29 Facts About Doug Anthony

John Douglas Anthony was an Australian politician.

Doug Anthony served as leader of the National Party of Australia from 1971 to 1984 and was the second and longest-serving deputy prime minister, holding the position under John Gorton, William McMahon and Malcolm Fraser.

Doug Anthony was elected to the House of Representatives at a 1957 by-election, aged 27, following his father's sudden death.

Doug Anthony was appointed to the ministry in 1964 and in Coalition governments over the following 20 years held the portfolios of Minister for the Interior, Primary Industry, Trade and Industry, Overseas Trade, National Resources, and Trade and Resources.

Doug Anthony was elected deputy leader of the Country Party in 1964 and succeeded John McEwen as party leader and deputy prime minister in 1971.

Doug Anthony was educated at Murwillumbah Primary School and Murwillumbah High School, before attending The King's School in Sydney and then Gatton College in Queensland.

Doug Anthony was appointed Minister for the Interior in 1964 by Menzies in a reshuffle, replacing Senator John Gorton.

The Menzies government had not yet established a clear policy for Canberra's future, and Doug Anthony stated that the city was not yet ready for self-governance.

At Narrogin in August 1966, Doug Anthony relayed to several rural communities that drought would probably soon sweep the region, and that he was prepared to take precautions to prevent as many negative effects as possible.

Doug Anthony was unable to comment on protests that took place outside the Canberra Hotel on 2 February 1967.

Doug Anthony was one of the leading forces against the 1967 nexus referendum, which was seeking to increase the Senate's power in parliament.

Towards the end of his term as Minister for the Interior, Doug Anthony supported a federal redistribution with conditions so restrictive that it favoured country seats and would increase Country Party representation.

When McEwen retired in 1971, Doug Anthony was chosen as his successor, taking McEwen's old posts of Minister for Trade and Industry and Deputy Prime Minister in the government of John Gorton, portfolios he retained under William McMahon.

Doug Anthony was made a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II on 23 June 1971.

When McMahon became Prime Minister in March 1971, only a month after Doug Anthony had taken the Deputy Prime Minister position, Doug Anthony lost power as McMahon disliked him and the two had a poor working relationship.

Doug Anthony called the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jack Marshall, to find out the date, as McMahon had only informed three people of the date before approaching the Governor-General of Australia.

Doug Anthony lost faith in the government and became complacent about the defeat which became obvious in the lead up to the election in December 1972.

Doug Anthony had a much better working relationship with Malcolm Fraser than he did with Billy Snedden.

At first, Doug Anthony did not support Snedden's or Fraser's decisions to block parliamentary supply from the Labor Party, beginning in October 1975, though he was convinced otherwise.

Doug Anthony again became Deputy Prime Minister, with the portfolios of Overseas Trade and National Resources.

Doug Anthony was noted, while Prime Minister Fraser took annual Christmas holidays, for governing the country as Acting Prime Minister from a caravan in his electorate of Richmond.

In 1976, during his second term as Deputy Prime Minister, Doug Anthony began a strong import and export relationship with Japan, particularly over oil.

Doug Anthony supported the mining and export of Australian uranium, and believed it would be an essential part of the future economy.

The last major move as leader of the National Party that Doug Anthony made was to explain the tensions between the Liberal and National parties in Queensland, who officially opposed each other in the October 1983 election.

Doug Anthony remained in parliament for less than a year after the 1983 defeat before retiring from politics in 1984.

Doug Anthony returned to his farm near Murwillumbah and generally stayed out of politics.

In 1994, Doug Anthony appeared in a documentary series about the Liberal Party in which he revealed that McMahon had refused to tell him beforehand the date of the 1972 election, despite Doug Anthony being the Country Party leader.

Doug Anthony died at an aged care home in Murwillumbah, on 20 December 2020, at the age of 90.

In 1981, Doug Anthony was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour.