First double dissolution gamble backfired on pre-war Prime Minister Joseph Cook

AS we head toward the first double dissolution election in nearly 30 years, it is interesting to see the parallels with Australia’s first such election called by pre-war PM Joseph Cook (left) back in 1914.

Aust politician Prime Minister Joseph Cook.

AS we head toward the first double dissolution election in nearly three decades it is interesting to see the parallels with Australia’s first such election back in 1914. Back then we also had a Liberal Party Prime Minister calling an election after legislation aimed at unions failed to pass through the Senate.

Europe was then, like now, on the brink of chaos but rather than refugees and terrorism the election campaign would be derailed by the outbreak of World War I.

The cause of our first double dissolution can be found in the 1913 election when Joseph Cook’s Commonwealth Liberal Party, a fusion of protectionist and anti-socialist parties, defeated Andrew Fisher’s Labor by one seat in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, however, Labor won 11 of the 18 seats, giving them a 29-7 lead.

This made life hell for Cook. His increasingly conservative vision for Australia clashed with Fisher’s “socialist” policies and the party’s watered down or blocked legislation.

Prime Minister Andrew Fisher (right) and his successor Billy Hughes, pictured togethered in 1910.

Yet at one time they had both been on the same side of politics. Both were miners who had entered politics during the union struggles of the 19th century. Cook had been the first Labor candidate to win election in any Australian parliament, securing a seat in the NSW parliament in 1891.

But he had broken with Labor over his refusal to sign a pledge to be bound by decisions made by Labor caucus.

He moved into federal politics in 1901, still nominally Labor but by 1913 had become leader of the conservative Liberal Party.

After a year of being thwarted by Fisher’s opposition, Cook decided that what was needed was a legislative “trigger” to enact Section 57 of the constitution, allowing for a double dissolution of parliament and an election. He introduced legislation banning union preference in hiring people for government jobs and to introduce postal voting, knowing that neither would be acceptable to Labor and would be blocked in the Senate. The provocation worked, the laws were blocked and Cook got consent from the Governor-General to dissolve both houses and call an election on June 4.

Explaining his decision Cook said of his Labor opposition: “From the first day we had to meet a hurricane of virulent abuse and bitter recrimination. Every effort has been made to prevent business by a powerful minority in the House of Representatives, while in the Senate the insolence and overbearing arrogance of the Socialist party more nearly resembled the Tory tactics of the old oligarchies than the elect of a free people living under free conditions.” Cook was confident that he could win an election on the question of Labor’s policy of nationalising monopolies and of extending government control over other parts of the economy.

Three war-time Prime Mministers: Andrew Fisher, William Morris Hughes and Sir Joseph Cook in 1918.

But events in Europe soon overtook his agenda. On June 28 the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria set in motion a chain of events that brought Europe to the brink of conflict. As war loomed, both parties realised that their original campaign agenda could soon be rendered irrelevant by the outbreak of hostilities and the need to come to the aid of the British. Knowing the strong streak of anti-British and pacifist sentiment in Labor, Cook tried to split the party by saying, even before war was declared: “If the old country is at war so are we.”

Fisher, however, was wise to Cook’s tactic and vowed to put politics aside and stand united with the government to meet the threat of a war, which had still not been declared. On July 31 he gave his famous pledge that Australia would “stand beside the mother country” to defend her “to our last man and our last shilling”.

When war was finally declared on August 4, both parties were trying to outdo each other for patriotic fervour. Cook attempted to depict Labor as unprepared for battle but Labor’s Billy Hughes wrote a campaign manifesto depicting Labor as the sole creator of the nation’s military and the only logical party to lead the country to war.

On September 5, Australia went to the polls and decided that Fisher had a better claim on the job of Prime Minister. Cook’s double dissolution plans had backfired. However, Fisher was handed something of poison chalice. The strain of leading a country seems to have taken its toll on his health and after being absent from parliament for three days, resigned in October 1915, paving the way for the rise of the ambitious Hughes.

Originally published as First double dissolution gamble backfired on pre-war Prime Minister Joseph Cook