Andrew Fisher

Who was Andrew Fisher?

Andrew Fisher was an Australian politician who served as Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910–13 Labor ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation. The Fisher government legacy of reforms and national development lasted beyond the divisions that would later occur with World War I and Billy Hughes' conscription push.

Fisher's second Prime Ministership resulting from the 1910 federal election represented a number of firsts: it was Australia's first elected federal majority government, Australia's first elected Senate majority, and the world's first Labour Party majority government at a national level. At the time, it represented the culmination of Labour's involvement in politics. Passing 113 Acts, the 1910–13 government was a period of reform unmatched in the Commonwealth until the 1940s under John Curtin and Ben Chifley. Serving a collective total of four years and ten months, Fisher is second to Bob Hawke as Australia's longest serving Labor Prime Minister.

'Labour' was changed to 'Labor' during 1912 at the instigation of King O'Malley.