On 27 April 1904, John Christian Watson became the third prime minister of Australia and the first Labour premier of any nation in the world. One of his cabinet had been premier of Queensland for a week in 1899, leading the first Labour government in the world.
Over the decade before, he was a key player for discipline in the young party, reforming and refining caucus control of the
elected members and the pledge to enforce solidarity.
This has usually been criticised – how can you represent your constituency if you are pledged to your party – and usually adopted by critics sooner rather than later. Watson himself would suffer expulsion from the party when he sided with Billy Hughes and others over conscription.
Watson has a number of firsts. He was 37 when he assumed the high office. He is to date the only Australian PM not born in a Commonwealth country; he was born in Chile. He was the first president of the NRMA and the inaugural chairman of Ampol, a powerful brand with a lingering value, as shown by the decision of Caltex to rebadge itself as Ampol in 2020.
