Machine generated contents note: 1.The Colonial Inheritance -- 2.Ringmaster of the Early Commonwealth: Alfred Deakin -- 3.Prime-ministerial Polarities: Andrew Fisher and Billy Hughes -- 4.Thwarted Ambition: Stanley Bruce and James Scullin -- 5.Popularity versus Leadership: Joseph Lyons and Robert Menzies -- 6.A Nation-building Tandem: John Curtin and Ben Chifley -- 7.Settling the Prime Ministership
Summary
At the beginning of the 21st century the prime ministership is indisputably the most closely observed and keenly contested office in the land. But how did the office grow to become the pivot of political power in Australia? The prime ministership is indisputably the most closely observed and keenly contested office in Australia. How did it grow to become the pivot of national political power? Settling the Office chronicles the development of the prime ministership from its rudimentary early days following Federation through to the powerful, institutionalised prime-ministerial leadership of the postwar era
