Hopetoun Blunder
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The Hopetoun Blunder was a political and constitutional crisis immediately prior to the Federation of the British colonies in Australia.
Federation was scheduled to occur on 1 January 1901 but elections for the first parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia were not to be held until March of that year. The first Government of the Commonwealth would take power prior to the elections and it was therefore not possible to follow the conventions of the Westminster System and appoint the leader of the majority in the House of Representatives as Prime Minister of Australia.
The first Governor-General of Australia was John Adrian Louis Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow (25 September 1860 - 29 February 1908) who was then known as Lord Hopetoun. His initial task on arriving in Australia on 15 December 1900 was to appoint a Prime Minister to lead the interim government. It appears that Hopetoun had little knowledge of the Australian political scene and had no formal instructions from the Colonial Office. Following the precedent of the Canadian Confederation, Hopetoun commissioned the Premier of New South Wales (the original and most populous colony), Sir William Lyne to form a government.
This was an unfortunate choice. Lyne had opposed Federation and was unpopular with other leading colonial, pro-federation politicians including Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin. Lyne had only become premier in September 1899 after the government of the more popular and experienced George Reid had lost its majority in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. The Bulletin summed up many people's view when it editorialised, "Among the men who can claim by merit or accident, to be front-rank politicians of Australia, Lyne stands out conspicuously as almost the dullest and most ordinary."
Despite significant efforts, Lyne was unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and was forced to return his commission to Hopetoun. Alfred Deakin, amongst others,then persuaded Hopetoun to appoint Edmund Barton as Prime Minister. Barton was successful in forming a government, which took office on 1 January 1901. He appointed Lyne as his Minister for Home Affairs in what many saw as a gesture of reconciliation.
Hopetoun's error in calling on Lyne to form a government became known as The Hopetoun Blunder and marks the beginning of what many historians consider to be an unsuccessful term as Governor-General.
[edit] References
La Nauze, JA, The Hopetoun Blunder: The Appointment of the First Prime Minister of Australia, December 1900, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1957
