Deputy Prime Minister of Australia

The deputy prime minister of Australia is the deputy head of government and the second highest ranking officer of the Australian Government. The office of deputy prime minister was officially created as a ministerial portfolio in 1968, although the title had been used informally for many years previously. The deputy prime minister is appointed by the governor-general on the advice of the prime minister. When Australia has a Labor government, the deputy leader of the parliamentary party holds the position of deputy prime minister. When Australia has a Coalition government, the Coalition Agreement mandates that all Coalition members support the leader of the Liberal Party becoming prime minister and the leader of the National Party becoming the deputy prime minister.

History

thumb|left|Prime Minister [[John McEwen with John Gorton on 9 January 1968. The following day, Gorton was sworn in as prime minister, and McEwen became the inaugural deputy prime minister.]]

Originally the position of deputy prime minister was an unofficial or honorary position accorded to the second-highest ranking minister in the government. The unofficial position acquired more significance following the 1922 federal election, which saw the governing Nationalist Party lose its parliamentary majority. The Nationalists eventually reached a coalition agreement with the Country Party, which called for Country Party leader Earle Page to take the second rank in the Nationalist-led ministry of Stanley Bruce. While Page's only official title was treasurer, he was considered as a deputy to Bruce.

Although no office of that name had officially been created, by 1946 the title "deputy prime minister" was being used in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette.

From then until 1968, the Coalition agreement between the Liberals (and their predecessors) and Country Party called for the leader of the Country Party (subsequently the National Party) to rank second in Cabinet. That continues to be the case when the Coalition is in government. McEwen reverted to his previous status as the second-ranking member of the government, as per the Coalition agreement. He had unofficially been deputy prime minister since becoming Country Party leader in 1958, and since 1966 had exercised an effective veto over government policy by virtue of being the longest-serving member of the government; he had been a member of the Coalition frontbench without interruption since 1937. To acknowledge McEwen's long service and his status as the second-ranking member of the government, Gorton formally created the post of deputy prime minister, with McEwen as the first holder of the post. The position was vacant for 12 days in 1975 at the height of the Loans Affair; Jim Cairns had been dismissed from Cabinet on 2 July and had his office of deputy prime minister revoked by Gough Whitlam, but he remained deputy leader of the Labor Party until his successor, Frank Crean, was elected by Caucus on 14 July.

According to parliamentary records, in the time before the position of deputy prime minister was officially created, the position was known as "deputy leader of the Government."

Since 1968 only three deputy prime ministers have gone on to become prime minister, all of them are Labor Party's politicians: Paul Keating, Julia Gillard, and Anthony Albanese. Both Keating and Gillard succeeded incumbent prime ministers who lost the support of their party caucus mid-term. Meanwhile, Albanese who briefly served as deputy prime minister in 2013, later led the Labor party to victory at the 2022 Australian federal election, and was sworn-in as prime minister on 23 May 2022. Frank Forde, who had been deputy Labor leader when John Curtin died, was interim prime minister between 6 and 13 July 1945, when a leadership ballot took place that elected Ben Chifley as Curtin's successor.

In November 2007, when the Labor Party won government, Julia Gillard became Australia's first female, and first foreign-born, deputy prime minister.

In 2017, the position became vacant for a period of 40 days, the longest time in its history when it has been unoccupied. As part of the 2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, it emerged that the then-incumbent Barnaby Joyce was a citizen of New Zealand by descent (jus sanguinis – by right of blood) at the time of the 2016 federal election. Joyce told the House of Representatives that he was advised of his citizenship status on 10 August 2017 by the New Zealand High Commission and his renunciation of his dual citizenship became effective on 15 August 2017. Nevertheless, he asked for his case to be referred to the High Court of Australia (sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns) for adjudication, The government immediately issued writs for a by-election for the seat of New England to be held on 2 December 2017, which Joyce won easily.

In practice, only National party leaders or Labor Party deputy leaders have held the position.

Duties

The deputy prime minister has always been a member of the Cabinet, and has always held at least one substantive portfolio.

Succession

The deputy prime minister becomes acting prime minister if the prime minister is unable to undertake their role for a short time, for example if they are ill, overseas or on leave (and if both are unavailable, then another senior minister takes on this role). If the prime minister were to die, then the deputy prime minister would be appointed prime minister by the governor-general, until the government votes for another member to be its leader. The deputy prime minister receives an additional 105 percent of the base salary, making for a total salary of $416,212. The holder of the office also receives various other allowances and entitlements.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! rowspan="2" |

! rowspan="2" |Portrait

! rowspan="2" width="150" | Deputy Prime Minister

! rowspan="2" |Political Party and position

! rowspan="2" width="20%" | Portfolio(s)

! colspan="3" width="115" | Term of office

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" width="75" | Prime Minister

!Took office

!Left office

!Time in office

! style="background:; color:white;" |1

| 60px

| John McEwen (1900–1980)

| Country Leader 1958–71

| rowspan="3" | Trade and Industry

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

| | 

| rowspan="2" | John Gorton

! rowspan="2" style="background:; color:white;" |2

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | Doug Anthony (1929–2020)

| rowspan="2" | Country Leader 1971–84

| rowspan="2" align="center" |

| rowspan="2" align="right" |

| | 

| William McMahon

! style="background:; color:black;" |3

| 60px

| Lance Barnard (1919–1997)

| Labor Deputy Leader 1967–74

| Defence

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

| rowspan="3" | 

| rowspan="3" |Gough Whitlam

! style="background:; color:black;" |4

| 60px

| Jim Cairns (1914–2003)

| Labor Deputy Leader 1974–75

| Treasurer

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

! style="background:; color:black;" |5

| 60px

| Frank Crean (1916–2008)

| Labor Deputy Leader 1975

| Overseas Trade

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

! style="background:; color:white;" |(2)

| 60px

| Doug Anthony (1929–2020)

| Country National Leader 1971–84

| Trade and Industry

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

| | 

| Malcolm Fraser

! style="background:; color:black;" |6

| 60px

| Lionel Bowen (1922–2012)

| Labor Deputy Leader 1977–90

| Trade Attorney-General

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

| | 

| rowspan="3" |Bob Hawke

! style="background:; color:black;" |7

| 60px

| Paul Keating (b. 1944)

| Labor Deputy Leader 1990–91

| Treasurer

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

| | 

! rowspan="5" style="background:; color:black;" |8

| rowspan="5" | 60px

| rowspan="5" |Brian Howe (b. 1936)

| rowspan="5" |Labor Deputy Leader 1991–95

| rowspan="2" | Health, Housing and Community Services, Assisting for Social Justice, Assisting for Commonwealth-State Relations

| align="center" |

| rowspan="5" align="right" |

| | 

| align="center" |

| | 

| rowspan="5" |Paul Keating

| Housing, Local Government and Community Services

| align="center" |

| | 

| Housing, Local Government and Human Services

| align="center" |

| | 

| Housing and Regional Development

| align="center" |

| | 

! style="background:; color:black;" |9

| 60px

| Kim Beazley (b.1948)

| Labor Deputy Leader 1995–96

| Finance

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

| | 

! style="background:; color:white;" |10

| 60px

| Tim Fischer (1946–2019)

| National Leader 1990–99

| Trade

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

| rowspan="3" | 

| rowspan="3" |John Howard

! style="background:; color:white;" |11

| 60px

| John Anderson (b. 1956)

| National Leader 1999–2005

| Transport and Regional Development

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

! style="background:; color:white;" |12

| 60px

| Mark Vaile (b. 1956)

| National Leader 2005–2007

| Trade Transport and Regional Services

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

! style="background:; color:black;" |13

| 60px

| Julia Gillard (b. 1961)

| Labor Deputy Leader 2006–10

| Employment and Workplace Relations Education Social Inclusion

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

| | 

| Kevin Rudd

! style="background:; color:black;" |14

| 60px

| Wayne Swan (b. 1954)

| Labor Deputy Leader 2010–13

| Treasurer

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

| | 

| Julia Gillard

! style="background:; color:black;" |15

| 60px

| Anthony Albanese (b. 1963)

| Labor Deputy Leader 2013

| Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Infrastructure and Transport

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

| | 

| Kevin Rudd

! rowspan="2" style="background:; color:white;" |16

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | Warren Truss (b. 1948)

| rowspan="2" | National Leader 2007–16

| rowspan="2" | Infrastructure and Regional Development

| rowspan="2" align="center" |

| rowspan="2" align="right" |

| rowspan="8" | 

| Tony Abbott

| rowspan="5" |Malcolm Turnbull

! rowspan="3" style="background:; color:white;" |17

| rowspan="3" | 60px

| rowspan="3" | Barnaby Joyce (b. 1967)

| rowspan="3" | National Leader 2016–18

|Agriculture and Water Resources Resources and Northern Australia (2017)

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

!colspan=4 style="background: #cccccc;" |

|Infrastructure and Transport

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

! rowspan="2" style="background:; color:white;" |18

| rowspan="2" | 60px

| rowspan="2" | Michael McCormack (b.1964)

| rowspan="2" | National Leader 2018–2021

| rowspan="3" | Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development

| align="center" |

| rowspan="2" align="right" |

| align="center" |

| rowspan="2" | Scott Morrison

! style="background:; color:white;" |(17)

|60px

|Barnaby Joyce (b. 1967)

|National Leader 2021–2022

| align="center" |

| align="right" |

! style="background:; color:black;" |19

| 60px

| Richard Marles (b. 1967)

| Labor Deputy Leader 2019–present

| Defence

| align="center" |

| align="center" | Incumbent

| align="right" |

| | 

| Anthony Albanese

Living former deputy prime ministers

As of , there are 11 living former deputy prime ministers of Australia, the oldest being Brian Howe (born 1936). The most recent former deputy prime minister to die was Doug Anthony (1971–72, 1975–83), on 20 December 2020. The most recent serving former deputy prime minister to die was Tim Fischer (1996–99), on 22 August 2019.

Paul Keating (1990–91)
Brian Howe (1991–95)
Kim Beazley (1995–96)
John Anderson (1999–05)
Mark Vaile (2005–07)
Julia Gillard (2007–10)
Wayne Swan (2010–13)
Anthony Albanese (2013)
Warren Truss (2013–16)
Barnaby Joyce (2016–18, 2021–22)
Michael McCormack (2018–21)

List of assistant ministers to the deputy prime minister

The role of assistant minister to the deputy prime minister was created in the first Turnbull ministry in September 2015 where Michael McCormack was appointed as the inaugural officeholder under Warren Truss. He was replaced by Andrew Gee in January 2019.

| align=center | 2

| Keith Pitt

| |

| National

| align=center |

| align=right |

| align=center | 3

| Luke Hartsuyker

| rowspan=2 |

| rowspan=2 | National

| rowspan=3 | 2nd Turnbull

| align=center |

| align=right |

| align=center | 4

| Damian Drum

| align=center |

| align=right |

| align=center | (2)

| Keith Pitt

| |

| National

| align=center |

| align=right |

! colspan=10 style="background: #cccccc;" |

| align=center rowspan=2 | 6

| rowspan=2 | Andrew Gee

| rowspan=3 |

| rowspan=3 | National

| 1st Morrison

| rowspan=3 | Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister

| align=center |

| align=right rowspan=2 |

| rowspan=2 |

| rowspan=2 | 2nd Morrison

| align=center |

| align=center | 7

| Kevin Hogan

| align=center |

| align=right |

References

External links

The official site of the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia