Bertram Stevens (politician)

The Honourable Sir Bertram Stevens KCMG
Stevens with members of his cabinet
25th Premier of New South Wales Elections: 1932, 1935, 1938
In office 16 May 1932 – 5 August 1939
Monarch	George V Edward VIII George VI
Governor	Lord Wakehurst
Deputy	Michael Bruxner
Preceded by	Jack Lang
Succeeded by	Alexander Mair
Personal details
Born	(1889-01-02)2 January 1889 Redfern, New South Wales, Australia
Died	Concord, New South Wales, Australia
Political party	United Australia Party
Spouse(s)	Edith Lillie Anderson

Sir Bertram Sydney Barnsdale Stevens KCMG (2 January 1889 – 24 March 1973) was the Premier of New South Wales from 16 May 1932 to 5 August 1939.

Early life

Stevens was born in the Sydney suburb of Redfern and attended Fort Street High School. An accountant by training, the teetotal Methodist Stevens worked for years in local government and various civil service departments. In 1914, he married Edith Lillie Anderson and they had one son and two daughters. In 1924, he became under-secretary and director of finance at the State Treasury, where he came into conflict with the ALP Premier and Treasurer, Jack Lang and subsequently resigned. In 1927, he became an alderman on Marrickville Council.

Political career

In 1927 Stevens entered the Legislative Assembly, as member for the Sydney suburban electoral district of Croydon. During the Nationalist Party Premiership of Sir Thomas Bavin, Stevens served first as Assistant Treasurer, and from 1929 as Treasurer. Not long after the Great Depression ended Bavin's administration in 1930, Stevens became Deputy Leader of the Opposition. In 1932 the Nationalist Party was absorbed into the United Australia Party, and Stevens became that party's state parliamentary leader. In May 1932 the Governor Sir Philip Game dismissed the Lang government, which was in dispute with Australia's federal government of James Scullin, and appointed Stevens as caretaker Premier. Stevens immediately called a new state election, which his party won in a landslide. His major reform was the replacement of the appointed Legislative Council, by a Council elected by the whole parliament to terms equivalent to four Assembly terms, that is up to 12 years; this was passed by referendum in 1933. He reduced the protections for mortgagors and tenants that had been introduced by Lang's 1925-27 government. The UAP was re-elected (by somewhat reduced majorities) in 1935 and 1938, each time against the Lang-led Labor Party. For most of Stevens's seven-year Premiership, one of the longest in New South Wales history — it continued until the eve of World War II — he was his own Treasurer.

File:Election 13 May 1935.jpg

Premier Bertram Stevens (left) at a polling place in Croydon on 13 May 1935.

Although Stevens's dealings with Country Party leader and Deputy Premier Sir Michael Bruxner were friendly, the same was not true of his working relationship with the United Australia Party's deputy leader, Eric Spooner. From 1936 onward, Spooner often censured Stevens for not running a balanced budget. Finally, in July 1939, Spooner resigned from cabinet. On 1 August, Spooner moved a parliamentary no confidence motion against Stevens's administration, succeeding by two votes. Stevens resigned, and Alexander Mair (Bruxner's favoured candidate) took over the Premiership.

Still only 50 years old, Stevens had hopes of a career in the federal parliament. Despite Sir Robert Menzies's attempts to discourage him, he abandoned his Assembly seat in 1940 and ran for the Labor-controlled constituency of Lang (named not after Stevens's opponent but after John Dunmore Lang, the 19th-century clergyman-politician) during that year's federal election. He was easily defeated by the ALP incumbent, Dan Mulcahy.

Later life

In 1941 and 1942, Stevens served as the Australian representative to the Eastern Group Supply Council in New Delhi. After the war, Stevens was president of the India League of Australia, and wrote prolifically upon Indian politics; but he never again held, or sought, elective office. He died in the Sydney suburb of Concord West, poor and almost forgotten, survived by a son and two daughters.

Honours

Stevens was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1941.

See also

• First Stevens–Bruxner ministry
• Second Stevens–Bruxner ministry
• Third Stevens–Bruxner ministry

External links

Government offices
Preceded by John Spence	Under Secretary and Comptroller of Accounts of the NSW Treasury 1924 – 1925	Succeeded by Clarence Chapman
Parliament of New South Wales
New district	Member for Croydon 1927 – 1940	Succeeded by David Hunter
Political offices
Preceded by Robert Cruickshank	Assistant Colonial Treasurer of New South Wales 1927 – 1929	Vacant Title next held by Eric Spooner as Assistant Treasurer
Preceded by Thomas Bavin	Colonial Treasurer of New South Wales 1929 – 1930	Succeeded by Jack Lang
	Leader of the Opposition of New South Wales 1932
Preceded by Jack Lang	Premier of New South Wales 1932 – 1939	Succeeded by Alexander Mair
	Colonial Treasurer of New South Wales 1932 – 1938
Preceded by Reginald Weaver	Secretary for Public Works 1935	Succeeded by Eric Spooner
Preceded by Eric Spooner	Secretary for Public Works 1939	Succeeded by Alexander Mair
	Minister for Local Government 1939
Party political offices
Preceded by Thomas Bavin	Leader of the United Australia Party 1932 – 1939	Succeeded by Alexander Mair