page_title: Frederick Stewart (Australian politician)
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Frederick Stewart (Australian politician) / Political career
caption_attribution_description: English: Sir Frederick Stewart puts a rivet in the keel of HMAS Bathurst at the official keel laying ceremony at Cockatoo Dockyard, Sydney.
context_page_description: Sir Frederick Harold Stewart was an Australian businessman, politician and government minister. His continuing political commitment was to the establishment of a national insurance scheme and the shortening of working hours to improve social conditions during the Great Depression, despite the opposition of his own party.
context_section_description: Stewart failed to get pre-selection as a Nationalist candidate for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Martin at the 1929 election and ran unsuccessfully for the state seat of Concord at the 1930 election.  He won the federal seat of Parramatta for the United Australia Party at the 1931 election and held it until his retirement before the 1946 election.  He supported a shorter work week to reduce unemployment during the Great Depression and programs to improve social conditions such as national insurance and workers' housing schemes.
  Stewart was appointed Minister for Commerce from October 1932 had responsibility for trade policy.  In November 1934, he stood down to allow the Country Party to be brought into the ministry, with Earle Page becoming Minister for Commerce.  He refused Joseph Lyons's offer of a junior ministry and instead became parliamentary under-secretary for employment, but resigned this position in February 1936 so that he could concentrate on his private scheme to improve social conditions.  He was knighted in 1935. After the 1937 election, under pressure from Stewart, Lyons announced a limited national insurance scheme, but Stewart refused a position in Cabinet.
  Stewart was appointed as Minister for Health and Minister for Social Services in Robert Menzies' ministry in April 1939 and continued to press for the  implementation of a national insurance scheme.  In November 1939, with the outbreak of World War II, he was given the additional portfolio of Minister for the Navy and in January 1940, he became in addition Minister for Supply and Development on Richard Casey's appointment as Ambassador to the United States.  This portfolio was responsible for procuring supplies for the military. In March 1940, he lost the portfolios of health and the navy, but retained social services and supply and development in the second Menzies Ministry.  He was criticised over his performance in supplying the military, despite such ingenuity as finding and refurbishing 15,000 World War I uniforms and he lost the supply portfolio from October 1940 in the third Menzies Ministry, but was appointed Minister for External Affairs, retained social services and regained health.  He held the three portfolios until the fall of the Fadden government in October 1941. In opposition he served as chairman of the Joint Committee on Social Security in 1943 and 1944.
caption: Stewart puts a rivet in the keel of HMAS Bathurst at the keel laying ceremony at Cockatoo Dockyard, Sydney, 10 February 1940
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2005:09:29 13:18:31", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10151", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "450", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "326"}