Harold Holt is best known for his interesting death – Joseph Lyons and John Curtain just dropped dead, but Holt vanished, which is a lot cooler – not to mention opens up a lot more possibilities for conspiracy theorists. Having read this biography, I’d still claim that Holt’s death was the most interesting thing about him. He seems to have been a good number two to Menzies, which is damning with faint praise – diligent, hard working, smooth talking, got along with everyone, good dresser, etc. He was elected to parliament at a very young age, elevated to the ministry also quite young; he joined the army while still an MP but quit in the wake of the death of all those politicians in that 1941 plane crash. When Labor came to power he didn’t go that much during the war to be honest – Eddie Ward used to sledge him that he should have re-enlisted, which annoyed Holt, but you know something? Ward was right, he should have.
Although Holt sided against Menzies back in 1941 (prompting Fadden to become PM), Menzies recognised his ability, not to mention lack of threat as a potential leader, and Holt became a key member of his team. He seems to have done good work as Minister for Labor and Immigration, mostly due to his ability to get along with everyone and make sure everything ran smoothly. It’s an important skill for politicians to have – doesn’t make you a great or memorable statesman though. In his first year as treasurer he almost caused a recession and for the Liberals to lose the 1961 election (I think the country would have been better off if they had – it’s not healthy for the one party to be in power too long), but then he got better… although how hard is it to be treasurer during a boom time, honestly?
Anyway, Holt hung in there as treasurer and eventually found himself elected to follow Menzies, mainly by virtue of the fact there were no other great alternatives. He won the 1966 election by a record amount but struggled during his second year, at the end of which he went missing, the achievement for which he is best remembered.
This is a decent, thorough biography, lacking a little in flair (I kept feeling a Bob Ellis review of the book would be more entertaining); sometimes you feel the author gets a little bored with his subject, who could be boring. In his professional life, that is – there’s some juicy stuff about Holt’s private life: his parents were divorced when Holt was young and Holt grew up with minimal family contact (he was a boarder at Wesley); Holt’s dad went from school teaching to running a pub to being JC Williamson’s agent in Australia! (he was even friends with Bob Cummings); Holt and Zara had a fling but then she married some English officer, divorced him then remarried Holt – her kids was ostensibly the kids of the officer but rumour was they were Holt’s, conceived while she was married to this other guy; Zara was a successful businesswoman, far richer than Holt; Holt had numerous affairs during his marriage.
The best bit in the book is the section on Holt’s death – not just the circumstances leading up to his disappearance, the possible explanations and conspiracy theories, but also the fighting that went on in the Liberal Party (Jack McEwan used his powers as temporary PM to get ASIO to look into Fig Newtown, whom Bill McMahon would feed information.) An important book - not sensational, but the author was battling up against it with this subject.
No comments:
Post a Comment