Billy Hughes

Billy Hughes changed Australia forever and divided the country over a variety of different topics including conscription, politics, World War I, and the economy. Billy Hughes tried on two occasions, both unsuccessfully, to introduce conscription; it was a hard fought battle by both sides. Australia changed immensely under the War Precautions Act that Billy Hughes put into place. The conscription debate caused a split of the Labor party which was a huge backlash against Hughes; so he formed and led the National Party of Australia which consisted of half of the previous Labor government and Liberal members. The economy was hugely altered with many people unable to get work however many new companies were able to prosper with the lack of competition. World War I affected Australia significantly with over sixty thousand deaths and one hundred and fifty six thousand wounded or taken prisoner. Thus society was split during the era of Billy Hughes.
Australia was completely divided over the issue of conscription; many agreed with the war effort however many also disagreed with the idea of compulsory armed service. Prime Minister Billy Hughes defied his own party which contained several influential unionists and religious figures that disagreed with conscription. One was Daniel Mannix the Archbishop of Melbourne who claimed World War I was, "just a sordid trade war" .   Mannix fought extremely hard against conscription, leading an anti-conscription campaign against Billy Hughes. This caused a huge backlash against Prime Minister Hughes, which led to the first conscription plebiscite result, a narrow loss of 1.69%. After the first loss Hughes did not give up on the debate of conscription, but he was expelled from the Labor Party. After his expulsion, he joined the Nationalist Party of Australia of which he became the leader of Australia again on 5 May 1917, with a large victory of 31 seats over Labor. The conscription debate spread to all areas of society with even the...