Alfred Deakin
- Second Prime Minister - Federal Conventions 1891, 1897, 1898 - London - Federation Bill - first federal Parliament - MP for Ballarat -
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Early life
The son of English immigrants, Deakin was born in Melbourne, and was educated at Melbourne Grammar School before graduating in law from the University of Melbourne. Nevertheless he made his name not as a lawyer but as a journalist, working for the Melbourne daily The Age and its autocratic owner, David Syme. He was active in the Australian Natives Association and was also a lifelong spiritualist.
Victorian politics and the road to Federation
In 1879 Deakin won election to the Parliament of Victoria in 1879, as a liberal
protectionist and a supporter of the radical Premier, Graham Berry. Between 1883
and 1890 he held office in several ministries. He could probably have been
Premier himself, but from 1890 onwards he devoted his attention to the movement
for federation. Furthermore, he was nearly ruined in the property crash of 1891,
and had to return to the bar to restore his finances.
Deakin was a delegate to the Federal Conventions of 1891 and 1897-98, and
federation became the greatest cause of his life. His early radicalism had
become tempered by realism, and he accepted the rather conservative draft
constitution which emerged from the conventions, even though it led to a break
with some of his old colleagues.
In 1900 Deakin travelled to London to oversee the passage of the Federation Bill
through the Imperial Parliament, and took part in the negotiations with Joseph
Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, which nearly derailed the whole process.
Deakin defined himself as an "independent Australian Briton," favouring a
self-governing Australia but loyal to the British Empire. He certainly did not
see federation as marking Australia's independence from Britain. On the
contrary, Deakin was a supporter of closer empire unity, serving as president of
the Victorian branch of the Imperial Federation League, a cause he believed to
be a stepping stone to a more spiritual world unity.
Federal politics
In 1901 he was elected to the first federal Parliament as MP for Ballarat, and
became Attorney-General in the ministry headed by Edmund Barton. No-one doubted,
however, that Deakin was the real leader of the government. When Barton retired
to become one of the founding justices of the High Court of Australia, Deakin
succeeded him as Prime Minister on September 24, 1903.
But Deakin's path as Prime Minister was far from smooth. His Protectionist Party
did not have a majority in either House, and he held office only by courtesy of
the Labor Party, which insisted on legislation more radical than Deakin was
willing to accept. In April 1904 he resigned. The Labor leader John Christian
Watson and the Free Trade leader George Reid succeeded him, but neither could
form a stable ministry.
Deakin resumed office in mid-1905, and retained it for three years. During this,
the longest and most successful of his terms as Prime Minister, his government
passed much of the foundational legislation of the Australian Commonwealth,
including bills to create an Australian currency and an Australian Navy
(although the actual establishment of the Navy was left to his Labor successor).
In 1908 he was again forced from office by Labor. He then formed a coalition,
the "Fusion", with his old conservative opponent Reid, and returned to power in
1909 at the head of Australia's first majority government.
The Fusion was seen by many as a betrayal of Deakin's liberal principles, and in
April 1910 his party was soundly defeated at the polls by Labor under Andrew
Fisher. Deakin retired from Parliament in 1913 and withdrew from public life. He
suffered a progressive mental collapse (probably due to early-onset Alzheimer's
disease) and became an invalid, dying in 1919 aged only 63.
Journalism
Deakin continued to write prolifically throughout his career. He wrote anonymous political commentaries for the London Morning Post even while he was prime minister. His account of the federation movement appeared as The Federal Story in 1944 and is a vital primary source for this history. His account of his career in Victorian politics in the 1880s was published as The Crisis in Victorian Politics in 1957. His collected journalism was published as Federated Australia in 1968.
Legacy
Alfred Deakin was almost universally liked, admired and respected by his contemporaries, who called him "Affable Alfred." He made his only real enemies at the time of the Fusion, when not only Labour but some liberals such as William Lyne reviled him as a traitor. He had a long and happy marriage to Pattie Deakin (nee Elizabeth Browne), and had three daughters who all married influential men. His descendants are still active in Melbourne political and business circles (notably his great-grandson Tom Harley), and he is regarded as a founding father by the modern Liberal Party. The Division of Deakin is named after him.
Alfred Deakin: represented Victoria in the Australian delegation and was
described by Chamberlain as being "possessed by that concentrated intensity of
conviction which aided to make him one of the most gifted orators alive."
J.L. Garvin "The Life of Joseph Chamberlain" Vol 3 1895-1900, Macmillan 1934
p.559
Australian poet Victor Daley described him, in verse, as follows:
"A man of talent and of clean good sense
Who speaks with polished air -
On silver floods of his own eloquence
He floats to God knows where."
from Victor Daley, Federation Convention Vignettes
Governor General Northcote described him as follows in a letter to Joseph
Chamberlain:
"Deakin is a bookworm - an eloquent enthusiast but I don't think he has a notion
of running a caucus or of the details of electioneering. However we must worry
through somehow, and I suppose being British we shall."
Northcote to Chamberlain, Letter 12 Dec 1904, Chamberlain's
Papers, AJCP, ML M868, JC19/1/8
In 1907, journalist Alfred Buchanan said of Deakin's performance, that "When
upon a platform, words flowed from him in a silver stream". Buchanan himself
used all his writerly skills to playfully write of Deakin as a man who could be
disliked because he was so good: "There is no doubt that nature, when it
conceived the idea of giving an Alfred Deakin to the world, intended him to be
much disliked. It specially designed him for that purpose. To begin with, it
gave him all those agreeable and outwardly attractive qualities which make a man
suspected by his fellows ... [he] was loaded with gifts and graces intended to
drag him down. He grew up tall and straight and comely to look upon. A
quick-minded, receptive, intelligent man of ideas, he was voted a most agreeable
person to talk to."
Alfred Buchanan The Real Australia, T Fisher Unwin, London, 1907, p 259
"Nature intended him to be disliked, undoubtedly, but it is well-nigh
impossible to dislike him ... With every inducement to develop into a snob, he
has made a conscientious effort not to become one ... As a matter of fact, the
Prime Minister is at his best when talking to little-known people ... It is more
than likely, unless circumstances keep him otherwise occupied, that he wil lmake
it his business to entertain you."
Alfred Buchanan The Real Australia, T Fisher Unwin, London, 1907,
p 259