27 Facts About Bill Wentworth

William Charles Wentworth, usually known as Bill Wentworth and sometimes referred to as William Charles Wentworth IV, was an Australian politician.

Bill Wentworth was a member of the Liberal Party for most of his career and held ministerial office in the governments of John Gorton and William McMahon, serving as Minister for Social Services and Minister in charge of Aboriginal Affairs.

Bill Wentworth frequently crossed the floor and served his final months in parliament as an independent.

Bill Wentworth was born on 8 September 1907 in Sydney, the son of a prominent Sydney barrister of the same name, and the great-grandson of William Charles Bill Wentworth, a leading political and literary figure in colonial New South Wales.

Bill Wentworth is sometimes referred to as "William Charles Wentworth IV" but he never used this name himself.

Bill Wentworth was educated at The Armidale School in Armidale in northern New South Wales, and at New College, Oxford, where he gained an MA, and a Blue in athletics.

Bill Wentworth was an early exponent of Keynesianism and favoured an expansion of state credit.

From 1941 to 1943 Bill Wentworth served in the Australian Army in administrative positions.

At the 1943 federal election, he stood as an independent for the House of Representatives seat of Bill Wentworth, arguing for an all-party "national government".

Bill Wentworth polled 20 per cent of the vote against United Australia Party incumbent Eric Harrison.

Later in 1943, Bill Wentworth joined the newly created Liberal Democratic Party and was chairman of its training group.

Bill Wentworth resigned from the party in December 1943 after coming into conflict with the executive, subsequently accusing party chair Ernest White of behaving in an "undemocratic fashion".

In 1945 Bill Wentworth joined Robert Menzies' new party, the Liberal Party of Australia.

Bill Wentworth was a leading member of the "Taiwan lobby" in the Liberal Party, which included Wilfrid Kent Hughes and the young John Gorton.

Bill Wentworth was more than a one-issue politician, and had great energy and ability.

Bill Wentworth was an active member of the Foreign Affairs Committee from 1952 to 1961.

Bill Wentworth made important recommendations on solving one of Australia's longest-standing infrastructure problems, the incompatible rail gauges in the different states, a legacy of colonial times.

Bill Wentworth was one of the Liberal backbenchers who supported a constitutional referendum to give the Commonwealth the power to legislate specifically for the benefit of Indigenous Australians, something which was finally achieved under Menzies' successor Harold Holt in 1967.

Nevertheless, Bill Wentworth took the first practical step towards the granting of Indigenous land rights when he proposed giving the Gurindji people control of their land at Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory : this scheme, in a fine irony given Bill Wentworth's history, was denounced as "communist inspired" by the Cattle Producers Council.

Bill Wentworth was already 60 when he became a minister, but he proved to be energetic and innovative.

Wentworth contested the Liberal deputy leadership at this time, but was eliminated on the first ballot, with the position going to Billy Snedden, whom Wentworth regarded as a light-weight.

Snedden succeeded McMahon as leader, but Bill Wentworth was among his most persistent party-room critics.

In March 1975 it was Bill Wentworth who moved the motion in the Liberal Party room to depose Snedden from the leadership in favour of Malcolm Fraser.

Bill Wentworth stood for the Senate in New South Wales at the December 1977 election, polling 2.1 per cent of the vote.

In 1993, Bill Wentworth was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours for "service to the Australian Parliament, particularly in relation to Aboriginal rights and to the standardisation of inter-state rail gauges".

Bill Wentworth retired to north Queensland, from where he continued to write pamphlets and newspaper articles until his death in Sydney in 2003 at the age of 95.

Bill Wentworth was survived by his wife Barbara, and four children.