Arthur Fadden

Politician

• Born: April 13, 1894
• Birthplace: Ingham, Queensland
• Died: April 21, 1973
• Place of death: Brisbane, Queensland

Also known as: Arthur William Fadden; Artie Fadden

Significance: Leader of the conservative Country Party for almost two decades during the 1940s and 1950s, Arthur Fadden was a long-serving treasurer, acting prime minister during Robert Menzies’s administration, and prime minister for forty days in 1941.

Background

Arthur Fadden was born on April 13, 1894, in Ingham, Queensland, Australia. The eldest of ten children of Richard John Fadden and Annie (Moorhead) Fadden, his father was a police constable. The family moved to Walkerston township when he was young, and he attended Walkerston Public School.

After leaving school at fifteen, Fadden assisted cutters in the cane fields and then worked as an office boy at a sugar mill in Pleystowe. In 1913, he became an assistant town clerk for the Mackay Town Council. Three years later, he became the town clerk. As a young adult, Fadden was active in sports, including Rugby Union football, boxing, running, and cricket. He also performed as a member of a minstrel troupe.

Fadden studied accountancy through a correspondence course and qualified as a public accountant. In 1918, he opened an accountancy firm in Townsville. He later added partners and formed the firms Fadden, Sutton & Co. in Townsville and A. W. Fadden & O’Shea in Brisbane. A member of the Commonwealth Institute of Accountants (now Australian Society of Accountants) since 1921, he became a fellow in 1928.

Political Career

Fadden’s initial foray into politics was at the local and state levels. He was elected to the Townsville City Council in 1930 and served as an alderman until 1932. He then successfully ran in 1932 as the Queensland’s Country and Progressive National Party (CPNP) candidate for the seat of Kennedy in the Queensland Legislative Assembly. He quickly rose through the party’s ranks and was named shadow treasurer in 1934. An electorate distribution resulted in him running for the seat of Mirani in 1935, but he failed to be reelected.

Internal divisions within Queensland’s CPNP led to a group breaking off and forming the Queensland Country Party in 1936. Fadden was instrumental in forming the new party, which considered itself an alternative to the conservative United Australia Party.

Fadden won the Darling Downs seat in the federal House of Representatives in a December 1936 by-election to fill out the term of Littleton Groom after he died in office. Reelected in the federal election of 1937, Fadden held the seat through 1949 and then represented McPherson from 1950 to 1958.

After Robert Menzies of the United Australia Party became prime minister in 1939, he formed a coalition government with the Country Party in 1940 and added Fadden to his cabinet, as a minister without a portfolio. Fadden’s responsibilities included assisting the treasurer and the assistant minister for supply and development. He gained the air and civil aviation portfolio after three ministers were killed in a plane crash in August 1940.

In October 1940, Menzies appointed Fadden the treasurer. That same month, Fadden joined the Advisory War Council. In his first budget, he increased taxes and military spending and introduced a payroll tax and price controls, all intended to finance the country's involvement in World War II (1939-1945). Fadden served as deputy leader of the Country Party until October 1940, when he became acting leader following a challenge to the party leader, Archie Cameron. Intended as a temporary measure, Fadden was elected party leader in March 1941 and held the leadership through March 1958.

When Menzies was out of the country in 1941, Fadden served as acting prime minister for nearly four months. In August 1941, a few months after his return to Australia, Menzies resigned and Fadden was chosen to succeed him, starting on August 29. On October 3, 1941, two independent parliamentarians voted against Fadden’s budget, which included compulsory loans from single wage earners to finance the military. With his coalition government defeated, Fadden resigned and became the leader of the conservative Opposition to the government of the next prime minister, John Curtin, who took office on October 7.

Fadden stepped down as Opposition leader following the United Australia Party–Country Party’s sweeping defeat in the August 1943 election, but he remained the leader of the Country Party. The following year, a faction led by Menzies splintered from the Country Party and formed the Liberal Party.

The Liberal Party won the 1949 election and Menzies became prime minister again. He formed a coalition government with the Country Party, and Fadden served as treasurer and deputy prime minister from December 1949 until December 1958. His achievements included introducing legislation that established the Reserve Bank of Australia (1959), which took on the central banking functions of the Commonwealth Trading Bank. Faced with increasing inflation and the need to finance the Korean War (1950-1953), Fadden’s 1951 budget implemented steep tax increases and other anti-inflationary measures, causing Arthur Calwell to call it the “horror budget,” a term that found widespread usage among the media and public. An economic recession followed in mid-1951 and lasted for more than eighteen months. As the economy fluctuated, Fadden reversed and reintroduced anti-inflationary measures until the economy stabilized in the mid-1950s. He also simplified the tax system and abolished land taxes for farmers.

In March 1958, Fadden stepped down as leader of the Country Party. He retired from Parliament in December 1958. He served as chair of the board of Centenary Estates from 1961 to 1967. His memoir, They Called Me Artie, was published in 1969. He remained active in his accounting firms and party affairs until his death in Brisbane, Queensland, on April 21, 1973.

Impact

Many historians consider Fadden one of Australia’s best treasurers due to his astute understanding of Keynesian economic principles and economic conditions. A few years after his death, the Board of the Centenary Estates Ltd. established the Sir Arthur Fadden Memorial Garden in Mount Ommaney, Queensland, to honor him. A federal seat in Queensland, Fadden, was named after him in 1977.

Personal Life

Fadden and Ilma Thornber married in 1916. They had four children: Gordon, John, Mavis, and Betty.

Bibliography

“Arthur Fadden.” Australian Prime Ministers Centre, primeministers.moadoph.gov.au/prime-ministers/arthur-fadden. Accessed 27 Apr. 2020.

“Arthur Fadden.” National Archives of Australia, primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/fadden/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2020.

Cribb, Margaret Bridson. “Fadden, Sir Arthur William (1894–1973).” Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1996, adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fadden-sir-arthur-william-10141. Accessed 27 Apr. 2020.

Fadden, Arthur. “Election Speech.” Australian Federal, 22 July 1943, electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1943-arthur-fadden. Accessed 27 Apr. 2020.

Hawkins, John. “Arthur Fadden: Treasurer in a Golden Age.” Australian Government, The Treasury, 30 Mar. 2012, treasury.gov.au/publication/economic-roundup-issue-4-2011/economic-roundup-issue-4-2011/arthur-fadden-treasurer-in-a-golden-age. Accessed 27 Apr. 2020.