I've always been curious what other people think about our Prime-Ministers.

Who do you think is the best?


I was always in two minds about this one.

When I was in High School, I asked my Dad, who was the greatest Australian PM? His instant reply (Being a labourer), "Gough Whitlam' of course." He reasoned that Gough Whitlam had revolutionised Australia, and introduced policies that moved Australia ahead of the rest of the World.

With the sincerity in his voice, and living among left-wing bigots at my school, I grew to accept that this was a widely accepted fact and believed by most Australians.

I one day asked an associate of mine the same thing. Who's the greatest PM? "I'd have to go with Robert Menzies," he replied. I was surprised,"How on Earth was he better than the all powerful Gough Whitlam?"
"Because he made Australian society stable. Under him, society was peaceful, and everyone was middle-class," he reasoned.

So I put a bit of study into it, and realised that Gough Whitlam is widely hated by many  Australians, as he screwed up in a lot of ways. And Menzies was a good PM, but he didn't do much.

But at the end of the day, I'd have to go for Menzies. The peace and stability that he gave Australia was much better than that of Gough Whitlam's risky and sometimes reckless policies.

Our politicians tend to be boring and understated. Howard is a good example of that. Any personality they show is more likely to lose votes than win them. I'm not sure whether this is a cultural thing or our electoral system. It's probably a bit of both. Our system favours those politicians who can draw the second preferances from all the minor parties. Plus we don't get to vote for the PM directly. The American president by contrast has to be able to work up a crowd. They don't have compulsory voting, so I think they spend a lot of time trying to motivate their supporters - preaching to the converted and launching scare campaigns about the opposition. Our politicians are more likely to get elected on policy and try very hard to stop their personality getting in the way of that.

I chose deakin, 2nd pm. he built our initial constitution.

Quote:


So did Barton.

Deakin, another overrated PM.

Pro-multiculturists and  pro-australasianists support keating.
(He wanted australia to become a part of asia.)
John curtain pulled us through WW2.

So true, Aloof Boof. I voted for John Howard because he harnessed the economical revival of this country and led it in the right direction through unscertain times globally.

Yes we can thank Paul Keating for setting Australia up for it's windfall and mapping out a micro economic policy that Australia's benefited from. Paul was my second choice.

Frazer (Frasier?) was at the bottom of my list. I didn't experience Menzies but I don't think the populace had a very good time under him even though they kept voting for him.

Gough twas responsible for the asian invasion.