Independents in the Australian Federal Parliament - A War-time Case Study

The 21 September 1940 Australian federal election did not augur well for the conservative parties with dissension in the United Australia Party (UAP) and a United Country Party much discontented under the rambunctious leadership of Archie Cameron who had succeeded Earle Page. Both the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the UAP-UCP campaigned on the issue of who was best fitted to lead the nation in war. However, there were significant side issues of petrol rationing and a defence of the sectional interests of wheat growers in the Wimmera. The latter campaign resulted in the election of Alex Wilson as an Independent. He was accompanied into Parliament by Arthur Coles, another Independent, who was determined to goad the major parties to a more effective and united war effort. When the poll was declared, Labor and the coalition had gained 36 seats each, with the Independents holding the balance of power in the House of Representatives. John Curtin, the Labor leader, narrowly held his seat of Fremantle where the poll was in doubt for some days. The UAP retained power in the Senate.

The election debacle resulted in a fight for the leadership within the Country Party. Artie Fadden became compromise acting leader over John McEwen and Page, and thus Deputy Prime Minister. Not even nominated for Country Party leadership Cameron left the party in disgust and joined the UAP. Coles, a fervent supporter of the UAP Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, joined the UAP.

The intra-party infighting in mid to late 1941 that led to Menzies resigning the UAP leadership in August 1941 need not concern us greatly. His resignation left the way open for Fadden to become Prime Minister because he was thought a candidate more acceptable to the electorate. On 3 October Arthur Coles,  -who had again turned Independent after Menzies' fall - dissatisfied with the defence policies of the coalition and disillusioned with UAP disloyalty to their former leader, crossed the floor of the House giving Curtin a majority in the House of Representatives. He supported the Curtin Government in no confidence motions and the provision of supply until June, 1943. The circumstances that led him to withdraw that support in that month are worth examining in some detail.

In October 1942, during the Victorian state election campaign, Eddie Ward, the Labor member for East Sydney, alleged that under the Menzies Government there had been 'a plan in existence ... for the abandonment of an important part of Northern Australia without firing a single shot.' Over the succeeding months Ward turned this allegation into an attack on the Menzies Government's lack of defence preparedness, which in turn changed to the more serious allegation that Menzies had a plan to abandon all of Australia north of a line drawn from Maryborough in Queensland diagonally to Adelaide and/or Albany in Western Australia to the Japanese in event of invasion. Ward's claims (which were inaccurate) were vigorously denied by Menzies. Ward though, continued to make the claims and Curtin did nothing to stop him. Eventually Opposition anger grew so fierce that Ward's claims of a Brisbane Line formed the major part of an Opposition no confidence motion against the Curtin Government beginning in the afternoon of 22 June, 1943. During that debate Eddie Ward, pressed for  evidence of his allegation, made the extraordinary assertion that he had been 'reliably informed that there was a document missing from official files' that pertained to the Brisbane Line.In his speech on the no confidence motion, Coles made no reference to the issue.

In private discussions with Curtin Ward refused to disclose the name of his informant. The controversy surrounding Ward's allegation of a missing document grew so intense, both inside and outside of Parliament, that Curtin soon realised there would have to be an investigation into its accuracy. Menzies and the Opposition demanded a Royal Commission, and that Ward stand down from Cabinet. He repeated this demand the next day in during a  debate that the no-confidence motion be adjourned,that there should be a Royal Commission into the Brisbane Line allegations. Cole hesitated before  voting in support of the Labor Government. Earle Page, speaking for the Opposition in a subsequent Budget Estimates debate, urged the refusal of Supply in the Opposition controlled Senate until Curtin agreed to a Royal Commission. At this point, Coles, who had come under considerable pressure, privately informed Curtin that he intended to vote to refuse Supply.

Curtin, ever the clever politician, relieved Ward of his Cabinet post and announced a Royal Commission. Because he had acceded to the Royal Commission rather than having it voted on from the floor of the Parliament Ward could claim parliamentary privilege when he testified before it, and he had kept Coles's vote.

The UAP-UCP Opposition were not finished with the issue yet though. They decided to block Supply in the  wartime Senate unless Curtin consented to a dissolution of Parliament. Curtin did so, later that night before an almost empty House.
In the subsequent election on August 21, Labor won 49 seats to the Coalition's 23. Both Independents retained their seats, though Coles had to go to preferences. His influence over the Government of the day was at an end.