NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Eddie Ward

The Right Honourable Edward John "Eddie" Ward (7 March 1899 – 31 July 1963), Australian politician, was a long serving and controversial Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for 32 years from 1931 until his death in 1963. File links The following pages link to this file: Eddie Ward Categories: Public domain images ... File links The following pages link to this file: Eddie Ward Categories: Public domain images ... The Right Honourable (abbreviated The Rt Hon. ... March 7 is the 66th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (67th in Leap years). ... 1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... July 31 is the 212th day (213th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 153 days remaining, as the final day of July. ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A politician is an individual involved in politics. ... The Australian Labor Party or ALP is Australias oldest political party. ... Australian House of Representatives chamber The House of Representatives is one of the two houses (chambers) of the Parliament of Australia. ... 1931 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Born and raised in Darlington, Sydney, Ward spent time variously as a labourer, boilermaker, tarpaulin maker, tramways worker and prize boxer before his political career. Ward was first elected to the Australian House of Representatives at a 1931 by-election for the seat of East Sydney in the midst of the Great Depression and the rise to prominence of Australian Labor Party New South Wales Premier Jack Lang whose policies for dealing with the depression were considered radically left wing. Ward was a Lang supporter and gained notoriety soon after his election when Prime Minister and ALP leader James Scullin refused to allow Ward into the ALP caucus. In response, Lang and his supporters left the ALP to form the Lang Labor Party and voted with the opposition on a no-confidence motion to bring down the Scullin government. A typical back lane in Darlington Darlington is a small suburb in southern inner Sydney, Australia. ... Sydney Harbour looking south from the vicinity of the Sydney Harbour Bridge towards the CBD skyline; the Opera House is visible in the background on the left. ... Australian House of Representatives chamber The House of Representatives is one of the two houses (chambers) of the Parliament of Australia. ... 1931 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Division of East Sydney was an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. ... The Great Depression was a massive global economic recession (or depression) that ran from 1929 to 1941. ... The Australian Labor Party or ALP is Australias oldest political party. ... Motto: Orta Recens Quam Pura Nites (Newly Risen, How Brightly You Shine) Nickname: Premier State Other Australian states and territories Capital Sydney Government Governor Premier Const. ... List of Premiers of New South Wales Before the 1890s there was no formal party system in New South Wales. ... John Thomas Lang (December 21, 1876 - September 27, 1975) was a prominent Australian politician during the early twentieth century. ... The current (25th) Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard (sitting, fifth from left), with his Cabinet, 1999 The office of Prime Minister is in practice the most powerful political office in the Commonwealth of Australia. ... Rt Hon James Scullin James Henry Scullin (September 18, 1876 - January 28, 1953), Australian politician and ninth Prime Minister of Australia, was born in the small town of Trawalla, in western Victoria, the son of a railway worker of Irish descent. ...

Ward lost his seat later that year to the United Australia Party at the federal election as the Labor vote was split between Ward and the official ALP candidate. As luck would have it, the sudden death of the newly elected East Sydney MP led to another by election in early 1932 which Ward, again standing as a Lang Labor candidate, duly won. United Australia Party or UAP was an Australian political party that was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ...

Ward remained in Lang Labor until 1936, when he returned to the ALP, but would continue to have a prickly relationship with many of his Labor colleagues for the rest of his life. 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

One such issue that set Ward apart from his parliamentary colleagues was his opposition to any form of defence spending. During the 1936 budget debate, he argued that any funding earmarked for defence would be better spent on welfare and unemployment relief. In reference to a move to increase the size of the Royal Australian Navy, Ward said The Royal Australian Navy (or RAN) is the navy of Australia and part of the Australian Defence Force. ...

“I wonder if such vessels are really needed for the defence of Australia, or whether they are not required for the purpose of helping other peoples defend rich possessions in other parts of the world.”

While in retrospect, Ward’s opposition to defence spending appears foolhardy in lieu of what would occur in the following years but his stance reflected the thinking of many Australians at the time.

While in opposition during the early years of World War II, Ward discovered the existence of the 'Brisbane Line' plan, the Menzies government decison that, in the event of enemy invasion, Australia would have been defended by the concentration of Australian military forces on a line drawn from Brisbane to Adelaide, meaning that large tracts of Australia would have been abandoned to the Japanese. The public reaction to this plan is said to have contributed to the ALP's victory at the 1941 federal poll, after which, Ward entered the ministry of new Prime Minister John Curtin. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... The Brisbane Line was a controversial defence proposal, allegedly formulated by the Menzies government, that would, upon a land invasion of Australia, surrender the entire continent bar the populated costal strip south of Brisbane. ... Rt Hon Robert Menzies Sir Robert Gordon Menzies (20 December 1894 – 14 May 1978), Australian politician, was the twelfth and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia serving eighteen and a half years. ... Brisbane by night Brisbane is the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. ... Adelaide is the capital city of the Australian state of South Australia. ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Rt Hon John Curtin John Curtin (January 8, 1885 – July 5, 1945), Australian politician and 14th Prime Minister of Australia, led Australia through the darkest period of its history: when the Australian mainland came under direct military threat during the Japanese advance in World War II. Many Australians regard him...

Ward served as Minister for Labour and National Service before being moved to Minister for Transport and Minister for External Territories in 1943 (many considered this a demotion, as “the Army had the Transport and the Japs [Japanese] had the external territories”, leaving Ward with little to administer). 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ...

Following the death of Curtin in 1945, Ward nominated for preselection for Prime Minister but lost to Ben Chifley. Ward would continue to harbour leadership aspirations throughout the rest of his career and rarely had a friendly working relationship with the ALP leader. Rt Hon Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley is gay (September 22, 1885 - June 13, 1951), Australian politician and 16th Prime Minister of Australia, was one of Australias most influential Prime Ministers. ...

Ward remained in the public spotlight after World War II when he vigorously opposed the Bretton Woods Agreement and Australia joining the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction (later named the World Bank) as he believed international financiers were responsible for the Depression in Australia during the 1930s. Ward argued that signing Bretton Woods would “enthrone a World Dictatorship of private finance, more complete and terrible than any Hitlerite dream” destroy Australian democracy, pervert and paganise Christian ideals and endanger world peace. It was outbursts like these that would continue to stymie his leadership ambitions within the Labor Party. The Bretton Woods system of international economic management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the major industrial states. ... The flag of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the international organization entrusted with overseeing the global financial system by monitoring foreign exchange rates and balance of payments, as well as offering technical and financial assistance when asked. ... The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, in Romance languages: BIRD), better known as the World Bank, is an international organization whose original mission was to finance the reconstruction of nations devastated by WWII. Now, its mission has expanded to fight poverty by means of financing states. ...

Unable to stay out of the limelight, Ward was a subject of an apparently drunken parliamentary outburst by Menzies during a discussion of the proposed Anti-Communist bill. Ward though was less than polite about Menzies in reply, calling him "a posturing individual with the scowl of a Mussolini, the bombast of a Hitler and the physical proportions of a Göring." Benito Mussolini created a fascist state through the use of propaganda, total control of the media and disassembly of the working democratic government. ... Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889–April 30, 1945) was the Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Imperial chancellor) of Germany from 1933 to his death. ... Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also Goering or Goring in English) (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946) was a prominent and early member of the Nazi party, founder of the Gestapo, and one of the main architects of Nazi Germany. ...

His highest contempt however was for those who he considered had betrayed the working class. He refused an invitation to a function celebrating former Labor turned Nationalist Prime Minister Billy Hughes' 50 years in parliament, saying "I don't eat cheese", a reference to Labor tradition whereby any one leaving the ALP is considered a "rat". The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party formed in 1917 from a merger of pro-conscription members of the Labor Party (who had been operating under the banner National Labor after their earlier split with the Labor party) with the Commonwealth Liberal Party. ... Rt Hon Billy Hughes William Morris Billy Hughes (September 25, 1862 - October 28, 1952), Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia, the longest-serving member of the Australian Parliament, and one of the most controversial figures in Australian political history. ...

Following the 1951 election, Ward nominated for Deputy Leader of the Labor Party but was beaten by Herbert Evatt, and then continuing a trend, he again nominated for deputy leader in 1960, this time losing narrowly to future Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. In 1961, upon the defeat of Earle Page, Ward became the longest serving member of the House. However, with the end of his leadership aspirations and the onset of advanced arteriosclerosis and heart disease, Ward was gradually losing political importance although he was still seen as an elder statesman of the Labor Party. 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Rt Hon Dr H V Evatt Herbert Vere Evatt (April 30, 1894 - November 2, 1965), Australian jurist and politician (popularly known as Doc Evatt or H V Evatt) was born in Maitland, New South Wales, to a working-class family of Anglo-Irish origin. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Honourable Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (born July 11, 1916), Australian politician and 21st Prime Minister of Australia, was the only Australian Prime Minister to be dismissed by the Governor-General. ... 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Rt Hon Earle Page Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page (August 8, 1880 - December 20, 1961), Australian politician, was the eleventh Prime Minister of Australia. ... See also: List of longest-serving members of the Australian Senate The first House of Representatives was elected on 30 March 1901. ... Introduction Arteriosclerosis means the hardening of the arteries in Greek. ... There are different forms of heart disease: Coronary heart disease Ischaemic heart disease Cardiovascular disease The study of heart disease is Cardiology This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The term statesman is a respectful term used to refer to diplomats, politicians, and other notable figures of state. ...

He was still serving as Member for East Sydney when he died of a heart attack aged only 64 after years of ill health. Asked when he knew that his health was failing he said it was when he ‘took a swing at Gough Whitlam, and missed’. A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ...

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