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Andrew Fisher

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{{Infobox PM | name=Rt Hon Andrew Fisher | image=andrewfisher.jpg | country=Australia | term=13 November, 1908–2 June, 1909
29 April 1910–24 June 1913
17 September 1914–27 October 1915 | before=Alfred Deakin
Joseph Cook | after=Alfred Deakin
Joseph Cook
Billy Hughes | date_birth=29 August 1862 | place_birth=Crosshouse, Scotland | date_death=22 October 1928 | party=Australian Labor Party Labor }} Image:Aussie pm andrew Fisher cropped from naming of canberra.JPG thumb|Andrew Fisher at the naming of Canberra ceremony, 1913 '''Andrew Fisher''' (29 August, 1862 - 22 October, 1928), Australian politician and fifth Prime Minister of Australia, was born in Crosshouse, a mining village near Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland. He had almost no formal education and worked in the coal-mines from childhood. In 1885 he and his brother migrated to Queensland, where Fisher worked as a miner, first in Burrum, Queensland Burrum and then in Gympie, Queensland Gympie, where he married Margaret Irvine, his landlady's daughter. He was active in the Amalgamated Miners Union and was part owner of a labour newspaper, the ''Gympie Truth''. In 1893 Fisher was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as Australian Labor Party Labor MP for Gympie. He lost his seat in 1896, but won it back in 1899. In that year he was Secretary for Railways and Public Works in the seven-day government of Anderson Dawson, the first parliamentary socialist government in the world. Like most Labor men, he was lukewarm towards Federation of Australia federation, but when the first federal Parliament was elected in 1901, he was elected Labor MP for Division of Wide Bay Wide Bay. Fisher was Minister for Trade and Customs in the John Christian Watson Watson government in 1904, and established himself as one of Labor's most prominent leaders, with a reputation for financial knowledge and "soundness." When Watson retired in 1907, Fisher was his natural successor as Labor leader, although Billy Hughes also wanted the position. When Alfred Deakin's Protectionist Party Protectionist government resigned in 1908, Fisher formed his first, minority, government. In 1909 the Protectionists and Freetraders combined into a "Commonwealth Liberal Party Fusion" to oust Fisher, who was voted out after eight months in office, but his tenure of office heightened his reputation. At the April 1910 elections, Labor won control of both Houses and formed Australia's (and the world's) first majority Labor government. Fisher's 1910-13 ministry carried out many reforms, such as establishing old-age pensions, forming the Royal Australian Navy and issuing Australia's first paper currency. But his two attempts, in 1911 and 1913, to carry constitutional referendum referendums to give the government power to regulate monopolies and industrial conditions were rejected by the voters, and at the 1913 elections Labor was narrowly defeated by the Liberals, led by Joseph Cook. Labor retained control of the Australian Senate Senate, however, and in 1914 Cook, frustrated by the Labor controlled Senate's blocking of his legislation, engineered a Australian electoral system double dissolution election in an attempt to gain control of both Houses. The World War I First World War broke out in the middle of the election campaign, and Fisher campaigned on Labor's record of support for an independent Australian defence force. He pledged that Australia would "stand beside the mother country to help and defend her to the last man and the last shilling." Labor won the election and Fisher formed his third government. But Fisher found the strain of leadership in wartime taxing, and faced increasing pressure from the ambitious Hughes, who wanted to introduce conscription, which Fisher opposed. By 1915 his health was suffering, and in October he resigned and was succeeded by Hughes. The Cabinet then appointed him High Commissioner in London, where he served as a popular representative of Australia until 1921. He continued to live in London in retirement, despite calls by some Labor supporters in Australia for him to return and re-enter politics. He died in London in 1928. The federal electorate of Division of Fisher Fisher is named after him.

See also
*First Fisher Ministry *Second Fisher Ministry *Third Fisher Ministry

External links

- Andrew Fisher - Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archives of Australia {{start box}} {{succession box | title=Australian Labor Party Leader of the Labor Party | before=Chris Watson | after = Billy Hughes | years=1907–1915}} {{succession box | title=Treasurer of Australia .html">William Lyne Sir William Lyne | after = John Forrest Sir John Forrest | years=1908–1909}} {{succession box | title=Prime Minister of Australia .html">Alfred Deakin after=Alfred Deakin | years=1908–1909}} {{succession box | title=Treasurer of Australia .html">John Forrest Sir John Forrest | after = John Forrest Sir John Forrest | years=1910–1913}} {{succession box | title=Prime Minister of Australia .html">Alfred Deakin after=Joseph Cook | years=1910–1913}} {{succession box | title=Treasurer of Australia .html">John Forrest Sir John Forrest | after = William Higgs | years=1914–1915}} {{succession box | title=Prime Minister of Australia .html">Joseph Cook after=Billy Hughes | years=1914–1915}} {{end box}} {{AustraliaPM}} Category:1862 births Fisher, Andrew Category:1928 deaths Fisher, Andrew Category:Australian Labor Party politicians Fisher, Andrew Category:Prime Ministers of Australia Fisher, Andrew Category:Scottish-Australians Fisher, Andrew Category:Natives of East Ayrshire Fisher, Andrew Category:Presbyterians Category:Members of the Cabinet of Australia Fisher, Andrew de:Andrew Fisher

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