WILLIAM MCMAHON

Party

Electorate

State

Parliamentary Service

Ministerial Appointments

Acting Ministries

Committee Service

Conferences

Parliamentary Party Positions

Education

Occupations

Family History

Honours

Military Service

Publications

Further Reading

An unkind critic said that William McMahon entered politics because he didn't know what else to do with himself. When the electors of a Sydney constituency first sent him to Parliament, he was a middle-aged bachelor with the remnants of a playboy image. Born in Sydney in 1908, the son of a successful lawyer, he grew up in prosperous circumstances shadowed by the death of his mother when he was four. His father, who handed him into the care of his mother's family, died when he was 16 and left him comfortably provided for. Educated at private schools and at the University of Sydney, he qualified as a solicitor and joined Sydney's oldest legal firm.

Inherited wealth cushioned McMahon from the effects of the Depression years and life was far from a struggle. He was able to cut a figure in Sydney society, enjoying trips overseas and generally making the most of life without wearying himself at his profession. When war broke out he joined the Army, but a hearing problem - later corrected - kept him from active service. He spent the Second World War on essential, but unglamorous, home service duties and was discharged with the rank of major.

He began to see politics as a vocation, even as a duty, during the tumultuous post-war years when people of his background feared that Ben Chifley was leading the nation along the road to socialism. With the dogged earnestness later seen as characteristic of him, he applied himself to winning the Sydney seat of Lowe in the December 1949 elections.

Entry into the Commonwealth Parliament, at the age of 41, enabled McMahon to demonstrate talents for hard work and Organisation. Menzies made him Minister for the Navy and Air in 1951 and, from 1954-71, he progressed steadily and solidly through the portfolios of Social Services, Primary Industry, Labour and National Service, the Treasury and Foreign Affairs. He made such a success of Primary Industry that Arthur Fadden demanded the return of the portfolio to the Country Party.

As a minister, McMahon proved himself a supreme 'organisation man' who worked hard and well even if he lacked the flair of some other politicians. His diversity of portfolios gave him immense administrative experience, which sometimes irritated other ministers because it caused him to pontificate on matters which were not his responsibility. He dealt firmly with trade union leaders, although he was said to show less humanity than Harold Holt. Altogether he earned respect as a pillar of the Liberal Party and, when Holt succeeded Menzies, he stepped into Holt's place as deputy leader.

When Holt died, McMahon could justly have expected to succeed him as Prime Minister. But he suffered the humiliation of John McEwen's refusal to serve under him and had to be content with the Treasury. Further humiliations followed: John Gorton meddled with his 1968-69 budgets and then shunted him into Foreign Affairs.

But McMahon managed to cling to the deputy leadership and, when Gorton stepped down, McMahon was ready to take his place.

Like James Scullin, McMahon chose an unfortunate time to become Prime Minister. The Liberal Party had lost the great impetus accumulated during the Menzies era. In Malcolm Fraser's words, John Gorton had "seriously damaged the Liberal Party and cast aside the stability and sense of direction of earlier times". A tidal wave of opposition to the Vietnam War was rising throughout Australia. The Labor Party, after years in the doldrums, was rapidly regaining strength, while the economy was affected by a downturn in the long international boom.

A man with greater charisma than McMahon might have rallied party and people behind him, but he somehow came across as bureaucratic, earnest and dull. He seemed to lack the magic touch to revitalise the party and make dramatic decisions, such as withdrawal from the 'unwinnable war' in Vietnam. He eroded support by shifting or demoting ministers appointed by Gorton, regardless of their ability, as though to prove that his government would be different from Gorton's. The economy forced him to urge budgetary restraint in 1971 but, with the 1972 elections looming, he reversed this stance and was seen as indecisive.

Even his marriage to the glamorous Sonia Hopkins did not change his image. The media gloated over her revealing garments while cartoonists derided McMahon's bald head, big ears and insatiable passion for work which seemed to lead nowhere.

Labor, however, was fast developing a new image as the wave of the future which would bring a new world. The nation was impatient for change and Labor's election slogan of 'It's Time' exactly expressed the mood of the voters. Astute propaganda made McMahon seem no more than a pawn of 'big business' and when the Labor landslide of December 1972 overwhelmed the Liberal-Country Party coalition, it swept him away into political obscurity.

The dogged persistence which had taken McMahon to the highest office in the land saw him continue as a member of Federal Parliament until 1982. He was an outspoken critic of economic policy - both Liberal and Labor. Knighted in 1977, Sir William's final years were blighted by cancer to which he succumbed in March 1988.

Top