He actually voted against himself in the ballot, making him the only Prime Minister to vote himself out of office. His father was an immigrant who had come from England via South Africa, where he had acquired wealth as a business entrepreneur. His mother died when he was seven. He finished his education at Oxford University in the UK.
He married Bettina Brown in , and they had three children. He was severely wounded in a plane crash and was given reconstructive surgery. Gorton entered local government after resuming management of the family property at Kerang. He was a member of Kerang Shire Council from —, and president from — He joined the Country Party but later switched to the Liberal Party. In June he was narrowly defeated for election to the Victorian Legislative Council. Gorton successfully stood as senate candidate for Victoria at the general election in December He retained his senate seat through the next four elections: , , and Gorton took advantage of this potential rift within the Liberal—Country Party coalition and stood for election as party leader.
To preserve coalition unity, McMahon opted not to contest the leadership. He became the first senator to be appointed Prime Minister. Gorton won Higgins easily and held it through the next three general elections: , and Gorton held the position of prime minister for three years, until 10 March He took the Liberal—Country Party coalition to victory at the general election on 25 October The experts told me that Gorton was the best Navy Minister of the twenty-one Australia has so far had, the only rider being that the competition was not exactly fierce.
The problem I faced was this. Why did this man not become an outstanding prime minister? Some of the answers to my question could be found in the Menzies -led Liberal Party of the s and s. But I soon realised that important answers lay within Gorton himself.
I was suddenly alone, naked and without qualifications. He would always be John Gorton, the fighter pilot, alone in the air, who wanted to be, and had to be, his own man.
Some of the stakeholders preferred this story, and wanted the story of his personal relationships to be glossed over. The saving grace was always Gorton himself: he could not care less, and told me to get on with it. It was not just his childhood which moulded the man. Consider his last year at Geelong Grammar. It was , the first full year of the Great Depression. James Darling, the new self-styled Christian socialist headmaster, arranged for the senior boys to deliver food parcels to the homes of the unemployed in Geelong.
Decades later, Gorton was still speaking about the impact of seeing people battered by circumstances beyond their control, and of witnessing resentment in the eyes of broken men who had faithfully served their country in the Great War. I believe a line can be drawn between that experience and the Gorton who irritated the conservatives in his own party by thinking that social reform was more important than the forward defence of Australia. Like so many of his contemporaries, he returned to Australia, in his case with his face disfigured by injuries, determined to transmit the values of war time service to the task of post-war reconstruction.
As John Gorton himself put it: they wanted to build on the political freedom won on the battlefield, to make a better and more secure world for all Australians. So, as a struggling orchardist and shire councillor from northern Victoria, he joined the anti-socialist crusade which bought many ex-servicemen to Canberra in By chance and without adequate training, he had the opportunity twenty-one years later to address those things which had so moved him in the s and s.
He gave a casting vote against himself — he did not know the rules, he did not have to, as no-one else did either. He came to the job with the support of the backbenchers, more than the ministry, and continued to live up to his reputation as a 'mischief maker.
He was discharged from service in having survived a number of close calls, including a crash which left him with severe facial injuries. After leaving the Country Party and joining the Liberal Party, Gorton stood unsuccessfully for a Victorian upper house seat, but then won a Senate seat in the federal election. Gorton spent eight years as a backbencher before being appointed Minister for Navy in In October Gorton was government leader in the Senate.
At that time he was not the obvious heir apparent to Holt, not well-known by the general public and not even in the House of Representatives.
In Gorton lost the Liberal leadership and the prime ministership to Billy McMahon and in he left the Liberal Party, and then the Parliament, after standing unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for the Senate. The Drought Bonds Act is passed on 27 September with the aim of assisting primary producers to offset losses during periods of drought. On 1 March the Indian Pacific rail service begins taking passengers from coast to coast between Sydney and Perth. Two Royal Commissions are appointed by the Australian Government, and the Queensland Government, to assess risks and benefits of petroleum exploration and drilling in the Great Barrier Reef area.
Legislation to establish the Australian Industry Development Corporation AIDC is passed on 10 June and has as its aim the achievement of greater industry competitiveness and efficiency. The Australian Film Development Corporation Act passed on 17 June established an organisation to make Australian cinema and television and encourage their distribution. The gardens are the largest living collection of Australian native flora and carry out research into, and cultivate, native plants that are threatened in the wild.
In Gorton's typical relaxed style, on his first day in the House of Representatives, after taking the oath and shaking hands with Gough Whitlam, he sat down and began doodling on a pad. There was hope amongst his colleagues that Gorton would be something different, a strong personality and a match for the increasingly confident Opposition Leader. However, in the federal election held on 25 October , much of the substantial majority that the Liberal Party had secured in the previous election was lost.
The government also performed poorly in the half-Senate election in late , where the Democratic Labor Party gained three seats and two Independents were elected. Gorton strongly believed that national government should advance national policy initiatives and this was reflected in his legislative agenda. Gorton sought to boost Australian industry and limit foreign takeovers of Australian companies, and asserted Commonwealth sovereignty over offshore waters.
Gorton's unconventional policy initiatives, including his approach to federalism, challenged traditional Liberal orthodoxy and troubled many in the Government. A number of senior ministers soon became concerned by Gorton's reliance on her advice, and her inexperience; she was 22 when appointed to the job.
Gorton encountered further criticism over his private life and what some perceived as behaviour unbecoming for a prime minister. Gorton's poor showing in the election led to a leadership challenge on 7 November , which he survived.
With a party clearly divided, the next leadership challenge against Gorton appeared inevitable. It came early in , precipitated by the resignation of Malcolm Fraser for what he saw as disloyalty from Gorton.
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