- Hopetoun Blunder
The Hopetoun Blunder was a political event immediately prior to the Federation of the British colonies in
Australia .Federation was scheduled to occur on
1 January 1901 , but since elections for the firstParliament of Australia were not to be held until March of that year, it was not possible to follow the conventions of theWestminster System and appoint the leader of the majority in the House of Representatives as Prime Minister. Instead, an interim government would be appointed, holding office from 1 January until the results of the elections were known.The first
Governor-General of Australia was John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun (later he became the firstMarquess of Linlithgow ). His initial task on arriving in Australia on15 December 1900 was to appoint aPrime Minister to lead the interim government. It appears that Hopetoun had little knowledge of the Australian political scene and had no formal instructions from theColonial Office . Following the precedent of theCanadian Confederation , Hopetoun commissioned the premier of the most populous colony to form a government. That state wasNew South Wales , and its premier was SirWilliam Lyne .However, this was an unfortunate choice. Lyne had opposed federation and was unpopular with other leading colonial, pro-federation politicians including
Edmund Barton andAlfred Deakin . Lyne had only become premier in September 1899 after the government of the more popular and experienced George Reid had lost his majority in theNew South Wales Legislative Assembly .The Bulletin summed up many people's view when it editorialised, "Among the men who can claim by merit or accident, to be front-rank politicians of Australia, Lyne stands out conspicuously as almost the dullest and most ordinary".Despite significant efforts, Lyne was unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and was forced to return his commission to Hopetoun.
Alfred Deakin , amongst others, then persuaded Hopetoun to appointEdmund Barton as Prime Minister. Barton was successful in forming a government, which took office on 1 January 1901. He appointed Lyne as his "Minister for Home Affairs" in what many saw as a gesture of reconciliation.Hopetoun's error in calling on Lyne to form a government became known as "The Hopetoun Blunder", and it marked the beginning of what many historians consider to be his unsuccessful term as
Governor-General .References
*La Nauze, JA, The Hopetoun Blunder: The Appointment of the First Prime Minister of Australia, December 1900, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1957
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.