Chifley, Ben (1885-1951), served as prime minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. He became prime minister and leader of the Australian Labor Party one month before the end of World War II (1939-1945). He succeeded Prime Minister John Curtin, who died in office.
Early life
Boyhood.
Joseph Benedict Chifley, called Ben, was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, on Sept. 22, 1885. His parents were Patrick Chifley (1862-1921), a blacksmith, and Mary Anne Corrigan Chifley (1856?-1929). Ben was raised chiefly by his grandfather. He lived and worked on his grandfather’s farm for much of his boyhood. 
When Ben was a teenager, he left school and went to work. He soon got a job as an assistant in the Bathurst engine shed, where the New South Wales Government Railways maintained its steam locomotives. Within a few years, the railway promoted him to fireman, the worker who tended the boiler in a locomotive. Ben continued to educate himself at night school, attending classes at the Worker’s Educational Association.
Marriage and family.
On June 6, 1914, Chifley married Elizabeth Gibson McKenzie (1886-1962), the daughter of a co-worker at the railway. The Chifleys had no children.
Engine driver and labor leader.
While Chifley was still in his 20’s, the New South Wales Railways promoted him to engine driver. He became a member of two railway unions, a statewide union called the New South Wales Locomotive Enginemen’s Association and a national union called the Federated Engine-drivers and Firemen’s Association of Australasia. He also joined the Labor Party.
On Aug. 2, 1917, the skilled workers who built railway cars walked off the job. They went on strike to protest the introduction of a card system that would record what each worker was doing and how fast the job was completed. Workers throughout the New South Wales Railways walked out in support of the car builders. The strike soon spread to other industries and states. It became known as the General Strike of 1917.
Australia’s federal and state governments enlisted volunteers to fill many of the strikers’ jobs. The railway system dismissed the striking workers, including Chifley, for what it called ”misconduct.” The leaders of the strike called it off on Sept. 8, 1917, without achieving their goals. The railway system rehired Chifley as a fireman, with reduced wages and seniority (rank based on job experience).
In 1920, Chifley helped found the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen. The federation united railway unions from the states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Victoria. In 1921, he took a seat on the board of directors of the Bathurst National Advocate, a Labor newspaper. In 1925, the government of New South Wales restored the seniority and other rights of the strikers.
Entry into politics
Chifley made several attempts to win political office in the 1920’s. In 1922 and 1924, he failed to win the Labor Party nomination for a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. In 1925, he became the Labor Party’s candidate for a seat representing Macquarie in the Australian House of Representatives, but he was not elected. In 1928, he finally won the Macquarie seat.
On March 2, 1931, Prime Minister James Scullin appointed Chifley minister for defense and minister assisting the treasurer. In elections in December of that year, however, Chifley lost his seat in Parliament and thus his Cabinet post. He returned to Bathurst, where he helped run the Bathurst National Advocate. From 1931 to 1940, Chifley failed in several bids to win reelection to Parliament.
Wartime Cabinet
In 1939, Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies appointed Chifley director of labor supply in the Department of Munitions. The department controlled the supply of military equipment during World War II. Chifley also served on a number of other wartime agencies. In September 1940, he won reelection to his old seat in Parliament. He held it through the next four elections, in 1943, 1946, 1949, and 1951.
In 1941, Prime Minister John Curtin appointed Chifley treasurer of Australia. Chifley also served in Curtin’s War Cabinet, a panel formed to advise the government on the conduct of the war.
As treasurer, Chifley had to finance Australia’s war effort and control inflation (price increases throughout the economy). He raised taxes and imposed strict controls on prices, borrowing, and lending. In 1943, he began wartime rationing, a system for distributing scarce products among the people. Chifley expanded the function of the government-backed Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He gave it the powers of a central bank—that is, control over the money supply and credit. He also brought other banks under stricter government control.
In 1942, Chifley pushed through legislation under which the federal government took from the states the power to collect income taxes. From 1942 to 1945, Chifley held the additional post of minister for postwar reconstruction.
Prime minister
Prime Minister Curtin died on July 5, 1945. Curtin’s deputy, Francis M. Forde, served as interim (temporary) prime minister from July 6 to July 13. The Labor Party elected Chifley as its new leader on July 12. On July 13, he was sworn in as prime minister. Chifley kept the post of treasurer. He also served, at times, as minister for defense and minister for external affairs.
Chifley and his wife seldom used The Lodge, the prime minister’s official residence in Canberra. Elizabeth Chifley was in poor health and remained at home in Bathurst for most of the time her husband was in Parliament. He lived at a Canberra hotel.
Legislative achievements.
Although Chifley led the country for only four years, his government passed much important legislation. For example, it reached an agreement with the United Kingdom to provide free and low-cost passage for immigrants, opening the way for a stream of British immigrants to Australia. The Nationality and Citizenship Act of 1948 established a new code of citizenship law. The act introduced the principle that Australian citizens belonged to Australia rather than to the United Kingdom.
Some legislation benefited industry. Chifley played an important role in launching the Snowy Mountains Scheme, a huge hydroelectric and irrigation project. Chifley’s support of the automobile industry enabled the first Australian-made car, the Holden, to roll off the assembly line in 1948.
Other measures promoted education. The Education Act of 1945 expanded Australia’s university system. The Australian National University Act of 1946 created Australian National University in Canberra. The Science and Industry Research Act of 1949 established the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency.
The Chifley government also passed important social welfare legislation. New laws established programs to provide widows’ pensions and unemployment and sickness benefits. The Hospital Benefits Act of 1945 gave payments to the states to pay for the care of hospital patients. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Act of 1947 provided free prescription drugs. The government also enacted a number of measures to help war veterans return to civilian life. Such measures included scholarships to help them attend universities and government support for the construction of new housing.
Growing unpopularity.
Chifley held office at a difficult time in Australia’s history, and some of his programs became unpopular. He believed that many of the regulations that had governed the economy during wartime should not be relaxed too quickly. The government continued some of these restrictions, including gasoline rationing, into the late 1940’s, which irritated many people.
Chifley’s nationalization program—that is, the program to bring industries under the ownership and control of the government—met the most resistance. The government nationalized the airline Qantas and Australia’s overseas telecommunications industry. In 1946, it established a government-owned airline, Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA). In 1947, the government attempted to nationalize the private banks. The banks and other financial institutions strongly opposed the proposal.
Former Prime Minister Menzies, the leader of the Liberal Party, campaigned against the nationalization policies of the Chifley government. In the general election of Dec. 10, 1949, voters turned the Labor government out of office. Chifley, however, kept his seat in Parliament. On December 19, Menzies became prime minister at the head of a coalition (partnership) government with the Country Party. Chifley remained head of the Labor Party and became the leader of the opposition.
On Nov. 26, 1950, Chifley suffered a heart attack. On June 13, 1951, he had another heart attack in his hotel room in Canberra and died.
