John McEwen

Biography

John McEwen was born on 29 March 1900 at Chiltern in north-eastern Victoria. Orphaned in early childhood, he was raised by his grandmother and left school young, working as a junior clerk in the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor's office. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1918 but the war ended before he saw action. As a returned serviceman he took up a soldier settlement block at Stanhope in northern Victoria, where he established himself as a dairy and cattle farmer and became active in farmer organisations.

McEwen won the seat of Echuca for the Country Party in 1934, later representing Indi and then Murray, which he held until his retirement in 1971. Between 1937 and 1941 he served in the Lyons, Page, Menzies and Fadden governments, successively as Minister for the Interior, Minister for External Affairs and Minister for Air. In the post-war Menzies Government he became Minister for Commerce and Agriculture in 1949 and Minister for Trade in 1956, a portfolio later expanded to Trade and Industry. He negotiated the 1957 Agreement on Commerce with Japan, which opened a major export market for Australian primary producers, and was a strong advocate of tariff protection for manufacturing, an approach that became known as McEwenism.

McEwen succeeded Arthur Fadden as leader of the Country Party in 1958 and served as deputy prime minister under Menzies and Holt. When Harold Holt disappeared on 17 December 1967, McEwen, as the senior member of the coalition, was commissioned as Prime Minister on 19 December 1967 on the understanding that he would serve only until the Liberal Party chose a new leader. During his brief term he made clear that the Country Party would not continue in coalition under William McMahon, which influenced the Liberal leadership contest. He handed over to John Gorton on 10 January 1968.

McEwen remained deputy prime minister and trade minister under Gorton until he retired from Parliament in February 1971, after more than 36 years in the House of Representatives. Known as 'Black Jack', he was regarded as one of the most influential ministers of the post-war era. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1971. Sir John McEwen died in Melbourne on 20 November 1980.