Everything about William Watt totally explained
William Alexander Watt PC (
23 November 1871–
13 September 1946) was an
Australian politician who was the 24th
Premier of Victoria, and later a leading federal politician and
Speaker.
Watt was born at
Barfold, near
Kyneton, and was educated at Errol Street State School. he became a newsboy, worked for an ironmongery and a tannery, later as a clerk and an accountant and then went into business as a grain merchant in
North Melbourne. He married Florence Carrighan in 1894, but she died in childbirth in 1896. In 1907, he married Emily Helena Seismann and they eventually had five children. He became active in the
Australian Natives Association, a lobby group of Australian-born liberals who supported
Australian federation and other causes. He was closely associated with the Victorian liberal leader
Alfred Deakin.
State politics
In 1897 Watt was elected to the
Victorian Legislative Assembly for North Melbourne, defeating
Labor's
George Prendergast (another future Premier), but at the 1900 election Prendergast recaptured the seat. In 1902 he was returned for the safe liberal seat of East Melbourne, holding that seat until 1904, when he shifted to Essendon. In 1899 he became Postmaster-General in the short-lived government of
Allan McLean, then sat out
Thomas Bent's government, returning to office under
John Murray in 1909 as Treasurer, a post he held until 1912. By that time he was leader of the "urban" faction of the
Liberal Party, opposed to Murray's rural-dominated government. When Murray resigned as Premier on May 12, Watt succeeded him.
In December 1913 the rural faction, now led by
Donald McLeod, moved a successful no-confidence motion in Watt's government, with Labor support. McLeod expected to become Premier, but instead the acting
Governor, Sir
John Madden, sent for the Labor leader,
George Elmslie, who formed Victoria's first Labor government. This forced the Liberal factions to re-unite, and a few days later Elmslie was duly voted out and Watt resumed office. Frustrated by his inability to overcome the factionalism of the Victorian Liberals and pass any effective legislation, Watt resigned as Premier in June 1914, allowing Sir
Alexander Peacock to re-assume the Liberal leadership.
Federal politics
At the 1914 federal election Watt was elected Liberal member for the seat of
Balaclava. He became a leading member of the
Nationalist Party when it was formed in 1916 under the leadership of
Billy Hughes, and in 1917 he was appointed
Minister for Works and Railways in the Hughes Government. By now he'd moved away from his earlier liberalism and was regarded as a hard-line conservative.
In March 1918 Watt was appointed
Treasurer, and became in effect Hughes's deputy. When Hughes left Australia for
London in April, Watt became Acting Prime Minister, a position he held until Hughes returned from the
Versailles peace conference in August 1919. During this period he also had the portfolio of
Trade and Customs. For his service as Acting Prime Minister, Watt was appointed to the
Imperial Privy Council in the 1920 New Year Honours, entitling him to the style "The Right Honourable".
He was a trusted figure in Melbourne business circles and shared the dissatisfaction that most conservatives felt at the increasingly erratic and autocratic way Hughes ran the government. He also disliked Hughes personally and felt that Hughes hadn't acknowldged his efforts as Acting Prime Minister. Although he remained loyal in public, he was keen to leave Hughes's ministry. He was seen by many as Hughes's likely successor.
In April 1920 Hughes dispatched Watt to London on a financial mission. Watt was in poor health and his suspicion that Hughes was trying to get him out of the way was aggravated by Hughes's habit of communicating directly with the British government over the head of Watt, supposedly his representative. Watt was appointed Australia's representative at the
Spa Conference on
reparations, but when Hughes cabled that Watt wasn't to agree to anything without consulting him, Watt complained that he was being treated like "a telegraph messenger." After an acrimonious exchange of cables, Watt resigned as Treasurer and returned to Australia.
Watt spent the next two years on the back bench. At the 1922 elections he supported rebel former Liberals in Victoria who opposed Hughes and stood against Nationalist candidates: one of these,
John Latham, won the seat of
Kooyong from the Nationalist member. After the elections, the newly formed
Country Party held the balance of power, and used it to force Hughes's resignation. But Watt was passed over for leadership of the new coalition government in favour of the Treasurer,
Stanley Bruce. As a consolation prize Watt was elected
Speaker, a position he held until 1926. He retired in 1929.
Watt was chairman of a several companies based from his base in Collins House, including the
Silverton Tramway and
Qantas. He was partly disabled by a stroke in 1937 and died in his home in
Toorak and was survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.
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