The Rt Hon Andrew Fisher

Labor Leader - 30 October 1907 - 30 October 1915
Labor Prime Minister :
- 13 November 1908 - 2 June 1909
- 29 April 1910 - 24 June 1913
- 17 September 1914 - 27 October 1915

Biography

Like Alfred Deakin, Andrew Fisher was Prime Minister three times, in 1908-09, 1910-13 and 1914-15. Although very different in background, these two men share the title of founder of the new nation's statutory structure.

Andrew Fisher's politics were formed at the coalface. At the age of ten, he became one of many boys working in Scottish mines. He was still a coalminer when he migrated to Queensland thirteen years later.

Fisher was a founding member of both the Labor Party in Queensland and of the federal parliamentary Labor Party. He held the House of Representatives seat of Wide Bay from 1901 until 1915.

He became Labor leader in 1907 and prime minister for the first time in 1908 after the Deakin Government, deprived of Labor support, fell. His ministry was replaced by a Conservative coalition in 1909 but in 1910 Labor won a resounding victory at the polls. Narrowly defeated by Joseph Cook's group in 1913, Fisher returned to power in 1914 when Cook called an early election and lost. But his ministry was distracted by the crisis in Europe and by divisions in the party over conscription. Fisher resigned in 1915 and was high commissioner in London from 1916-1921.

When Fisher was Prime Minister a number of important projects were undertaken. The Royal Australian Navy was established, the Commonwealth Bank was set up, the Northern Territory of South Australia was transferred to the Commonwealth, the federal capital of Canberra was founded, and the construction of the trans-Australian railway line linking Perth to the other capitals was begun. As well as introducing maternity allowances, Fisher acknowledged the need for greater political equality for women.