The election result was conclusive. The forces supporting Turner commanded sixty-five seats, including fourteen for the emerging Labor Party; the forces of the former government won just thirty seats. Aged forty-three, Turner was sworn in as the premier of Victoria.
Restoring Order
By the time Turner became premier, successive governments had contributed to the colony’s increasingly desperate economic situation. In addition, a worldwide recession was causing the prices of key commodities such as wool, wheat and silver to fall, pummelling Victoria’s terms of trade. Despite his big election win, Turner’s taciturn personality was hardly the type to inspire widespread confidence that he could do what his predecessors had failed to do. But Turner nonetheless set out to restore the colony’s damaged finances in a way that did not cause undue hardship in the community, and in this he largely succeeded.
Turner led what would prove to be a talented Cabinet. It contained one future prime minister of Australia (Deakin), one future federal attorney-general and governor-general (Isaac Isaacs) and one future three-time premier (Sir Alexander Peacock). For the first time, the majority of the Cabinet was Australian-born, giving it a distinctly modernising, liberal and nationalist outlook.
Turner allocated himself the Treasury portfolio. The historian John Rickard records that ‘throughout his Premiership, Turner was in his element introducing the budget, taking certain relish in showing his mastery of its detail. He tried to simplify its presentation, and submitted to the House “various printed statements” which seem to have been an innovation.’14 In presenting the 1896 Budget, Turner told the House, ‘I desire to make a plain business statement’,15 and on another occasion he told The Age, ‘I have always dealt with Government accounts in the same simple form in which I deal with my own private office accounts.’16
The new premier and treasurer soon set about implementing his policy of direct taxation to put the colony’s finances on a firmer footing without resorting to massive cutbacks in public service numbers or public works. Turner decided that the surplus wealth tax he had vaguely floated during the election campaign was not feasible—a land tax would never pass the landed gentry–dominated Legislative Council—so he settled on a direct personal income tax. This was an almost inevitable fiscal trend: the colonies were turning to personal income tax to assist in managing their finances. Tasmania had been the first colony to levy a personal income tax, which it did in 1880 amid a financial crisis. South Australia followed in 1884, and by 1907, each state had a personal income tax in place.
Turner levied a flat-rate tax that applied to people with an income of over £200 a year, which meant that only 31 000 people paid the tax across the entire colony. By 1897, he was able to report to the House in his budget speech that the colony was budgeting for a small surplus, a considerable turnaround in its finances.
This prudent financial management was a considerable selling point in the election that followed shortly afterwards. The emerging Labor Party continued to support Turner’s Protectionist government, which had introduced progressive workplace relations laws in the form of the Factories and Shops Amendment Act 1896. Such legislation was firmly in line with the liberal tradition that Turner endorsed, although such matters were still regarded as being subject to conscience, and members were not bound by party policy. The legislation proposed by Turner’s government was designed to protect women and children from exploitative practices, on the basis that men were robust-enough negotiators to look after themselves. An amendment moved by the Labor Party recognising that men were also worthy of some protection from sweatshop practices was carried, and Victoria had its most progressive labour legislation to that point enacted during Turner’s tenure.
The writer John Rickard is right to say that ‘Turner’s greatest claim as premier was that he had restored order to Victoria’s finances.’17 His income tax did not raise enough to prevent spending on infrastructure from being substantially reduced, such that public works spending in Victoria between 1895 and 1897 was one-sixth that of NSW.18 Nevertheless, the people of Victoria appreciated his steady hand, combined with his moderately reformist liberal instincts, and rewarded him with a second term in office at the 1897 election. Having got the colony’s finances on an even keel, he was able to turn his attention to the compelling question that was being asked across the continent: should Australia be one nation, and if so, how should it be constituted?
A Father of Federation
The rise in nationalism that accompanied an increasing majority of Australians being ‘native-born’ saw the campaign for federation grow in intensity in the 1880s, spurred on by improvements in transport and communications between the colonies, which fostered a more ‘national’ outlook. The output of the patriotic poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson also fostered a spirit of nationalism, which in turn fed into the federation movement.
A conference in 1890 in Melbourne consisting of representatives of each of the colonies—including premiers, leaders of the opposition and Cabinet members—resolved in favour of federation, and a convention to settle a proposed constitution was scheduled for 1891. This resulted in a draft constitution (which would form the basis of the document eventually adopted). However, the movement stalled when the NSW Parliament failed to ratify the draft constitution, and other colonial parliaments declined to consider it given the NSW decision. Colony governments were also busy dealing with the bursting of the speculative bubble of the 1890s.
The campaign for federation was reignited in 1897, when the premiers agreed to hold another constitutional convention, this time with delegates elected by popular vote. Turner ran in the Victorian poll and topped it. The convention met several times throughout the year, with a final meeting in Melbourne in March 1898. Turner played
