Alfred Deakin (3 August 1856 – 7 October 1919) was Prime Minister of Australia from 24 September 1903 to 27 April 1904 (succeeding Edmund Barton and preceding Chris Watson), from 5 July 1905 to 13 November 1908 (succeeding George Reid and preceding Andrew Fisher), and from 2 June 1909 to 29 April 1910 (interrupting Andrew Fisher's two terms in office). Deakin was a member of the Protectionist Party and the Commonwealth Liberal Party.
Biography[]
Alfred Deakin was born in Melbourne, Australia on 3 August 1856, and he studied law before being admitted to the bar in 1878. He worked as a journalist before being elected to the Victorian Parliament in 1880 as a liberal. He held a njumber of postts in various coalition governments from 1883 to 1890, and he was an active member of the opposition from 1890 to 1900. From 1887, he became increasingly involved in the campaign for an Australian Federation and, together with Edmund Barton, in 1900 he became part of the delegation presenting the case of a federal Australia to the British government.
As Prime Minister, he took care to strengthen the federation through the realization of a uniform tariff, the ordering of a survey of a transcontinental railway line, and the building of a separate Australian navy. Especially during his second term, with the support of the Australian Labor Party, he also introduced a number of reform measures, such as the introduction of old-age pensions, and his regulation to ensure minimum wage levels, which established the concept of a basic wage in 1907. He hoped to stop the progressive decline of the liberals against Labor through a "fusion" of non-Labor groups into an enlarged Commonwealth Liberal Party, with whose support he led his third government. However, he was heavily defeated in 1910, and retired from politics in 1913. He died in South Yarra in 1919.