Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

Extended Essay – fyw899

particularly when he “fail[ed] in his two attempts to introduce conscription for overseas service,

during World War 1” 13 and also failing to secure a popular mandate vote in 1917, during his

third year in office. However, the post-war conference in Paris was a political watershed for

Hughes. Evidence of this can be seen in the Sydney Morning Herald publications shortly after

the Paris Peace Conference when “Australian soldiers [held] a luncheon in honour of Mr.

Hughes” and appreciated that “he had fought stubbornly for Australian interests at Paris,

notably against the abrogation of racial laws.” 14

Another example of Hughes’s popularity amongst Australians is evinced by his convincing win

of “the first federal election to use preferential voting, and his first election as Prime

Minister”. 15 Consequently, Hughes retained his seat in Bendigo comfortably, in the first

election after the First World War. Hughes’s newly formed Nationalist Party had 53 seats in

parliament, opposed by the 22 of Labour, which shows the extent of his convincing win and a

victory based on his support of the White Australia Policy. This election result shows how

supportive the Australian population was of Hughes, 11 months after the Paris Peace

Conference. Therefore, Hughes was riding a wave of populism following his diplomatic

victories. The popular appeal of Hughes is still evident in attitudes towards him today.

As an aside, Hughes’s reputation among Australians is generally positive even recently, as The

Canberra Times conducted research in 1992 asking “300 political scientists at every Australian

university to nominate the five greatest Prime Ministers in Australian history.” 16 The results

of the survey show Billy Hughes in an overall ranking of 6 th out of 29 candidates at the time of

recording. This positive view of Hughes is further magnified as four political scientists actually

13 “How Billy Hughes lost the 1916 conscription referendum”, Museum of Australian Democracy Old Parliament House, last modified August 15, 2016, 14 The Sydney Morning Herald . 7 July 1919. "W.M. Hughes - Honoured In England", 1919. 15 “Australia’s Prime Ministers – Elections”, National Archives of Australia, last modified September 8, 2007, 16 “Historical rankings of Prime Ministers of Australia”, Wikipedia, last modified March 24, 2018,

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