Coles, Wilson and Fadden

During 1940 Coles became increasingly disturbed by Australia’s `apathetic’ response to the war. On 24 September he was elected to the House of Representatives as the Independent member for Henty (resigning as mayor although remaining a councillor). He undertook to work towards a `government of all parties’, the nationalisation of resources, and the widening of social services (including national insurance, child endowment and public housing provision). In February 1941 he funded his own `unofficial mission’ to the USA and Britain to survey shipping difficulties and air-raid precautions. Returning in April, he presented a 23-point plan of action to (Sir) Arthur Fadden, the acting prime minister, centring on the expansion of central government powers over taxation, trade and employment. When (Sir) Robert Menzies returned from London in May, also emphasising the need for national unity, Coles committed his support to the United Australia Party. This trust was soon eroded by the circumstances of Menzies’ resignation—or `lynching’, as Coles saw it—as prime minister. On 3 October Coles resigned from the UAP and voted against the Fadden government with another Independent, Alexander Wilson, with whom he shared the balance of power.

Considered by the V.W.G.A.'s newspaper to be the 'only friend of the Wheatgrower in federal parliament', Wilson advocated an orderly marketing scheme for the commodity in the bad seasons of 1938-39. He defeated McClelland again in the 1940 election which left him and another Victorian Independent, (Sir) Arthur Coles, holding the balance of power in the House of Representatives. They kept successive prime ministers (Sir) Robert Menzies and (Sir) Arthur Fadden in power until 3 October 1941 when Coles announced that he would vote to bring down the government. Wilson, who had often voted with the Australian Labor Party and who had been assiduously cultivated by Bert Evatt, followed suit.