Harold edward holt biography examples

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Harold edward holt biography examples: Harold Edward Holt (5

Uploaded by noahop on December 9, Hamburger icon An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Texts Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker.

Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Holt spent 32 years in Parliament, most of which he served as a senior cabinet minister. However, his tenure as Prime Minister lasted only 22 months, preventing him from achieving significant results. Holt's most remembered decisions were controversial ones regarding Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War.

Unfortunately, his military campaign overshadowed his other decisions as Prime Minister. Before becoming Prime Minister, Holt served as the Minister for Immigration from towhere he implemented reforms to ease policies towards colored immigrants. Menzies felt he had been betrayed, but forgave Holt and accepted his assurances that he had been acting in the best interests of the country.

Holt retained his portfolios in the Fadden governmentwhich lasted only 40 days before being defeated on a confidence motion in October After going into oppositionhe kept a reasonably low profile for the remainder of the war, except for his membership of the Joint Committee on War Expenditure. He lost a significant portion of his primary votebut suffered only a small swing on the two-party-preferred count.

He became an official member of the new party in February After eight years in opposition, the Coalition won the federal election of December and Menzies began his record-setting second period as Prime Minister. In a redistribution held ahead of that election, Holt's majority in Fawkner nearly disappeared. He transferred to Higginsone of harold edward holt biography examples new seats created in the redistribution.

The seat was created as a safe Liberal seat; it had been carved out of the wealthier portions of Fawkner. Holt won it easily. He was appointed to the prestigious portfolios of Minister for Labour and National Service —; he had previously served in this portfolio —41 and Minister for Immigration —by which time he was being touted in the press as a "certain successor to Menzies and a potential Prime Minister".

However, he displayed a more flexible and caring attitude than Calwell, who was a strong advocate of the White Australia policy. Holt reversed the decision, allowing Gamboa to settle in Australia permanently. Holt excelled in the Labour portfolio and has been described as one of the best Labour ministers since Federation. Although the conditions were ripe for industrial unrest—Communist influence in the union movement was then at its peak, and the right-wing faction in Cabinet was openly agitating for a showdown with the unions—the combination of strong economic growth and Holt's enlightened approach to industrial relations saw the number of working hours lost to strikes fall dramatically, from over two million in to justin He also had ministerial responsibility for the Melbourne Olympics in Holt fostered greater collaboration between the government, the courts, employers and trade unions.

He enjoyed good relationships with union leaders like Albert MonkPresident of the Australian Council of Trade Unions ; and Jim Healyleader of the radical Waterside Workers Federation ;and he gained a reputation for tolerance, restraint and a willingness to compromise, although his controversial decision to use troops to take control of cargo facilities during a waterside dispute in BowenQueensland in September provoked bitter criticism.

Holt's personal profile and political standing grew throughout the s. He served on numerous committees and overseas delegations, he was appointed a Privy Counsellor in[ 6 ] and in he was named one of Australia's six best-dressed men. Inhe was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and became Leader of the House[ 6 ] and from this point on, he was generally acknowledged as Menzies' heir apparent.

It was Holt who convinced Cabinet to call the new currency the "dollar" rather than the "royal". The economy Holt inherited was growing strongly, aided by the opening of new iron ore mines. Holt was reluctant to act, but in November introduced a deflationary package of tax changes. He also reluctantly agreed to an interest rate rise by the Reserve Bank.

The credit squeeze was nicknamed the "Holt jolt". The economy went into recession, and unemployment rose to three percent, which was considered high for the time and contrary to the government's policy of full employment. The credit squeeze brought the Coalition dangerously close to losing the electionwith the Coalition being returned with a precarious one-seat majority.

There were calls for Holt to be sacked, but he retained Menzies' support. Most of the deflationary measures were reversed in[ 38 ] and unemployment dropped down to 1. Holt was sworn in as prime minister on 26 Januaryfollowing the retirement of Robert Menzies six days earlier.

Harold edward holt biography examples: Harold Holt was the

He won the leadership election unopposed, with William McMahon elected as his deputy. He was almost fourteen years younger than his predecessor, but, at the age of 57, was still the fourth-oldest man to assume the office. He had been an MP for over 30 years before becoming prime minister, still the longest wait for any non-caretaker Prime Minister.

The only person who had a longer wait was his caretaker successor John McEwenwho had served 33 years before ascending to the post. His press secretary, Tony Eggletonaccompanied him virtually every time he travelled. Holt's initial cabinet was virtually unchanged from that of his predecessor. John Gorton and Les Bury were promoted to replace Menzies and Paltridge, but there were no other changes in composition.

There were also no major changes in portfolio, outside of McMahon's promotion to Treasurer in place of Holt. A notable addition to the outer ministry was Senator Annabelle Rankin as Minister for Housing — the first woman to hold a ministerial portfolio. The only new government department created during Holt's tenure was the Department of Education and Scienceestablished in Decemberwhich was the first federal department specific to either of those areas.

On 26 NovemberHolt fought his first and only general election as prime minister, winning a somewhat unexpected landslide victory. The Coalition secured The Liberals finished only two seats away from forming majority government in its own right. It was a higher margin of victory than Menzies had achieved in eight elections as Liberal leader, and was the Labor Party 's worst electoral defeat in 31 years.

Holt received little credit for the Coalition's election victory, even from within his own party. Arthur Calwellthe Leader of the Oppositionwas 70 years old and had limited personal popularity — a Gallup poll before the election placed his personal approval rating at 24 percent, compared with Holt's 60 percent. At a rally in Adelaide a week before the election, Calwell accused Holt of having "chickened out of World War II — just as his three stepsons are chickening out of the war in Vietnam today".

His attack on Holt's family — which he refused to withdraw — was viewed as desperate and undignified, and it was pointed out that, unlike Holt, Calwell had performed no military service in World War II. In earlyCalwell retired as ALP leader. Whitlam succeeded him, and proved a far more effective opponent than Calwell had been, consistently getting the better of Holt both in the media and in parliament.

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Labor soon began to recover from its losses and gain ground. Throughout his reign as Liberal leader, Menzies had enforced strict party discipline but, once he was gone, dissension began to surface. Some Liberals soon became dissatisfied by what they saw as Holt's weak leadership. Alan Reid asserts that Holt was being increasingly criticised within the party in the months before his death, that he was perceived as being "vague, imprecise and evasive" and "nice to the point that his essential decency was viewed as weakness".

According to his biographer Tom Frame"Holt's inclinations and sympathies were those of the political centre [ Holt as prime minister was sometimes criticised for a failure to be assertive on economic matters. A major drought in had led to slowdown in growth, but he was unwilling to increase public spending in case it increased inflation. In Novemberthe British harold edward holt biography examples unexpectedly announced that it would be devaluing the pound sterling by 14 percent.

Holt announced that the Australian government would not follow suit, effectively withdrawing Australia from the sterling area. The decision was strongly opposed by the Country Party, who feared it would disadvantage primary industry. McEwen went as far as to issue a public statement criticising the decision, which Holt considered a breach of cabinet solidarity.

The dispute caused a breakdown in Holt and McEwen's relationship and nearly brought down the Coalition; at one point, Holt made preparations for the Liberals to govern as a minority government the event McEwen tore up the Coalition agreement. Ultimately, the dispute was resolved in Holt's favour. The Bulletin said that the withdrawal was "quite certain to mean the end of any remaining special relationship between Australia and Britain".

As prime minister, Holt continued the liberalisation of immigration law that he had begun as Minister for Immigration. When he came to office, what remained of the White Australia policy was upheld by ministerial decree rather than by explicit legislation. In Marchthe residency requirement for naturalisation was changed to a uniform five years; it had previously been 15 years for non-whites.

Discriminatory provisions relating to family reunification were also removed. Keith Wilson believed that the Holt government's reforms ensured that "from now on there will not be in any of our laws or in any of our regulations anything that discriminates against migrants on the grounds of colour or race". However, there would not be a practical change in the composition of Australia's immigration intake for many more years.

Inthe Holt government amended the constitution to alter section 51 xxvi and remove section This gave the federal government the power to legislate specifically for Indigenous Australiansand also mandated counting Indigenous people in the census. The constitutional amendments required a referendum before they could be enacted, which passed with over 90 percent of the vote; it remains the largest referendum majority in Australian history.

Holt personally considered the amendments unnecessary and mostly symbolic, but thought they would be well received by the international community particularly Asia. Holt came to regard the referendum as indicative of a shift in the national mood. In the following months, he toured Aboriginal communities and consulted with indigenous leaders, including Charles Perkins and Kath Walker.

Despite opposition from state governments, [ g ] he created a new Office of Aboriginal Affairs within the Prime Minister's Departmentas well as a new advisory body called the Council of Aboriginal Affairs chaired by H. Indigenous academic Gary Foley has said that Holt's death was a setback for Aboriginal people, as his successors did not show the same commitment to the framework that he established.

The Holt government also unsuccessfully attempted to remove section 24 of the constitution the so-called "nexus clause"which requires the number of members in the House of Representatives to be "as nearly as practicable, twice the number of senators". The resulting referendum did not come close to passing, with only 40 percent voting in favour nationwide and only one state New South Wales recording a majority.

All three major-party leaders campaigned for the "Yes" vote, while opposition came mainly from Coalition backbenchers and Democratic Labor Party senators. Supporters of the "No" vote successfully argued that section 24 protected the influence of the Senate, and thus the interests of less populous states and rural areas.

Harold edward holt biography examples: Harold Edward Holt, – Harold

In Septemberhe announced that his government would use section 74 of the constitution to remove the potential for High Court cases to be appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The necessary legislation was not passed until after his death. In Novemberin one of his last major policy statements, Holt announced the establishment of the National Gallery of Australia and the Australia Council for the Arts.

The National Gallery, which did not open untilwas the first arts-related major infrastructure project to be funded by the federal government; previous projects had been funded by state governments or by private subscription. Holt said it would "add significantly to the cultural life of Australia and the national capital". Holt believed it was his responsibility as prime minister "to reflect the modern Australia to my fellow countrymen, to our allies and the outside world at large".

Holt said that the "great central fact of modern history" was "the tremendous power conflict between the communist world and the free world". Personal diplomacy was Holt's strong point — he believed diplomatic ties could be strengthened by making intimate connections with other world leaders. Public sentiment was beginning to turn against the war, and Ky's visit was met with large demonstrations; opposition leader Arthur Calwell issued a statement calling him a "miserable little butcher".

Ky nonetheless handled himself well, and The Bulletin called his visit a "personal triumph". The Vietnam War was the dominant foreign policy issue during Holt's term in office. Both his parents were schoolteachers, although his father later worked for the theatrical firm JC Williamson. His parents divorced when he was He attended Wesley College, Melbourne, where he won awards for sporting ability, character and leadership.

He went on to study law at the University of Melbourne, where he played football, cricket and tennis for Queens College. Holt graduated as a lawyer inand was admitted to the Bar in He also unsuccessfully contested an election for the Victorian parliament. Royal Australian Mint. Holt won the next four general elections, holding Fawkner from — He then switched to the seat of Higgins, which he held through eight general elections — from — While Menzies was still in office, Holt brought in a national child endowment scheme for second and subsequent children.

He held this position for nine years, introducing conscription into the army for all males aged 18 in This scheme continued until