page_title: Arthur Fadden
section_title: Treasurer (1949–1958)
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur Fadden / Treasurer (1949–1958)
caption_attribution_description: Arthur Fadden
context_page_description: Sir Arthur William Fadden, GCMG, PC was an Australian politician who served as Prime Minister of Australia from 29 August to 7 October 1941. He was the leader of the Country Party from 1940 to 1958.
  Fadden was born in Ingham, Queensland, to Irish immigrant parents. He was raised in Walkerston, and left school at the age of 15. He was appointed town clerk of Mackay in 1916, but following the 1918 cyclone moved to Townsville and opened an accountancy firm. He was elected to the Townsville City Council in 1930, and in 1932 was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly for the Country and Progressive National Party. Fadden lost his seat in 1935, but the following year won a by-election to the federal Division of Darling Downs.
  In March 1940, Fadden was named a minister without portfolio in the government of Robert Menzies, who led the United Australia Party in a coalition with the Country Party. A few months later, following the deaths of three senior ministers in an air crash, he took over as Minister for Air and Minister for Civil Aviation. In October 1940, Fadden replaced Harold Thorby as deputy leader of the Country Party.
context_section_description: The Coalition won a massive victory in the 1949 election, and Fadden, who transferred to the newly created seat of McPherson on the Gold Coast, became Treasurer in the second Menzies government. Although inflation was high in the early 1950s, forcing him to impose several "horror budgets", he generally presided over a booming economy, with times especially good for farmers.
  On the night before the 1954 federal election, Fadden was seriously injured in a car accident while travelling back to Brisbane from Dalby. Near Grantham, the car in which he was travelling failed to negotiate a curve on a slippery road, and rolled three times. Fadden, who had been sitting next to the driver, was pulled from the car unconscious and spent election day in hospital, unable to cast his vote. He was left with injuries to his face, head, and legs, and required five separate operations.
  Fadden resigned as leader of the Country Party on 26 March 1958, with John McEwen elected unopposed as his successor. At the same time, he announced that he would retire from politics at the 1958 election. He delivered his eleventh and final budget on 5 August. Although the election was held on 22 November, he did not resign from the ministry until 9 December, remaining in office as treasurer for over two weeks while not being a member of parliament.
  Having continued as Treasurer after his resignation as Country Party leader it was unusual that the Treasurer was a member of the junior party of the Coalition who was not also the current party leader.
  Fadden and fellow Country Party leader Earle Page are the only Country Party members to have been Treasurers in non-Labor Coalition Governments and Fadden is the only non-Liberal Treasurer in a Liberal-led Coalition Government. Since Fadden's retirement, every Treasurer in  a Coalition Government has been a Liberal.
caption: Fadden c. 1950
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)"}