John Douglas Anthony,
AC, CH (born
31 December 1929), Australian politician, was born in
Murwillumbah in northern
New South Wales. He was the son of
Hubert Lawrence "Larry" Anthony, a well-known
Country Party politician. Doug Anthony was educated at
The King's School in
Sydney and at an agricultural college in
Queensland. After graduating he took up dairy-farming near Murwillumbah.
In
1957 he married Margot Budd, with whom he had three children: Dougald, Jane and
Larry. In the same year Larry Anthony sr., who was Postmaster-General in the
Liberal-Country Party coalition government led by
Robert Menzies, died suddenly, and Doug was elected to succeed his father in the
Division of Richmond in the
House of Representatives, aged 27. He was appointed Minister for the Interior in
1964 (in Australia this is a minor position with none of the security and policing functions it has in other countries). In
1967 he became Minister for Primary Industries. It was obvious that the Country Party leader,
John McEwen, was grooming Anthony to succeed him.
When McEwen retired in
1971 Anthony was duly chosen as his successor, becoming Minister for Trade and Industry and Deputy Prime Minister in the governments of
John Gorton and
William McMahon. He was an attractive figure and many people would have preferred him as Prime Minister rather than the bumbling McMahon. He showed his tough streak when he forced McMahon to back down on petrol prices and other issues which affected country voters.
After the coalition's defeat in
1972, he was said to favour a policy of absolute opposition to the
Labor government of
Gough Whitlam. Despite this, the Country Party voted with the Labor Government on some bills, for example the 1973 expansion of state aid to under-privileged schools. He urged the Liberals to take a hard line against Whitlam throughout the next three years and welcomed his
dismissal by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, in
1975. To broaden the appeal of his party beyond its declining rural base, he led its name change to the National Country Party, and began contesting urban seats in
Queensland and
Western Australia.
When the coalition parties returned to power after the
1975 elections, Anthony again became Deputy Prime Minister, with the portfolio of National Resources. But with the dominating
Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister, and the Liberals having a majority in their own right between
1975 and
1980, Anthony found that he did not have the same power he had had in the coalition governments before
1972.
Anthony saw that the deregulatory policies of the
New Right of the Liberal Party as represented by
John Howard, Fraser's Treasurer, were a threat to the future of his party and its traditional policy tariff protection for Australia's rural industries, which the Thatcherites derided as "bush
socialism." From
1980 to
1983 he resisted the New Right policies of Howard, and usually succeeded in persuading Fraser (himself a farmer) to take his side against Howard.
When the Fraser government was defeated in
1983, Anthony remained as National Country Party leader for less than a year. He resigned from Parliament in early
1984. By then, although still only 55, he was the
longest-serving member of the House. He returned to his farm near Murwillumbah and generally stayed out of politics. In
1996 his son,
Larry Anthony, won his father's old seat, creating the first three-generation dynasty in the House of Representatives.
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