with him in office, was the other.
As prime minister, Deakin headed two major political parties. During his first two terms in office, he led the Protectionist Party. The Protectionists favored the use of tariffs (taxes on imports) to make imported goods more expensive and thus encourage consumers to buy from Australian businesses. In 1909, Deakin helped found and became the leader of a new party known as the Fusion Party or Fusion Liberal Party. The Fusion Party became a forerunner of the Liberal Party in Australia, which regards Deakin as one of its founders.
Early life
Boyhood and education.
Deakin was born on Aug. 3, 1856, in Collingwood (now Fitzroy), a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. Victoria at that time was a British colony. Deakin’s parents were English immigrants to Australia—William Deakin, a storekeeper and later the manager of a carriage company, and Sarah Bill Deakin. In 1871, Alfred began evening classes at the University of Melbourne. He worked during the day as a schoolteacher and private tutor. He graduated from the university in 1877 with a degree in law.
In 1877, Deakin became a barrister (lawyer who argues cases in the highest courts), but he found little work. In 1878, he became a journalist for the progressive Melbourne newspaper The Age. He wrote articles on politics, literature, and other topics.
As a young man, Deakin became interested in the spiritualist movement. Spiritualists believe that the spirits of the dead can communicate with the living, often at gatherings called séances. Deakin served as president of the Victorian Spiritualists’ Union for many years. He wrote a spiritualist allegory (story with two meanings) called A New Pilgrim’s Progress (1877). It was based on his experiences at séances where he believed he spoke with the long-dead English author John Bunyan. Bunyan wrote the original book The Pilgrim’s Progress in the 1600’s.
Marriage and family.
Through the spiritualist movement, Deakin met a young woman named Elizabeth Martha Anne Browne (1863-1934), called Pattie. Her father was a wealthy distiller (maker of alcoholic beverages) and spiritualist leader. The young couple married on April 3, 1882.
The Deakins had three daughters, Ivy Deakin Brookes (1883-1970), Stella Deakin Rivett (1886-1976), and Vera Deakin White (1891-1978). Later in life, Pattie Deakin worked for children’s welfare and promoted the establishment of kindergartens and playgrounds.
Entry into politics
In 1879, at the age of 22, Alfred Deakin won a by-election (special election to fill a vacant seat) to represent the Melbourne district of West Bourke in the Legislative Assembly of Victoria. The Legislative Assembly was the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria. Deakin won the election by only 79 votes. The election became controversial because the press charged that some voters were unable to cast ballots because of problems with their voting papers. Deakin surprised the Assembly by resigning on his first day because he doubted the fairness of the election. He won the seat again in a general election in July 1880, and he held the seat until 1889. That year, he won the seat for the Melbourne suburb of Essendon, which he held until he resigned in 1900.
Colonial official.
From 1883 to 1886, Deakin served as Victoria’s minister for public works and water supply. In that office, he supervised highways, dams, canals, and other facilities built by the government for public use. In 1885, he became leader of the Liberal Party in Victoria. He served as chief secretary of the colonial government from 1886 to 1890. He then became minister of health and, for a short time, solicitor general—the official who represented the government in important legal proceedings.
As a colonial official, Deakin helped promote irrigation, which was little known in Australia. In 1884 and 1885, he led a fact-finding group to California to study how irrigation made farming possible there even during dry months. He wrote a report of his visit, Irrigation in Western America (1885). In 1886, he introduced legislation to provide state aid that helped establish irrigation in Australia. Queen Victoria offered him a knighthood that same year, but he refused it because he considered himself a man of the people and did not want to be called ”Sir Alfred.” He later visited India on a trip sponsored by The Age. He wrote the books Irrigated India and Temple and Tomb in India (both 1893).
Federation.
During the 1890’s, Deakin devoted himself to the federation movement, which sought to unite the six British colonies in Australia. The six colonies were New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia.
Deakin played a major role at two meetings at which representatives of the colonies wrote a constitution under which the colonies might unite. The first meeting of the National Australasian Convention took place in Sydney in 1891. The second Australasian Federal Convention was held in three sessions in 1897 and 1898 in Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne. After a number of amendments, the new constitution gained the approval of voters in all six colonies. Australian leaders submitted the Constitution to the British Parliament in March 1900, and Parliament approved it in July. The Commonwealth of Australia came into being on Jan. 1, 1901.
In the first general election after federation, on March 29, 1901, Deakin won election to the House of Representatives, the lower house of Australia’s first federal Parliament. He represented Ballarat, Victoria. The first prime minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, appointed Deakin attorney general in the new federal government.
Prime minister
Barton resigned as prime minister on Sept. 23, 1903. Barton became one of three judges of the High Court of Australia—the court that decides constitutional questions and serves as the nation’s ultimate court of appeal. The day after Barton’s resignation, Deakin succeeded him as prime minster and minister of external affairs.
First term.
From 1901 to 1910, the period of Deakin’s three terms as prime minister, no single group held a majority in the House of Representatives. Three main groups competed for power. They were the Protectionists; the Commonwealth Labor Party, later named the Australian Labor Party; and the conservative Free Trade Party. First Barton and then Deakin led the Protectionists. Chris Watson, a Chilean-born labor leader, and then Andrew Fisher, a Scottish-born miner, headed the Labor Party. George Reid, a Scottish-born barrister, led the Free Traders.
During Deakin’s first two terms as prime minister, the Protectionist Party governed with the support of the Labor Party. Both parties favored protective tariffs on imports, old-age pensions, limits on immigration, and laws to regulate working conditions in factories.
On April 27, 1904, Deakin resigned as prime minister. He was forced to step down after his government was defeated in Parliament over an important amendment to a bill to prevent labor disputes. The Labor leader Chris Watson and then the Free Trade leader George Reid succeeded Deakin, but neither held office for more than a few months. Deakin, meanwhile, served as leader of the opposition.
Second term.
Deakin returned to office on July 5, 1905. His second term as prime minister became the longest and most successful. It shaped many federal policies and passed much important legislation. Deakin’s government created an Australian currency and chose Canberra for the site of the national capital. The Papua Act of 1905 established Australian control of the former British New Guinea. The first protective tariff, the Australian Industries Protection Act, was passed in 1906. The Bureau of Census and Statistics was established in 1906, and the Bureau of Meteorology in 1907. The Invalid and Old Age Pensioner Act of 1908 gave pensions to people over the age of 65.
In 1908, Labor again withdrew its support from the Protectionist Party. Deakin resigned on November 13. Labor formed its own government with Andrew Fisher as prime minister. Deakin again became leader of the opposition.
Third term.
In 1909, Deakin negotiated an alliance with his former opponents, the Free Traders. The two groups formed a new party called the Fusion Party or Fusion Liberal Party because it fused (combined) the Protectionist and Free Trade parties. Deakin, the head of the Fusion Party, again became prime minister on June 2, 1909. On April 13, 1910, however, the Labor Party swept into office with majorities in both houses of Parliament. Labor leader Andrew Fisher again succeeded Deakin as prime minister on April 29.
Later years
Deakin retired from politics in 1913 because of poor health. He suffered from progressive memory loss, possibly due to Alzheimer’s disease. He wrote in his journal, ”My memory is but a little fiction.” In September 1919, Deakin suffered a stroke. He died on Oct. 7, 1919, in Melbourne.
Many of Deakin’s writings were published after his death. His history of the federation movement, The Federal Story, appeared in 1944. His description of his political career in Victoria was published as The Crisis in Victorian Politics (1957). A collection of his journalism was published as Federated Australia (1968). The Alfred Deakin Prime Ministerial Library at Deakin University in Geelong has a collection of books, papers, and other material about him.
