Ben Chifley

Joseph Benedict Chifley was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, in 1885 and became a locomotive engine driver and union organiser. He was dismissed after the 1917 general strike and later reinstated. He entered federal parliament in 1928, lost his seat in 1931 and returned in 1940. He served as treasurer under John Curtin and became prime minister on Curtin's death in 1945. He won the 1946 election but lost to Robert Menzies in 1949, and died as Opposition Leader in 1951.

Chifley is often ranked among Australia's greatest prime ministers and is revered in the Labor Party, which still quotes his 'light on the hill' speech. Admirers credit him with sustaining full employment after the war and with lasting institutions such as the Australian National University, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, the Commonwealth Employment Service and the pharmaceutical benefits scheme. Critics, then and since, argue that his attempt to nationalise the banks and his retention of wartime controls such as petrol rationing were heavy-handed and turned middle-class voters against Labor. On the left, he is criticised for freezing union funds and using the army against striking miners in 1949. He has also been criticised for anti-immigrant remarks about southern Europeans in his 1928 campaign.