with
John Gorton on 9 January 1968. The following day, Gorton was sworn in as prime minister, and McEwen became the inaugural deputy prime minister. Originally the position of deputy prime minister was an unofficial or honorary position accorded to the second-highest ranking minister in the government. The unofficial position acquired more significance following the
1922 federal election, which saw the governing
Nationalist Party lose its parliamentary majority. The Nationalists eventually reached a
coalition agreement with the
Country Party, which called for Country Party leader
Earle Page to take the second rank in the Nationalist-led ministry of
Stanley Bruce. While Page's only official title was treasurer, he was considered as a deputy to Bruce. Although no office of that name had officially been created, by 1946 the title "deputy prime minister" was being used in the
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. From then until 1968, the Coalition agreement between the
Liberals (and their predecessors) and Country Party called for the leader of the Country Party (subsequently the
National Party) to rank second in Cabinet. That continues to be the case when the Coalition is in government. McEwen reverted to his previous status as the second-ranking member of the government, as per the Coalition agreement. He had unofficially been deputy prime minister since becoming Country Party leader in 1958, and since 1966 had exercised an effective veto over government policy by virtue of being the longest-serving member of the government; he had been a member of the Coalition frontbench without interruption since 1937. To acknowledge McEwen's long service and his status as the second-ranking member of the government, Gorton formally created the post of deputy prime minister, with McEwen as the first holder of the post. The position was vacant for 12 days in 1975 at the height of the
Loans Affair; Jim Cairns had been dismissed from Cabinet on 2 July and had his office of deputy prime minister revoked by
Gough Whitlam, but he remained
deputy leader of the Labor Party until his successor,
Frank Crean, was elected by
Caucus on 14 July. According to parliamentary records, in the time before the position of deputy prime minister was officially created, the position was known as "deputy leader of the Government." Since 1968 only three deputy prime ministers have gone on to become prime minister, all of them are
Labor Party's politicians:
Paul Keating,
Julia Gillard, and
Anthony Albanese. Both Keating and Gillard succeeded incumbent prime ministers who lost the support of their party caucus mid-term. Meanwhile, Albanese who briefly served as deputy prime minister in 2013, later led the Labor party to victory at the
2022 Australian federal election, and was sworn-in as prime minister on 23 May 2022.
Frank Forde, who had been deputy Labor leader when
John Curtin died, was interim prime minister between 6 and 13 July 1945, when a leadership ballot took place that elected
Ben Chifley as Curtin's successor. In November 2007, when the Labor Party won government,
Julia Gillard became Australia's first female, and first foreign-born, deputy prime minister. In 2017, the position became vacant for a period of 40 days, the longest time in its history when it has been unoccupied. As part of the
2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, it emerged that the then-incumbent
Barnaby Joyce was a
citizen of New Zealand by descent (
jus sanguinis – by right of blood) at the time of the
2016 federal election. Joyce told the
House of Representatives that he was advised of his citizenship status on 10 August 2017 by the New Zealand High Commission and his renunciation of his dual citizenship became effective on 15 August 2017. Nevertheless, he asked for his case to be referred to the
High Court of Australia (sitting as the
Court of Disputed Returns) for adjudication, The government immediately issued writs for a
by-election for the seat of
New England to be held on 2 December 2017, which Joyce won easily. In practice, only National party leaders or Labor Party deputy leaders have held the position. ==Duties==