Joseph Cook

Politician

• Born: December 7, 1860
• Birthplace: Silverdale, England
• Died: July 30, 1947
• Place of death: Sydney, Australia

Also known as: Joe Cook; Joseph Cooke

Significance: Joseph Cook, the sixth prime minister of Australia, served for fifteen months in 1913 and 1914. He led the nation’s first Liberal Party government, though he was affiliated with several different parties throughout his political career.

Background

Joseph Cook was born Joseph Cooke on December 7, 1860, in Silverdale, Staffordshire, England, to Margaret Fletcher Cooke and William Cooke. He quit school at nine to work in a coal mine but returned to school the next year after the Elementary Education Act was passed. In 1873 his father died in a coal mining accident, and he left school permanently to work in the mine to support his mother and four siblings.

Cook became a lay preacher in the Primitive Methodist Church when he was sixteen. At night he studied bookkeeping, which allowed him to move out of the mines and work for the railways, where he became involved in union affairs. By 1885 he was a leader in his union lodge.

In 1885 Cook emigrated to Australia. He settled in Lithgow, New South Wales, and found employment at the Vale of Clwydd colliery. He continued to improve his bookkeeping and other administrative skills. Active in unions and politics, Cook became general secretary of the Western Miners Association a member of the Land Nationalisation League. In 1891 he became the president of the local branch of the Labor Electoral League, which later became the Australian Labor Party. He supplemented his mining income by working as an auditor for a local newspaper and the municipal council.

Political Career

In 1891 Cook cofounded the New South Wales Labor Party. He won election to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for Hartley later that year. Two years later he was elected leader of the parliamentary Labor Party in New South Wales. He supported free trade, better education, female suffrage, and land reform. However, unwilling to sign a pledge to support all majority decisions of the caucus, Cook left the party in 1894. That June he ran for reelection as an independent Labor candidate and was returned to the parliament.

After George Reid became premier in August 1894, Cook broke further with Labor to join Reid’s Free Trade Party and was appointed the postmaster general. He held that portfolio until August 1898, when he became the minister for mines and agriculture. Cook’s achievements included creating stronger quarantine regulations, introducing bicycles for postal carriers, and expanding telephone lines.

Cook won the seat of Parramatta in the inaugural federal election of 1901. By this time, his views had become more conservative. No longer an advocate for unions, he then opposed socialism and excessive restrictions on personal freedom. He rose through the ranks of the Free Trade Party and was elected its deputy leader in 1904, serving until 1908, when he succeeded Reid as leader.

In 1909 Alfred Deakin of the Protectionist Party won the government. His party and Cook’s Free Trade Party formed an anti-Labor alliance known as the Fusion government. In this administration Cook served as the minister of defence from 1909 to 1910, during which time the Defense Act 1909 was passed and he negotiated a defense agreement with Great Britain that created the Australian Navy. After the Fusions lost the government in 1910, Cook became the deputy leader of the opposition. The Fusion Party became the Liberal Party, and in 1913 Cook became its leader.

The Liberal Party won the 1913 federal election by a one-seat majority. Cook became prime minister on June 24, 1913, and took the ministry for home affairs. Lacking support in the Senate, he was hampered in his ability to pass legislation. Thus, he sought a double dissolution of parliament, hoping that the dismissal of both houses of parliament and a new election would result in the Liberals gaining more seats. His plan backfired, as the Liberal Party lost the majority in the general election of September 5, 1914, and Cook lost the government. He was succeeded by Labor’s Andrew Fisher on September 17, 1914.

Cook led the opposition until 1917, though he generally supported the Liberals’ efforts during World War I (1914-1918). After polarizing views on conscription led to a split in the Labor Party, Cook allied the Liberals with the pro-conscription National Labor Party led by Billy Hughes. In 1917 the two parties merged to form the Nationalist Party. Cook served in Hughes’ Nationalist government as the deputy leader and the minister of the navy from 1917 to 1920.

Knighted in 1918, Cook spent much of that year and the following in Europe, where he was a member of the Imperial War Cabinet and attended the Imperial War Conference in London in April 1918. As Australia’s delegate to the Peace Conference in Versailles, he was a cosigner of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

The Nationalists won the December 1919 election and Cook became treasurer in July 1920. On November 11, 1921, he resigned from Parliament and became the Australian High Commissioner in London. His achievements as commissioner include promoting British immigration to Australia, capital investments, and mutual defense cooperation between Australia and Great Britain. He also served as the Australian delegate to the General Assembly of the League of Nations for five years.

Cook returned to Australia in 1927. He was the chair of the Royal Commission into the Finances of South Australia from 1928 to 1929 and then retired from public service. On July 30, 1947, he died in Sydney, New South Wales.

Impact

Cook was primarily a supporting figure in other politicians’ governments, with little legislation passed during his own premiership. As a result, his legacy is mixed. Some historians view him as influential in shaping Australia’s political parties during the country’s foundational years and admire his self-made success. Other consider him to have been an opportunist, all too ready to change his principles.

Personal Life

Cook earned a reputation for being humorless and stern. He and Mary Turner, a schoolteacher, married in 1885. They had nine children together.

Bibliography

Crowley, F. K. “Cook, Sir Joseph (1860–1947).” Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1981, adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cook-sir-joseph-5763. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.

Hawkins, John. “Joseph Cook: The Reluctant Treasurer.” The Treasury, Australian Government, July 2009, treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-03/07‗Joseph‗Cook.pdf. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.

“Joseph Cook.” Australian Prime Ministers, Museum of Australian Democracy, primeministers.moadoph.gov.au/prime-ministers/joseph-cook. Accessed 15 Apr. 2010.

“Joseph Cook.” Australia’s Prime Ministers, National Archives of Australia, primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/cook/. Accessed 15 Apr. 2010.

“Joseph Cook.” National Museum of Australia, www.nma.gov.au/explore/features/prime-ministers/joseph-cook. Accessed 15 Apr. 2010.